Abstract:
Background: Palliative care (PC) consist of providing, comfort, support and quality of life
to patients who are living with life threatening diseases. Each year there is forty million
people who need palliative care.
Objectives: To assess knowledge, skills and attitudes of palliative care among student
nurses in School of Nursing (SON), Colombo.
Methodology: The study was a descriptive cross-sectional study, conducted in the SON
Colombo. Self-administered validated and pre-tested questionnaire was used to collect data
from a convenient sample (n=137) of third year nursing students. It was prepared by the
researcher according to the literature search and face validity of the questionnaire was done
by subject experts. Sample calculation was done according to the Raosoft online sample size
calculation method. Descriptive analysis was performed using Statistical Package for Social
Sciences (SPSS) version 20. Ethical clearance was obtained by the International Institute of
Health Sciences (IIHS).
Results and conclusions: Majority of the participants were female (96%). 100% of
participants were Sinhalese. Mean age 23 yrs – 25 yrs (71%). According to the findings
most (72.8 %) of the student nurses had satisfactory level of knowledge, 20.4% have good
knowledge level and 6.8% have not heard about palliative care. Among the participants
50% had favorable attitudes and 50% had unfavorable attitudes about palliative care. When
considering the practice of palliative care, 90.15% had experienced in terminal ill patient
care, 64.12% had not discussed about the death of the patient, 79.41% felt uncomfortable
when discussing about death, 97% had never experienced on PC practice. According to the
finding of the study, more learning hours of palliative care should be added to the Diploma
in nursing curriculum.
