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End of Life Care

Find information resources about End of Life Care including key resources, books, and journal articles. This guide is for RCN members including nursing students, nursing support workers, and registered nurses.

Last updated: 05/09/2026

Key Resources

Royal College of Nursing (2025) Assisted dying: guidance and support for nursing staff.
Book cover Royal College of Nursing (2023) Mouth care during end of life care keeping the mouth clean, moist and comfortable. London: RCN.
British Geriatrics Society: End of life care in frailty.
Cicely Saunders Institute of Palliative Care, King’s College London (2023) A right to be heard: better palliative and end-of-life care for people affected by dementia. London: King’s College London.
Hospice UK (2023) I just want to be me: trans and gender diverse communities’ access to and experiences of palliative and end of life care. London: Hospice UK.
The King’s Fund (2023) Dying well at home : commissioning quality end-of-life care. London: The King’s Fund.
Marie Curie (2022) Palliative and end of life care for LGBTQ+ people.
Marie Curie: National guidelines for end of life care.
Marie Curie (2022) The better end of life report 2022: mind the gaps: understanding and improving out-of-hours care for people with advanced illness and their informal carers Research Report. London: Marie Curie.
NHS: End of life care.
NHS Benchmarking Network (2023) National audit of care at the end of life: fourth round of the audit (2022/23) report. England and Wales. UK: Health Quality Improvement Partnership.
Nuffield Trust (2025) Assisted dying in practice: international experiences and implications for health and social care.
Scottish Palliative Care Guidelines: Scottish palliative care guidelines.
We would like to thank the RCN Pain and Palliative Care member community for their input into the development of this subject guide.

Books

Book cover Acquaviva K D (2023) The handbook of LGBTQIA-inclusive hospice and palliative care. New York: Columbia University Press.
Book cover André B and Ringdal G I (2023) Health promotion in palliative care. Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. 
Book cover Berger A and Carr D B (eds.) (2025) Clinical and ethical dilemmas in palliative and end-of-life care. New York: Oxford University Press.
Book cover Currow D, Clark K and Kleinig P (2024) Emergencies in supportive and palliative care. 2nd edn. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Book cover Dewhurst F et al. (2024) Challenging cases in palliative care. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Incorporated.
Book covers Dickman A (2023) Drugs in palliative care. 3rd edn. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Book cover Finlay I and Hughes J (eds.) (2025) The reality of assisted dying: understanding the issues. Maidenhead: Open University Press McGraw Hill.
Book cover Hallenbeck J L (2022) Palliative care perspectives. 2nd edn. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Incorporated.
Book cover Hardy B and Flemming K (2023) Palliative and end of life nursing care. London: Learning Matters.
Book cover Higginson I (ed.) (2025) Research methods in palliative, supportive, and end-of-life care. 2nd edn. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Book cover Kitchen R et al. (2024) Handbook of palliative care. 4th edn. Newark: John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated.
Book cover Pickard J and Hindmarsh J (eds.) (2025) Oxford case histories in palliative medicine. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Book cover Pryde N (2022) Enhanced palliative care. Bridgwater: Class Publishing.

Book subject searches

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Journal articles

Journals

Book Cover Journals of interest for end of life care. Use these links to see details of availability.

Explore

Hospice UK (no date) Dying matters resources.

Mannix K (2023) Dying for beginners (video). A short video aimed at the public:

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Joseph Dempster

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RCN Library and Museum

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Page last updated - 05/09/2026