Assessment of Knowledge about Palliative Care among Registered Nursing Professionals: A Prospective Cross-Sectional Study in a Tertiary Care Hospital in Central India

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to assess the palliative care knowledge among the registered nurses working in tertiary care hospital in Madhya Pradesh. Methods and materials: A prospective cross-sectional study was conducted on 160 registered nurses working in different departments in tertiary care hospital in Madhya Pradesh, who were selected through a purposive sampling technique. The data was collected through an online questionnaire for the socio-demographic variables and validated a self-report questionnaire to measure the knowledge of health care professionals in palliative care and the data was analysed by IBM-SPSSv26. Results: A total of 160 participants enrolled in the study. Basic knowledge care was quite high among the samples (83.75%). Item 1,2 of pain in palliative care was quite high (83.43%) and item 3,4,5 has (22%) only, overall management of pain knowledge was (47%) which is on the lower side. The use of Morphine was 31.04%, Dyspnoea Management it was 38.33%, and in the communication of prognosis, it was 81.56%. Resuscitation knowledge was 46.85%, Psycho spiritual was 24.06% and Bereavement care was 69%. Conclusion: One of the biggest challenges in providing excellent palliative care is that nurses don’t know enough about it. Therefore, improving the quality of palliative care services provided to patients could be accomplished by increasing their knowledge through in-service education and retraining on the job.