Community nurses can improve end of life care
Published: 29 November 2012
Fully trained community nurses need to be available out of hours to provide good quality and dignified care at the end of a person’s life, the Royal College of Nursing has said.
The comments were in response to a national bereavement survey, conducted by the Office for National Statistics, which found considerable regional variation in provision and quality of end of life care.
Dr Peter Carter, RCN Chief Executive & General Secretary, said: “Good quality, dignified care at the end of a person’s life is one of the crucial things which any health service offers. Many people can have their pain relieved and symptoms reduced, regardless of whether they die at home, in a hospital or at a hospice, and we know that their families often express gratitude that this has been possible.”
He said this is why it is important to have community nurses available through the night.
Dr Carter added: “By making such staff available, the NHS should be able to prevent the situations which we know are particularly distressing to patients and families – when a dying person is rushed to hospital in the middle of the night. For every person, there is only one chance to get this right, and the government is right to focus on the wide variation which exists at the moment.”