Barriers and facilitators to palliative care education in nursing and residential homes: a rapid review

Background: There is insufficient high-quality evidence to suggest that palliative care education can impact care home settings.

Aims: To identify, appraise and synthesise all available evidence on the barriers and facilitators to providing palliative care education in residential and nursing care homes and to generate recommendations to increase the effectiveness of future palliative care education programmes in care homes.

Methods: A rapid review searching CINAHL, Medline and ProQuest. One author screened full-text articles for inclusion. Any uncertainties were discussed with a second author.

Findings: Twenty-two articles were included in the full review. Analysis of the included articles revealed the following overlapping themes: structural systems; cultural and personal issues; and knowledge translation issues with interaction.

Conclusion: Addressing the barriers and facilitators when designing palliative care education programmes for care homes will lead to more successful outcomes.