title: District nurses' needs: palliative care for people with learning disabilities.
abstract: The aim of this article is to identify national palliative care issues, and current palliative care services provided by district nurses for people with a learning disability in North Staffordshire, UK. The professional and educational needs of district nurses in the role of palliative care providers for people with a learning disability were identified by two small focus groups involving district nurses. This resulted in the formulation of a questionnaire, which was circulated to 165 district nurses. While the initial part of the research is qualitative, the final survey involved a quantitative analysis using a questionnaire and a three-point Likert scale. This compared a number of independent variables such as age range, length of experience and number of contacts with clients who have a learning disability and palliative care needs. The results provide an overview of existing service uptake and a profile of the professional and educational needs of district nurses when caring for people with a learning disability who also have palliative care needs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing and Midwifery, Keele University, Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire, UK.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lindop
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Read
mesh_terms: D004509:Education, Nursing, Continuing / Q000458:organization & administration*; D004739:England; D017144:Focus Groups; D017051:Hospice Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000451:nursing*; D020380:Needs Assessment / Q000458:organization & administration*; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D011637:Public Health Nursing / Q000193:education* / Q000458:organization & administration*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires