Background Addressing cultural, religious, and spiritual (CRS) needs at the end of life has a positive impact on quality of life and may reduce distress experienced by patients. Local audits in Southmead Hospital, a large tertiary centre in England, revealed that CRS needs were only documented as addressed in 20%-31% of patients approaching the end of life.

Aims ‘Just Ask’ is a charity funded project that aims to understand and evaluate hospital staff perspectives around addressing CRS needs. This abstract relates to this project’s scoping phase which will inform a subsequent quality improvement project (QIP) to empower staff to enquire about CRS needs more consistently; enhancing patient experience.

Methods The project was registered with the local trust for ethical oversight. An initial anonymous email survey, with qualitative and quantitative elements, was distributed to staff receiving 297 responses. Responses were analysed and informed a focus group topic guide. Purposive sampling was used to recruit staff to 4 focus groups which were subsequently analysed using thematic analysis.

Results Five key focus group themes were identified; these are depicted below:

1. Staff recognise CRS needs as critical components of holistic care

2. Clinical environments can be restrictive with competing pressures

3. Staff have uncertainties around asking, and fear of offending

4. Resources to support these needs can be difficult to understand and navigate

5. Organisational support is essential to meet staff educational needs and to empower staff to ask

Conclusion/Discussion The scoping stage identified multiple barriers and enablers that influence staff assessing and addressing CRS needs. Tackling these barriers will require a multimodal approach to meet diverse staff educational needs. Finally, there are opportunities to modify organisational culture and empower staff to be inquisitive and adaptable to diverse needs, creating culturally safe spaces for patients and families.