Aim: To map the nature and extent of existing palliative care education activities.
Method: Data was gathered from questionnaires, face-to-face and telephone interviews, visiting palliative care teams across Mount Vernon Cancer Network and attendance at conferences, meetings and seminars. A comprehensive needs assessment for palliative care education within nursing homes was completed.
Results: The findings revealed inequality across the network with regard to education provision and uptake of palliative care services. Recruitment of overseas staff and a transient workforce were both cited as major difficulties in implementing education programmes. Funding of these programmes and responsibility for providing the education remain unclear.
Conclusion: There was a real and urgent need for palliative care training in the network area and there was scope for a variety of approaches to be adopted to deliver the required training.