Palliative Care Resources & Education
The following documents have been regionally endorsed by the Palliative Care in Partnership programme board for use by healthcare professionals in Northern Ireland. A direct link to the resource has been provided below – please click on the name of the resource to access it. Many of these documents can also be downloaded from the All- Ireland Institute for Hospice & Palliative Care Professional Hub.
| SPICT – Supportive & Palliative Care Indicators Tool [WEBPAGE] | The indicator tool which the Anticipal App (originally developed and tested by University of Edinburgh) is based on. |
| ELCOS Final 2017 [PDF] | Overview of the End of Life Care Operational System (ELCOS). Updated in 2017. |
| Prompts to Aid ELCOS [PDF] | Prompts to aid practitioners in the development of an individualised care plan. Updated 2017. |
| Palliative Care Aide Memoir (NI) [PDF] | Prompts to be used when assessing and reviewing patients with palliative care needs across conditions. Based on NISAT domains. |
| Palliative Care Keyworker Role [PDF] | The role of the Palliative Care Keyworker (2017) |
| Your Life Your Choices: Plan Ahead [PDF] | Patient facing booklet about how people can plan ahead and make choices about their own future care. Booklets can also be ordered from the Macmillan website. |
| Advance Care Planning Summary [WORD DOC] | Record of discussions regarding a person’s wishes and preferences for care at the end of life. |
| For Now and For the Future: An Advance Care Planning Policy for Adults in NI [PDF] | The Department of Health’s policy on Advance Care Planning in NI |
| Key Information Summary [WEBPAGE] | Information about the Key Information Summary as part of the Electronic Care Record. |
| Specialist Palliative Care Referral Guidance & Service Directory [PDF] | Information on when and where to refer a person with specialist palliative care needs |
| NICE NG31 [PDF] | NICE Guideline: Care of Dying Adults in the last days of life. Published Dec 2015 |
| RPMG End of Life Guidance [PDF] | Guidance for the management of common symptoms in adults in the last days of life. Updated 2023. |
| PANG: Palliative Care Adult Network Guidelines [WEBPAGE] | These guidelines have been adopted as the preferred guidelines for general palliative care within Northern Ireland via the Palliative Care Network, and can be accessed online. You will need to register to access the guidelines. |
| Community Pharmacy Palliative Care Network [PDF] | Network of pharmacies spread throughout Northern Ireland who provide specialist community pharmacy palliative care services. They can supply medicines from the palliative stock list or be contacted for advice |
| Guidance of the management of symptoms in adults with Heart Failure at the end of Life [PDF] | This booklet provides guidance to healthcare professionals on managing commonly experienced symptoms for heart failure patients in the last weeks to days of life. Updated 2025. |
| Heart of Living and Dying – A facilitators guide [WEBPAGE] | The Heart of Living and Dying is a 2 hour group process which offers members of the public the opportunity to have an advance care planning type conversation about what matters to them in their living and dying |
| Widening Access to Palliative & End of Life Care for People with Intellectual Disabilities [PDF] | ‘Widening Access to Palliative and End of Life Care for People with Intellectual Disabilities’ is an evidence-based, open access, online resource with a strong service user perspective, which aims to promote optimal palliative and end of life care for people with intellectual disabilities in any care setting |
| Palliative Hub Learning Platform [WORD DOC] | The Palliative Hub – Learning Platform has been designed to provide an online learning environment for professionals and the public |
| Management of Symptoms in Palliative Care [PDF] | This document outlines the AHP interventions that are required to address some of the symptoms that have been identified by service users and carers as being necessary to achieving better living. The document also sets out how palliative and end of life symptoms can be better managed by a range of AHP interventions to improve quality of life and again better living. |
| Family-Centred Cancer Care [WEBPAGE] | Ulster University’s Cancer Care Research Group, part of its Institute of Nursing and Health Research have launched a new series of videos to equip health and social care professionals to support parents to have difficult conversations with their children when facing end of life with cancer. |
| Guidance for Appropriate Prescribing of Oral Nutritional Supplements in Palliative Care [PDF] | This guidance is intended to help Health Care Professionals support nutritional needs of people including supplements. |
| Northern Ireland Medicines Management Newsletter Supplement [PDF] | Nutritional Needs of Specific Patient Groups |
| When illness affects your appetite [ONLINE PDF] | Information and guidance on nutrition and management of illness affecting appetite. |
| Guidance Document for Subcutaneous Syringe Pump Use in Adult Northern Ireland [PDF] | Regional Guidance document on the use of subcutaneous syringe pumps for adults in Northern Ireland |
| NI Guidance for the Management of Diabetes in Adults during the Last Days of Life [PDF] | Guidance to healthcare professionals on managing Diabetes in Adults during the Last Days of Life. Updated 2025. |