Evaluation of palliative care knowledge among health care students- A pilot study

Abstract

Palliative care is given much importance in the curriculum of medical and health sciences. Before planning a new design and curriculum development, it is mandatory to test the knowledge and awareness of Occupational therapy students on palliative care. Thus it will help the expert’s panel to enhance the syllabus designing methods appropriate to the student’s knowledge. Without paying much attention to enhance knowledge on palliative care among students might lead to failure in providing quality care. To evaluate the knowledge in palliative care among undergraduate occupational therapy students. The study population included BOT 1ST Year and BOT Final year students and CRI from SRM College OF Occupational therapy, Kattankulathur. After obtaining informed consent signed from the participants, they have been instructed to fill in the questionnaire. The questionnaire has demographic data and 35 questions under nine groups, for which the students were instructed to answer (Yes, No, Don’t know). A detailed instruction was there in the questionnaire to avoid leaving any questions blank. It was found that occupational therapy students were aware of palliative care. Knowledge in palliative care was not precise among occupational therapy students related to healthcare. Hence there is an emerging need to include palliate care in the curriculum for the development of knowledge in palliative care.