Factors Related to Nurses and Physicians’ Knowledge of and Attitudes Towards Palliative Care

Abstract

Background With the increase of the elderly population, the need for palliative care has increased, which is one of the requirements of effective palliative care services, sufficient knowledge and positive attitude of nurses and physicians towards this care approach. The aim of this study was to determine the factors related to the knowledge and attitudes of nurses and physicians about palliative care. Methods This descriptive correlational study was performed in 2021 on 277 nurses and physicians working in selected teaching hospitals in Iran who were selected by convenience sampling method. The data collection tool was an online and researcher-made questionnaire consisting of three sections: demographics and occupation, knowledge (30 items) and attitude (37 items) that were designed and validated in the present study. To analyze the data, spss-v24 software was used for descriptive statistics tests (means and frequency tables) and inferential tests (correlation and univariate regression). Results The mean scores of knowledge and attitude of care providers were 19.36 ± 2.73 and 140.90 11 11.56, respectively. There was a positive relationship between knowledge and attitude variables (P-value = 0.000, r = 0.378). Meaning of relationship between the mean score of attitude and knowledge with age ranges of 31-60 and 60-51 years, level of education, workplace, work experience in palliative care, need for formal education in palliative care and need to pass palliative care course there was. Conclusion Based on the results of this study, the level of knowledge and attitude of palliative care providers was moderate. Therefore, in order to further promote the knowledge and attitude of nurses and physicians, it is recommended to hold theoretical and practical training courses in the form of skill and retraining courses, reviewing the curricula of general medicine and bachelor's degree in nursing.

Caregivers’ Knowledge of and Attitude towards Palliative Care in Iran

“…The results of the studies conducted in Iran show that nurses and nursing students do not have a positive attitude towards care provision for dying patients (Iranmanesh et al, 2009;Ashrafizadeh et al, 2022), and oncology and ICU nurses (Razban F, 2015a) as well as home care nurses have also a negative attitude towards PC (Dehghannezhad J, 2021). Studies have shown that nurses with a negative attitude towards PC avoid dealing with dying patients and transfer their fears, hopelessness and frustrations to the patient and his/her family.…”