Palliative care research: urgent need for investment

Community nurses' participation in palliative care research: the Dignity Care Pathway

Evidence-based practice is a cornerstone of modern health care. Ongoing challenges have been identified in the strength of the evidence base in community palliative care nursing (Walshe and Luker, 2010). This paper discusses the participation of community nurses in a palliative care research project. The Dignity Care Pathway (DCP) is an evidence-based framework developed using a collaborative research approach with community nurses in Scotland. Collaborative research has been advocated as one way to facilitate integrated knowledge transfer and to address the research-practice gap. The aim of this paper is to discuss the participation of community nurses in a collaborative research project to implement a palliative care intervention in practice. The discussion will draw on findings from the third phase of the DCP multiphase research project.