Background 

There is a pressing need to drive stronger health care systems that provide safe and quality palliative care in the acute care setting. Delivery of high-quality end of life care in hospitals has proved challenging for multiple reasons including a lack of skills, knowledge and confidence of nursing staff.  

Aim

The aim of this innovative project, which was underpinned by the Knowledge Translation Complexity Network Model (KTCNM), (Kitson et al., 2018) was to strengthen the capability of generalist nursing teams to deliver safe and high-quality care at end of life via the Palliative Care Link Nurse program 

Methods 

We recruited 29 acute care nurses to the program – designed to align with National Safety Quality Health Service Comprehensive Care Standard and National Palliative Care Standards and leveraging the National End-of-Life Essentials program materials. In line with the KTCNM, knowledge and training was combined based on current best practices and the acute care context based on the experiences of the nurses involved. 

Findings 

Our data showed a statically significant increase in nurses’ confidence to provide end-of-life care following the program. This paper further reports qualitative findings and impact at the point of care including acute care nurse led quality initiatives based on their own audits. The program has also resulted in the development of a palliative care traineeship initiative aimed at growing the specialist palliative care workforce

Conclusion 

The palliative care link nurse program has not only built the capacity of the nurses involved but has led to further impact heretofore not expected. It has created palliative care workforce capacity and improved the quality of end-of-life care in the acute care setting.  Further research is needed to investigate patient and family measurable outcomes.