Jo Hockley is currently research fellow/clinical nurse specialist at St Columba's Hospice, Edinburgh. She has worked within the hospice movement since 1979 but has spent most of her energies disseminating palliative care into the acute hospital sector. She has set up two hospital-based palliative care teams in the UK and has published widely on this subject and other practice issues in palliative care. She is currently working on a collaborative action research project with independent nursing homes in Edinburgh developing palliative care at the end of life.