42 Exploring the education needs of inpatient oncology nurses providing palliative care

<h3>Background</h3> With more than half a million people expected to die each year, it is estimated 90% will need palliative care. There are &gt;365,000 new diagnoses of cancer in the UK and &gt;160,000 cancer related deaths each year. Growing numbers of people are living with life limiting illnesses and a large number of hospital inpatients have already entered their last year of life. Nursing is essential in providing palliative care and management of complex symptom burden. <h3>Aim</h3> The aim of this Service Evaluation is to explore the education needs of nurses providing palliative care within an inpatient oncology setting. <h3>Method</h3> An anonymous online questionnaire used to collect data consisted of a single time point. Three inpatient oncology wards were chosen, and completion of questionnaire was by nursing staff only. The questionnaire of true/false questions assessed knowledge on medications, physical symptoms, psychological and philosophy of palliative care. <h3>Results</h3> 25 questionnaires were returned offering a response rate of 30%. Responses demonstrated a relatively junior workforce with 56% (n=14) only having 1–5 years experience working in oncology and 40% (n=10) were working at band 5 level which is the starting point of nursing within the NHS. 80% (n=20) had not attended any palliative care study day in the past year. 60% (n=15) reported feeling underconfident in caring for patients with palliative needs. There were clear themes drawn that identified gaps in knowledge particularly regarding opioids and physical symptom management. <h3>Discussion</h3> There are education needs of inpatient nurses providing palliative care that need to be addressed. The development of targeted educational resources, with consideration of how best to engage with the already busy workload of nursing staff is required. A larger project is warranted to assess the knowledge of inpatient nurses across the Trust.