European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDE REGARDING PALLIATIVE CARE AMONG NURSES IN A TERTIARY HOSPITAL, KATHMANDU

*Saraswati Shrestha, Uma D. Ranjit, Narayani Lamichhane, Mary Pradhan and Shova Shrestha

ABSTRACT

Introduction: The importance of Palliative Care (PC) is increasing day by day that aims to enhance the quality of life of patients with chronic diseases such as Cancer, ESRD, COPD, heart failure etc. The prevalence of chronic non communicable diseases are the main reason for morbidity and mortality in developing countries. There is utmost importance of health care workers to gain knowledge and develop skills in Palliative Care. So, the objectives of this study is to find out knowledge and attitude regarding Palliative Care among the Nurses in, Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, Kathmandu. Method: A descriptive cross- sectional design was adopted among 216 staff nurses by using probability sampling method i.e. simple random sampling at Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital. Data were collected from self-administered structured questionnaire from 2nd to 28thSeptember, 2018. Data analysis was done by SPSS 16 version using descriptive and inferential statistics. Study findings revealed that 99.5% of nurses had adequate knowledge and (97.7%) had favorable attitude. There was significant differences in nurses mean knowledge score with academic qualification (p=0.006), working area (p=0.016), and PC in academic courses (p=0.002) and nurses mean attitude score with academic qualification (p=0.001), special training (p=0.04) and PC in academic courses (p=0.002). Study also found weak positive correlation between knowledge and attitude. Conclusion: Hence, this study concluded that almost all nursing staff has adequate knowledge, favorable attitude regarding palliative care and weak positive correlation between knowledge and attitude. So, continuous education and training might be required to maintain this level.

Keywords: Attitude, Knowledge, Palliative care.