Identifying community nurses’ contributions to end-of-life care: an online survey study

Abstract Background Demand for community-based end-of-life care is rising globally, driven by ageing populations with increasingly complex needs. Community nurses have a central role in providing end-of-life care, yet the proportion of their time spent in supporting people in their final year of life remains unclear. Aims To investigate how much of community nurses’ daily work involves caring for people in their last year of life, and the extent to which end-of-life care visits are cancelled, deferred or undertaken to unsatisfactory standards. Design Anonymous online survey and multimethod analysis. Setting/participants United Kingdom survey of community nurses, circulated via professional networks, social media and snowball sampling, between 28 April and 27 June 2025. Results A total of 1,471 nurses responded. Most worked in community and district nursing services (78.6%, 1156/1471) or specialist palliative care services (11.8%, 174/1471). Community and district nurses spent 23.5% (median) of their last shift providing end-of-life care. Over one in ten respondents (11.6% (171/1471) reported deferring at least one end-of-life visit during their last shift. Specialist palliative nurses were twice as likely to defer visits compared to community and district nurses (OR=2.48, 95% CI: 1.63–3.72, p