Background Central to national and international policies is the need for generalist healthcare staff to have education in end-of-life care. Much end-of-life care education is provided by specialist nurses who often have no specific education development to prepare them to teach. To address this gap an Education Development Programme was developed and delivered to specialist nurses. We report on the evaluation of the programme.

Methods A mixed methods evaluation was adopted, with purposive sampling of 20 participants who completed the Education Development Programme and agreed to participate in the evaluation. Each participant provided a pre- and post- test score on a Likert scale for willingness and confidence to teach junior staff, staff at the same grade and medical staff.

Results An improvement was found in all participants’ reported willingness and confidence to teach all grades of staff, particularly medical staff. From the focus groups two main themes were identified; learning to teach and building skills to change practice. Participants reported greater confidence and preparedness for their teaching roles. Their growth in confidence and the practical skills they have gained have equipped the participants to be able to teach a diverse workforce.

Conclusions It cannot be assumed that specialist staff, with teaching in their role, have the skills to facilitate learning. This programme offers a potential method of improving facilitation skills. Specialist staff with teaching responsibilities should be provided with education and training to develop their teaching and facilitation skills.

Funding Cheshire & Merseyside Palliative and End of Life Network Education Strategy Group.