Researchers: Nicola Zolnhofer, Dr Ben Bowers, Dr Melissa Fielding
Funders: NIHR Applied Research Collaboration East of England Research Fellowship
Start date: Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust; NIHR Applied Research Collaboration East of England
Start date: 01/06/2026
End date: 31/05/2027
Project summary:
Alongside a reduction in community nursing numbers in the last decade, there has been a change in skill mix, with higher numbers of inexperienced nurses working in community nursing teams. As nurses working alone in people’s homes, inexperienced nurses can feel out of their depth when it comes to discussing end-of-life care wishes and preferences with patients and their families.
Semi-structure interviews will be used to capture the experience of early career community nurses and explore what support, training and / or experience is needed to help those nurses to feel more confident to initiate and revisit end-of-life care conversations.
Project aims:
1. To explore the experiences of community nurses within their first five years of practice when discussing end-of-life care preferences with patients and their families.
2. To explore perceived barriers and facilitators that impact those nurses confidence in initiating and revisiting end-of-life care conversations.
Project impact:
The perspectives of the community nurses who participate in this study will be used to help refine the current local (trust) training provision. This will include both the learning sessions which are provided locally and consideration of the local / team induction process and experiences planned for new community nurses
Further information, references, publications and presentations:
Bowers, B, Pollok, K, Etkind, S. et al. (2025) “We’ve taken on a more advanced clinical role”: A multimethod study of community nurses’ extended roles in palliative care. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 82 (2) pp 1681-1691
Robinson, J., Goodwin, H., Williams, L.. et al. (2023) The work of palliative care from the perspectives of district nurses: A qualitative study. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 80 (8), pp 3323-3332.
Robinson J., Goodwin, H, Gott. M. et al. (2022) A task service and a talking service: A qualitative exploration of bereaved family perceptions of community nursing care at the end of life. Palliative Medicine, 36(10).