A Study on Knowledge Attitude and Practice Towards Palliative Care among Nurses at Selected Hospitals in Bangladesh

Abstract

Background: Palliative care refers to interdisciplinary, team-based care for individuals and families experiencing a life-threatening illness or injury, addressing physical, emotional, social and spiritual needs and managing illness, attempts to improve quality of life throughout the dying process. Palliative care has traditionally been viewed as providing intensive care to patients near death. In recent years, palliative care has come to include patients with end-stage organ failure and cancer who can live longer. To provide quality palliative care (PC), caregivers need not only knowledge and skills but also a positive attitude. Palliative care is new to the healthcare sector in the Patuakhali region and little is known about nurses' knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding palliative care. Many factors can influence nurses' knowledge, attitude, practice, and experience regarding palliative care. Objectives: To assess the Knowledge, Attitude and Practice regarding palliative care among nurses at selected hospitals in Bangladesh. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional correlation study was conducted in Patuakhali District hospitals at one Medical College Hospital and six Upazila Health Complex to accomplish the purpose of this study. This study aims to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice towards palliative care among nurses at Hospitals.197 nurses were recruited as a sample from those hospitals. The instrument of this study consists of four parts including 1) a Socio-demographic characteristics, 2) Knowledge related questionnaire, 3) Attitude related questionnaire and 4) Practice related questionnaire toward palliative care for data analysis two-sample t-test, ANOVA and Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient (r) was used to examine the relationship between nurses’ knowledge, attitude and practice score. Result: The response rate was 89.5%. The average age of participants was 39.5 for her and ranged from 20 to 59 for him. 54.3% more men than 45.7% women. As a result, 56% had sufficient knowledge and 88.3% had a positive attitude towards palliative care. Regarding the practice of palliative care, 61.4% answered that they had experience with palliative care. Chi-square showed no significant association between PC and caregiver age, gender, and experience (P value > 0.05). There was a positive correlation between knowledge and attitudes towards palliative care (r = .268, p = 0.00). Conclusion: Based on the results, nurses working in palliative care units are trained in the care of dying patients. As a result, they have more knowledge, initiative and practice than nurses working in other departments. For this reason, training programs for nurses are recommended. Job satisfaction and work environment are highly related to nurses' Palliative care knowledge, attitudes, and practices. Therefore, hospital authorities should strive to create a working environment that is suitable for the care of dying patients. The majority of respondents expressed a positive attitude. Their knowledge and practice were inadequate. Continuing education and in-service training may be required to improve nurses' knowledge and build positive attitudes practice of palliative care.