Introduction An essential skill whilst working within specialist palliative care is an ability to convert opioid medications (Brodrick, Reid, Mollart. BMJ Support Palliat Care. 2020;10:A12). The provision of education to support this skill is not consistent despite national guidance to seek specialist advice when converting opioids (NICE, 2021). There is no one agreed ratio of relative potencies of opioids in relation to oral morphine.

Aim To explore the lived experiences of clinicians working within specialist palliative care who are involved in converting opioid medications and the education that supports them.

Methodology 12 semi-structured interviews were completed with staff who had completed the Opioid Conversion Workbook (Brodrick, Reid. BMJ Support Palliat Care. 2018;8:A53-A54). These were recorded and transcribed for thematic analysis using Braun and Clarke (Successful qualitative research: a practical guide for beginners. SAGE Publications;2013).

Findings Three main themes and nine subthemes were identified: ‘Experiences of opioid conversion education’, ‘Support strategies used in practice for opioid conversions’ and ‘Training and education’. Participants felt empowered by the workbook (Brodrick and Reid, 2018), however, they felt that it needed to be more relatable to practice and further consistent clinical updates were needed to support practice.

Conclusion This study concluded that there is a lack of national standardised practice in the approach to opioid conversions. The Opioid Conversion Workbook reduced the habitual practice of using equianalgesic conversion charts but requires additional oversight and update to support complex clinical practice.

Recommendations for Practice This research makes three recommendations;

• Regular annual updates for those involved in opioid conversions.

• A revision and update of the opioid conversion workbook to include relatable case–based work.

• A regional or national standardised approach to opioid conversion education in specialist palliative care.