ArticlePalliative medicine2015
Administering anticipatory medications in end-of-life care: a qualitative study of nursing practice in the community and in nursing homes.
Article in Palliative medicine, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
32 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 87 citations in OpenAlex.
- Co-designing Community Out-of-hours Palliative Care Services: A systematic literature search and review.Palliative medicine · 2023Pooled it
- Barriers and facilitators to the implementation of doctor-nurse substitution strategies in primary care: a qualitative evidence synthesis.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2019Pooled it
- Anticipatory prescribing of injectable medications for adults at the end of life in the community: A systematic literature review and narrative synthesis.Palliative medicine · 2019Pooled it
- Hypnosis for Symptom Control in Cancer Patients at the End-of-Life: A Systematic Review.The International journal of clinical and experimental hypnosisPooled it
- Trial
- Accessing and Administering Anticipatory Medications for Community End-of-Life Symptom Control: A Qualitative Focus Group Study.Journal of clinical nursing · 2026Article
- Mapping patient journeys: Exploring patient and informal carer experiences of injectable anticipatory medication care in the community to identify opportunities for practice improvements.Palliative medicine · 2026Article
- Provision of palliative and end-of-life care by community health nurses: A scoping review on the challenges and potential solutions.International journal of nursing studies advances · 2026Review
- Hidden work and blurred boundaries: a qualitative study of how community nurses navigate and adapt injectable medication processes to provide timely end-of-life symptom control.BMC palliative care · 2026Article
- Palliative care needs among residential aged care facility residents referred to an Australian hospital-in-the-home service: a descriptive retrospective cohort study.BMC geriatrics · 2026Article
- Learning from end-of-life injectable medication patient safety incidents in the community: a mixed-methods analysis.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2026Article
- 'We've Taken on a More Advanced Clinical Role': A Multimethod Study of Community Nurses' Extended Roles in Palliative Care.Journal of advanced nursing · 2026Article
- Acceptability of supporting lay-carer administration of anticipatory subcutaneous medications at home: a qualitative study using the theoretical framework of acceptability.BMC palliative care · 2025Article
- Variations in Prescribing Rates of End-of-Life Medications Among Long-Term Care Residents in Alberta Compared with Ontario-a Retrospective Cohort Study.Canadian geriatrics journal : CGJ · 2025Article
- Article
- The financial costs of anticipatory prescribing: A retrospective observational study of prescribed, administered and wasted medications using community clinical records.Palliative medicine · 2023Observational
- Nurses' Experiences Concerning Older Adults with Polypharmacy: A Meta-Synthesis of Qualitative Findings.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Simultaneously reassuring and unsettling: a longitudinal qualitative study of community anticipatory medication prescribing for older patients.Age and ageing · 2022Article
- The Impact of an Electronic Prescribing Template with Decision Support upon the Prescribing of Subcutaneous Infusions at the End of Life in a Community Setting: A Future Vision for Community Palliative Care.Pharmacy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Good medicines management: From describing problems to a vision for change.Palliative medicine · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundIn the United Kingdom, an approach to improving end-of-life care has been the introduction of 'just in case' or 'anticipatory' medications. Nurses are often responsible for deciding when to use anticipatory medications, but little is known about their experiences.
aimTo examine nurses' decisions, aims and concerns when using anticipatory medications.
designAn ethnographic study in two UK regions, using observations and interviews with nurses working in community and nursing home teams (n = 8).
findingsObservations (n = 83) and interviews (n = 61) with community nurses. Nurses identified four 'conditions' that needed to be established before they implemented anticipatory medications: (1) irreversibility; (2) inability to take oral medication; (3) where the patient was able, they should consent and (4) decision had to be independent of demands or requests from patient's relatives. By using anticipation medications, nurses sought to enable patients to be 'comfortable and settled' by provision of gradual relief of symptoms at the lowest dose possible. They aimed to respond quickly to needs, seeking to avoid hospital admission or medical call-out, while adhering to local prescribing policies. Worries included distinguishing between pain and agitation, balancing risks of under- and over-medication and the possibility of hastening death.
conclusionNurses take a leading role in the administration of anticipatory medications. Nurses apply consideration and caution to the administration of anticipatory medications but some experience emotional burden. Education, training and experience played a role in the nurses' confidence and should continue to be central to efforts to improving the quality of palliative care in the community and nursing homes.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.