[How does executive staff of home care nursing services estimate the situation of palliative care?].

Experts criticise heavily the current situation of palliative care in the home care setting in Germany. They claim that the education in palliative care of all involved professional groups should be improved and specialized services should be adjusted. Only few is known in this context about the perspectives and attitudes of nursing staff, who is significantly involved in palliative care. Therefore, interviews with executive stuff of home care nursing services in the Federal State of Brandenburg were performed in the context of an evaluative opinion survey. 88 of 100 planned interviews took place. The nursing services estimated the current situation predominantly good. This does not support the experts' opinions found in the literature. Nevertheless, the respondents saw serious needs for improvements, in particular concerning psycho-social issues. Although palliative patients numerically seem to be in the background of every day work life, great interest in further qualification and new concepts of care was shown. So far, only few home care nursing services employ palliative care-trained staff.