Working in a Nursing Home

Supporting End-of-Life Care in Nursing Homes

It is the greatest privilege to care for a person in their journey towards end of life and in their final moments. As a staff member working in a nursing home, this is what you do so well. We understand that it can be challenging for many reasons. You may have developed a very strong relationship with the person and his or her family. It can be an emotional time as the resident may not have discussed his or her wishes for end of life. Relatives may not know what questions to ask you, what to expect or how to have a conversation about end-of-life care with their loved one. 

  • Caru recognises this and is designed to support you in delivering quality palliative, end of life and bereavement care with confidence, while also supporting your health & wellbeing. 
  • Caru understands that all staff can support a resident at end of life and our FREE education and training events are for ALL STAFF from household, catering, administration, nursing, healthcare assistants, physiotherapists, porters and occupational therapist.  

Caru will benefit you if you: 

  • Are passionate about supporting people at end of life
  • Want to CHAMPION excellence in end-of-life care for your residents, families and staff
  • Want to engage residents, families and colleagues to seek their ideas for improvements
  • Want to do drive change in end-of-life care in your nursing home
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To find out more about our training programme click here.

Supporting Resources to Help You on This Journey

Advance Care Planning For Professionals


This page provides useful tips to health and social care professionals about advance care planning. It will support you to have meaningful conversations that will tell us what matters most to people. 

Advance Care Planning for Health and Social Care Professionals 

Person-centered care means taking the time to find out what the person wants to know. It also means finding out what their wishes and preferences are regarding their end-of-life care. 

Advance Care Planning should ideally happen before the person is admitted to hospital or a nursing home. However all too often, they do not. 

Health and social care workers play an especially important role as Advance Care Planning is a key part of person-centered care. 

Palliative Care for People with Dementia 


Below is a suite of guidance documents for healthcare staff to help improve palliative care for people with dementia in all care settings. They were developed by IHF in collaboration with researchers at University College Cork as practice guidelines for people providing palliative dementia care. Each guidance document comes with a brief factsheet. 

See more details on palliative care for people with dementia on Irish Hospice Foundation website