Providing quality end-of-life care.

King, Gina; Sunter, Matthew

Abstract

The term end-of-life care (EOLC) has been used for nearly two decades in England, since the EOLC programme was launched in 2005, which followed the NICE "Supportive and Palliative Care for Adults with Cancer" guidelines. This was the point where, to provide good palliative care in the community, a more structured approach was adopted. This period may last years, months, weeks or days. The point is not trying to have a firm prediction, but to enable active planning ahead rather than reactive care, which is not helpful to anyone, and optimise quality of life with a focus on living rather than dying. The main framework in the community and primary care settings is the Gold Standards Framework (https://www.goldstandardsframework.org.uk/), with a focus on advance care planning, training and other useful tools. Prognostic Indicator guidelines are also provided for different disease trajectories. NHS England also set out Ambitions for Palliative and End of Life Care, to work alongside various NICE guidelines and NHS England's Long Term Plan.

Citation

KING, G. and SUNTER, M. 2025. Providing quality end-of-life care. In Chilton, S. and Bain, H. (eds.) A textbook of community nursing. Third edition. Abingdon: Routledge [online], chapter 16, pages 368-391. Available from: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003347545-17

• Online Publication Date: Dec 23, 2024
• Publication Date: Dec 31, 2025
• Deposit Date: May 5, 2025
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 24, 2025
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Pages: 368-391
• Edition: Third edition
• Book Title: A textbook of community nursing
• Chapter Number: 16
• ISBN: 9781032389356; 9781032381176
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003347545-17
• Keywords: Palliative care; End-of-life care; Community nursing
• Public URL: https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/2656543