Background: Nurses knowledge of palliative care is to ensuring patient-centred care, however, palliative care for individuals with fragility hip fractures remains insufficiently understood and underdeveloped.
Objective: This study aimed to assess nurses' knowledge of the palliative care needs of people with hip fragility fractures.
Methods: Descriptive-correlational, cross-sectional study. Portuguese nurses providing care to patients with hip fractures were selected through an intentional sample (n = 312), from February to April 2025, through an online questionnaire. Analysis used descriptive and inferential statistics. Ethical assumptions assured.
Results: Of the 312 nurses, 83,3 % were female. Most held a nursing degree (75,0 %) but were not specialized (59,9 %). The majority worked in the inpatient orthopaedic (32,1 %) and lacked education (57,7 %) or experience in palliative care (86,2 %). In the sample, 60.2 % of participants reported sufficient and insufficient levels of knowledge, while 53.2 % reported similar perceptions of competence. Most participants had never referred a person to palliative care (79.8 %) nor provided care to a patient with a hip fragility fracture under a palliative care team (76.9 %). The nurses' global knowledge was considered sufficient, particularly about symptom control, teamwork and communication, however, it was superior to the mean in the family support category. Some variables had significant correlations with global knowledge: academic qualifications, professional category, practice time, experience and education in palliative care, self-knowledge, and self-competence.
Conclusions: Most nurses demonstrated sufficient knowledge of the palliative care needs of people with fragility hip fractures, highlighting the need for greater investment in education and training to enhance nursing care responses.

