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High-quality end of life care depends on timely, safe and compassionate access to medicines. For nurse prescribers working in palliative and end of life care, prescribing is a core clinical skill that directly affects comfort, dignity, symptom control and family experience.
“The MSF will help address rising demand; late identification of need; inequitable variation in access, experience and outcomes; and the wider pressures facing the health and care system.”
Stephen Kinnock MP, Minister of State for Care, Written Statement, 4 June 2026
Access to medicines remains a key concern. The House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee has warned:
“Individuals nearing the end of life should be able to access the right care, advice and medication, wherever they are and regardless of the time of day.”
House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee, Palliative Care, March 2026
The Care Quality Commission has also emphasised that:
“Care planning and communication are central to safe management of medicines for people during care at the end of their life.”
Care Quality Commission, End of Life Care Planning and Medicines Optimisation, May 2025
Nurse prescribers are central to improving this picture — through anticipatory prescribing, timely medication review, robust controlled drugs governance, safe syringe driver practice, and clinically sound prescribing for pain, breathlessness, agitation, nausea, delirium and complex symptoms. They also have a key role in reducing medication-related harm, including cognitive side effects, anticholinergic burden and avoidable delirium, particularly in frail older people and those with multimorbidity.
This practical, skills-focused conference is designed specifically for nurse prescribers working in palliative and end of life care who want to strengthen confidence, competence and governance — and take away tools they can use immediately in clinical practice.
You will learn from an expert multidisciplinary faculty including nurse consultants, palliative care consultants, hospice clinicians and consultant pharmacists from NHS Trusts and specialist palliative care services.
Through the day you will build practical capability in:
Prescribing in the last days and hours of life, including anticipatory prescribing and managing uncertainty
Pain prescribing at the end of life, including malignant pain, complex pain and opioid decision-making
Prescribing for breathlessness, agitation, nausea, respiratory secretions and delirium
Controlled drugs governance, documentation and safe prescribing beyond product licence where appropriate
Syringe drivers and syringe driver combinations: safety, compatibility and practical decision-making
Avoiding cognitive side effects and delirium through medication review, anticholinergic burden assessment and safer prescribing choices
Leading nurse prescribing practice locally, including competence, regulation, supervision, communication and MDT working
Using audit and evaluation to evidence safe practice and support CPD and revalidation
This conference supports CPD professional development and can be used as evidence for revalidation. The course provides 5 hours of training for CPD, subject to peer group approval for revalidation purposes.
This conference will enable you to:
Strengthen confidence and competence in nurse prescribing for end of life symptom control
Apply practical approaches to anticipatory prescribing in the last days and hours of life
Improve prescribing for pain, breathlessness, agitation, nausea, delirium and other common end of life symptoms
Understand and implement controlled drug governance, including legal and clinical responsibilities, documentation and common pitfalls
Make safer prescribing decisions to reduce cognitive side effects, anticholinergic burden and medication-related delirium
Improve safety and reliability in the use of syringe drivers and common syringe driver combinations
Demonstrate safe practice aligned to professional standards, including the NMC Code and prescribing competency frameworks
Build a stronger evidence trail for competence, CPD and revalidation
Lead nurse prescribing practice locally through supervision, peer review, MDT working and service improvement
Use audit and evaluation to improve quality, safety and impact in your service
