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Editorial Elaine Cole DEPUTY EDITOR

We need more nurses to ensure ‘good deaths’ Last week’s emotional debate of Lord Falconer’s Assisted Dying Bill – which would allow doctors to prescribe a lethal dose to patients judged to have less than six months to live – showed the House of Lords to be pretty much split on the issue. For once the political debate reflected nurses’ views – it is difficult to think of many issues as contentious in the profession and which have such passionate proponents on both sides of the argument. This was captured on our blog last Friday (nursingblog.rcnpublishing. co.uk). Professor Dame Jill Macleod Clark, board member of campaigning organisation Dignity in Dying, argued that nurses should support the Assisted Dying Bill to ensure patients’ wishes inform every aspect of their care. Steve Fouch, spokesperson for anti-euthanasia alliance Care not Killing, countered that pressure on the most vulnerable people to end their lives will increase.

FAR TOO MANY PEOPLE TREATED BY THE NHS STILL HAVE A ‘BAD’ DEATH

It is unlikely there will be any change to the law in the near future. In the meantime, much can be done to improve the way people die. What both sides agree on is that the NHS offers some of the best palliative care in the world, but not everyone receives it. Far too many people still have a ‘bad’ death. More nurses are required. NICE’s guidelines for safe staffing on adult wards is a start, but only leaves a nurse 7.5 minutes for each patient every hour. This does not offer enough direct care time to ensure a patient has a ‘good’ death. And most people would prefer to die in the community. An RCN report in June found district nurse numbers have almost halved in the past 11 years and they spend just 37 per cent of their time on direct care. Nor are there enough registered nurses in some care homes. Nurses are central to enabling patients to have as good a death as possible. Ensuring there are enough to offer excellent palliative care to everyone is crucial to achieving that goal. See news page 9 Air your views on

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www.nursing-standard.co.uk july 23 :: vol 28 no 47 :: 2014 5

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We need more nurses to ensure 'good deaths'.

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