Palliative care in the emergency department: A systematic literature qualitative review and thematic synthesis.

Background: Despite a fast-paced environment, the emergency clinician has a duty to meet the palliative patient's needs. Despite suggested models and interventions, this remains challenging in practice.

Aim: To raise awareness of these challenges by exploring the experience of palliative care patients and their families and informal carers attending the emergency department, and of the clinicians caring for them.