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<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p><jats:bold>Title. </jats:bold> <jats:bold>Multi‐faceted palliative care intervention: aged care nurses’ and care assistants’ perceptions and experiences.</jats:bold> </jats:p><jats:p><jats:bold>Aim. </jats:bold> This paper is a report of a study to describe residential aged care nurses’ and care assistants’ perceptions of a multi‐faceted palliative care intervention to identify potential areas to be addressed during subsequent action research phases.</jats:p><jats:p><jats:bold>Background. </jats:bold> Action research was used to enhance the delivery of a palliative approach in residential aged care. The chronic care model guided the development of a multi‐faceted intervention. This involved the: (1) establishment of a ‘link nurse’ role; (2) learning and development strategies for nurses, care assistants and general practitioners; (3) use of multi‐disciplinary team meetings; and (4) access to specialist consultation.</jats:p><jats:p><jats:bold>Method. </jats:bold> A purposive sample (<jats:italic>n </jats:italic>=<jats:italic> </jats:italic>28) of aged care nurses and care assistants participated in a series of four focus groups conducted in July 2005. Thematic content analysis of the transcripts was performed.</jats:p><jats:p><jats:bold>Findings. </jats:bold> Four themes emerged: (1) targeted education can make a difference; (2) a team approach is valued; (3) clinical assessment tools are helpful; and (4) using the right language is essential. Participants described increased understanding of palliative care concepts, enhanced competencies, greater confidence to deliver palliative care and a desire to adopt a multi‐disciplinary approach to care planning.</jats:p><jats:p><jats:bold>Conclusion. </jats:bold> Sustaining a culture that is committed to ongoing learning and development interventions and creating multi‐disciplinary teams in the aged care setting is critical to embedding a palliative approach. The chronic care model is a useful framework to guide the development of interventions leading to better palliative care outcomes for residents and their families.</jats:p>