Abstract
BackgroundTo provide quality care at the end of life or for chronically sick patients, nurses must have good knowledge, attitude and practice about palliative care (PC). In Ethiopia PC is new and very little is known about the type of services offered and the readiness of nurses to provide PC.MethodsA cross sectional quantitative study design was carried out using 341 nurses working in selected hospitals in Addis Ababa from January 2012 to May 2012. Systematic random sampling was the method employed to select two governmental and two non-governmental hospitals. The researchers used triangulation in their study method making use of: Frommelt’s Attitude Toward Care of the Dying (FATCOD) Scale, Palliative Care Quiz for Nursing (PCQN) and practice questions. This led to enhanced validity of the data. EPI-INFO and SPSS software statistical packages were applied for data entry and analysis.ResultOf the total 365 nurses selected, a response rate of 341 (94.2%) were registered. Out of the total study participants, 104 (30.5%) had good knowledge and 259 (76%) had favorable attitude towards PC. Medical and surgical wards as well as training on PC were positively associated with knowledge of nurses. Institution, individuals’ level of education, working in medical ward and the training they took part on PC were also significantly associated with the attitude the nurses had. Nurses working in Hayat Hospital (nongovernmental) had a 71.5% chance of having unfavorable attitude towards PC than those working in Black Lion Hospital (governmental). Regarding their knowledge aspect of practice, the majority of the respondents 260 (76.2%) had poor implementation, and nearly half of the respondents had reported that the diagnosis of patients was usually performed at the terminal stage. In line with this, spiritual and medical conditions were highly taken into consideration while dealing with terminally ill patients.ConclusionThe nurses had poor knowledge and knowledge aspect of practice, but their attitude towards PC was favorable. Recommendations are that due attention should be given towards PC by the national health policy and needs to be incorporated in the national curriculum of nurse education.
Highlights
To provide quality care at the end of life or for chronically sick patients, nurses must have good knowledge, attitude and practice about palliative care (PC)
The result of this study showed that the majority of nurses had poor knowledge about PC
The result of this study suggested that the majority of respondents that have had favorable attitude but poor knowledge and practice towards PC
Summary
Area and period A cross-sectional study was conducted with nurses at Governmental and Non-Governmental hospitals in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from January 2012 to May 2012. A Pre-test was conducted on 10% (34) of the nurses in one Governmental hospital in Addis Ababa This helped us to verify the validity and reliability issues. Good knowledge = ≥75% of total score of the Palliative Care Quiz for Nursing (PCQN) scale. Poor knowledge = < 75% of total score of the PCQN scale Knowledge aspect of practice = the nurse must have a knowledge on PC regarding application of practice. Ethical consideration Ethical clearance was obtained from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of Addis Ababa University (AAU)College of Health Sciences, Department of Nursing and Midwifery, which facilitated an official letter written to the selected hospitals and to the Addis Ababa City Administration Health Bureau to get their permission and cooperation for the study. The respondents had had the right not to participate in or withdraw from the study at any stage
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