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With around 90% of people dying with cancer preferring to die at home, palliative care is an important aspect of General Practice work as GPs care for 5–8 patients dying of cancer each year on average. This chapter seeks to explore the experience of GP palliative care from three perspectives.

(1) Palliative care as a paradigm of excellence for the generalist. The specific nature of palliative care allows GPs to showcase the strength of a generalist approach. This ‘excellence’ manifests as a creative tension between evidence-based biomedical care, a patient-centred approach and the more traditional role of ‘healer’. GPs think and reflect around patient stories, rather than the abstraction of data to achieve best practice care. Teamwork is an emerging aspect of such care.

(2) Palliative care can be a catalyst for maturity for General Practitioners. One quarter of GPs choose not to become involved in palliative services. For the majority who do so, they embark on a journey towards maturity as a practitioner. In this section the issues explored include maturity and suffering, educational challenges, communication and relational skills, self-awareness including cultural and spiritual awareness and the strength of becoming a ‘wounded healer’.

(3) Palliative care and the challenge of self-care. GPs do not have a strong tradition of self-care activities. The experience of palliative care has the potential to cause stress and burn out. GPs need to pay attention to self-care and there is emerging evidence to help in this area. The ‘experience of dying’ again has specific challenges which need both thoughtful care and self-care. This can extend into the ‘aftermath’ period when managing one's grief and supporting the wider family take precedence.