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Some patients do not receive adequate pain and symptom relief at the end of life, causing distress to patients, families and healthcare professionals. It is unclear whether undertreatment of symptoms occurs, in part, because of nurses’ concerns about legal and/or disciplinary repercussions if the patient dies after medication is administered.

The aim was to explore nurses’ experiences and knowledge of the law relating to the provision of end-of-life pain and symptom relief.

Semi-structured interviews with nurses were assessed using a six-stage hybrid thematic analysis technique.

Four face-to-face and 21 telephone interviews were conducted with nurses who routinely prescribed and/or administered pain and symptom relief to patients approaching the end of their lives in Queensland and New South Wales, Australia.

While many nurses had no personal experiences …