Table 2.

Inclusion and exclusion criteria.

Inclusion criteria	Rationale
Studies must include a descriptive element regarding the nature of EoL care in care homes	To ascertain how EoL care is currently being delivered in care homes in the UK
Must be UK based	EoL care policy and guidelines are national-specific, and this study is specific to UK care homes
Exclusion criteria	Rationale
Pre-dates 2008	July 2008 was the date of a seminal policy publication which significantly changed the focus of EoL care delivery and research in the UK
Includes an EoL intervention	Studies exploring interventions which describe EoL care in the context of the intervention thus may not be representative of practice
Studies specifically only exploring the acute hospital setting	This review is focused on exploring the nature of EoL care in care homes, not acute services

EoL: end-of-life.