Abstract:
Background: Palliative care is a health care specialty that is delivering care to persons with life threatening or debilitating illness from diagnosis till death and then into bereavement care for
the family. Nurses play a major role all over the world in providing palliative care.
Objectives: To assess the knowledge regarding palliative care among undergraduate nurses in
KAATSU International University (KIU), Sri Lanka.
Methodology: A descriptive cross- sectional study was conducted with the participation of 332
undergraduate nurses in KIU (employed as nursing officers in government hospitals), by using
an investigator developed, pre- tested, self- administered questionnaire. Based on the total
maximum marks, for the questionnaire, knowledge level score was divided into two categories
as having good knowledge and poor knowledge. Ethical approval for the study was obtained
from Ethics Review Committee, KIU.
Results: Of the participants, majority (94.9%) was female nurses. Majority (79.2%) was aged
between 20-36 years. Among the undergraduates, 61.8% was in their final academic year. About
69.3% was working in Teaching Hospitals as nursing officers More than one third (35.2%)
reported that they have a professional experience as a nurse for 2-5 years, while 30.1% reported
a professional experience of 6-10 years. However, out of 332 participants, only 8.1% had
received a training regarding palliative care. Majority (60.2%) of the participants had poor
knowledge regarding palliative care, while only 39.8% had a good knowledge. There were
statistically significant associations of knowledge regarding palliative care with gender (p=
0.015), professional experience (p= 0.011) and academic year (p= 0.000).
Conclusions: Most of the undergraduate nurses had poor knowledge regarding palliative care.
Therefore the findings of this study emphasize the importance of conducting palliative care
training programs and including palliative care as a subject for diploma and undergraduate
nursing curriculum to enhance palliative care knowledge among nurses to ensure the provision
of the proper end of life care for the client and family members who are suffering from life threatening conditions
