Knowledge and Attitude of Nurses About Palliative Care

Asia Parveen,Sidra Tasneem,Robina Jabeen,Abu Ul Hassan Faiz,Khawer Sultana,Ali Waqas,Ayesha Faiz

doi:10.35691/jbm.0202.0122

Abstract

Palliative care enhances the quality of life. To improve the quality of life, it is necessary for nurses to have good knowledge and attitude towards palliative care. It is imperative that nurses provide quality care to terminally ill and chronically sick patients. The present study was designed to assess the knowledge and attitude of medical staff nurses about palliative care in cancer. This cross-sectional, descriptive study was conducted in Mayo Hospital, Lahore and Jinnah Hospital, Lahore with sample size of 300 registered nurses by using the simple random sampling technique. Inclusion and exclusion criteria was used. Data was collected from the nurses who have more than one-year job experience. The statistical analysis results showed that only 43.5% of respondents agree on when the palliative care is needed to be provided. Over all in the study, nurses were less aware about palliative care. Most of the nurses distorted the term palliative care. They become confused about the term palliative care and dying patient care.

Highlights

Palliative care is pain management of patients with severe illnesses but is often misused as palliative medicine for terminal illness (Pizzi, 2010)
Palliative care regards dying as a normal process, provides relief from pain, intends neither to hasten nor postpone death, provided in prolonged therapies such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, HIV Aids and older patients (WHO, 2014)
Lack of knowledge about palliative care is a hurdle for the professionals in providing care to the patient

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Palliative care is pain management of patients with severe illnesses but is often misused as palliative medicine for terminal illness (Pizzi, 2010). Palliative Care includes any form of medical care or treatment that focuses on decreasing the intensity of symptoms, rather than striving to halt, delay or reverse the progression of disease itself or provide a cure. Lack of knowledge about palliative care is a hurdle for the professionals in providing care to the patient. Patients with chronic pain have distressing symptoms, especially in women with ovarian cancer, palliative care for them significantly improves their condition (Lopez-Acevedo et al, 2013). The significant factors that affect a successful palliative health care delivery include the health care provider’s knowledge, attitude, beliefs and experiences, which depict the procedures and behavior during evaluation and treatment of patients (Skår et al, 2010). The present study was designed with the objective to evaluate present knowledge and attitude of medical staff nurses about the provision of palliative care so that specific training regarding palliative care should be designed in curricula and given to in-service staff nurse employees

Study design

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Men generally reconcile