Community nursing quality indicators for end-of-life care in England: identification, preparation, and coordination

High-quality community nursing is essential to ensure that end-of-life care can be provided in community settings in line with patient preferences. This article examines the quality priorities commissioners sought to incentivise in end-of-life care, by reviewing a survey of Commissioning for Quality and Innovation (CQUIN) indicators for community nursing conducted in England in 2014–2015. Findings from the survey suggest that end-of-life care was not given a high priority with the CQUIN indicators for community nursing. Vigorous quality standards, including training and development, need to be in place to make sure that the potential of community nursing is being used to sensitively engage with people nearing the end of their lives and support them to plan their future care, if they so wish.