title: The high impact actions for nursing and midwifery 6: where to die when the time comes.
abstract: Around half of the 500,000 deaths in England each year occur in acute hospitals, while around half of all complaints made to acute trusts relate to an aspect of end of life care. Howaver, research suggest that 40% of people who die in hospital have no medical need to be there, and that 55% of people with cancer would prefer to die at home while only around 25% do so. When people die in hospital despite having a preference to die at home and no medical reason to be in hospital, it causes unnecessary distress to patients and their familes, and is costly to the NHS. This article, the seventh in our series on the high impact actions for nursing and midwifery, looks at how nurses can help to improve end of life care.
authors.affiliation: High Impact Team, NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement.
authors.forename: Liz
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ward
authors.forename: Katherine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Fenton
authors.forename: Lynne
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Maher
mesh_terms: D003152:Community Health Nursing / Q000379:methods*; D006699:Home Care Services; D006801:Humans; D008880:Midwifery; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D057240:Patient Preference; D011788:Quality of Life; D016414:Resuscitation Orders; D013727:Terminal Care / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards