Knowledge Regarding Palliative Care among Undergraduate Nurses in KAATSU International University

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