Aim As part of our hospices’ initiatives to respond to the challenges of meeting patients needs within today’s healthcare environment, the Hospice Outreach Team (HOT) set up a project to investigate if nurse-led palliative care clinics are effective in improving efficiency and coordination of services whilst promoting the ‘living well’ concept of rehabilitative palliative care compared with the parallel traditional model of nurse home visits and medical clinics offered as part of the hospice day services.

Method In March 2018 the HOT set up a weekly clinic in the hospice day unit staffed by the specialist palliative care nurses alongside traditional medical clinics for support. Inclusion criteria is aimed at patients with a functional status of 1–2 for initial consultation, follow up, or carer support. Evaluation is taking place through qualitative and quantitative data collection including nurse and patient surveys.

Results Evaluation of six months data will be available for the final poster submission. Anecdotally clinics have provided opportunity to address patient symptoms and put support in place for both patients and carers effectively. Patient questionnaire review has shown that the clinic is well received and has helped to dispel myths and concerns about coming to the hospice building. An additional aspect of clinic benefits include the location providing access to other members of the multi-disciplinary team and the majority of patients have been discharged to other hospice services.

Conclusion/recommendations Qualitative indications are that the clinic provides a good arena for introducing patients to the hospice, maximising the potential for its services in enabling them to ‘live well’. The contact with the outreach team may also make care more seamless when home visits are required. Ongoing evaluation will continue to show how these clinics can develop to support the challenge the hospice faces in shaping its services.