Education is the key to successful palliative care, and the key to successful education is establishing the appropriate evidence through audit and research.

One of the main objectives of education and training is to generate further understanding of end-of-life care by undertaking studies in clinical practice, participating in local research initiatives and contributing to the national research agenda.

Here at St Catherine's, we have a number of ongoing research projects, which we share with other palliative care professionals, by presenting posters and talks at UK and international palliative care conferences. For example, our lecturer practitioner, John Lansdell, and an independent researcher, Nicola Beech,  are working with local care homes to develop competencies for care home staff and John Lansdell presented a poster on their work at the 11th Congress of the European Association of Palliative Care Vienna 2009.  St Catherine's staff also presented posters at the Help The Hospices Conference in November 2009 at Harrogate and at the 8th Palliative Care Conference in Bournemouth, 2010.