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Background: The Liverpool Care of the Dying Pathway (LCP) was developed to transfer the hospice model of care into other care settings. It is a multiprofessional document providing an evidence-based framework for the dying phase. Widely used in hospitals it has now been adopted for use in hospices., Method: A qualitative study exploring hospice doctors' and nurses' perceptions of the impact of the LCP using semi-structured interviews of a purposive sample were undertaken in a 30 bed hospice in the north-west of England. Data was thematically analysed for emerging themes., Results and Discussion: Eleven interviews were undertaken (eight nurses, three doctors). The results suggest that despite some initial scepticism the LCP has a valuable place in the hospice setting according to the doctors and nurses sampled. Alongside the potential for use in audit and research, perceived benefits include improving documentation, promoting continuity of care and enhancing communication and the care of relatives. Maintaining ongoing education and feedback on the use of the document were highlighted as important mechanisms for ensuring that the delivery of care remained optimum.

The Liverpool Care Pathway for the dying patient (LCP) was developed to transfer the hospice model of care into other care settings. It is a multiprofessional document that provides an evidence-based framework for the dying phase. It provides guidance on the different aspects of care required including comfort measures, anticipatory prescribing of medication, and discontinuation of inappropriate interventions. Additionally, psychological and spiritual care and family support is included. This article presents the findings of a study to explore hospital nurses' perceptions of the impact of the LCP using focus group interviews. Data were analysed for emerging themes using thematic analysis. The results suggest that the nurses have generally found that the LCP had a positive impact on patients, their families and also on nurses and doctors. This article will explore these benefits, as well as potential barriers to its use.

The article reports a study which was conducted to develop a questionnaire for use with families to assess the quality of care for the dying. The results show that the systematic process of questionnaire development generated evidence for face and content validity of the Evaluating Care and Health Outcomes-for the Dying (ECHO-D). ECHO-D is the first instrument specifically to assess ‘quality of care for the dying’ as well as the impact of the Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP) for the Dying Patient.

The article reports that the Liverpool Care Pathway for the Dying Patient (LCP) was jointly developed by the Marie Curie Hospice Liverpool and the Royal Liverpool University Hospitals 8 years ago as a tool to enhance education programmes for care of the dying. The LCP framework is now based at the Marie Curie Palliative Care Institute Liverpool and is focused on four programmes; these are non-cancer, benchmarking, education and international. A number of studies have highlighted the impact of the LCP on patients and healthcare professionals.