Impact of an educational intervention on cancer palliative care among nurses

Abstract

Objectives: To evaluate the impact of an educational intervention on the knowledge of nurses providing palliative care (PC)

Methods: Nurses were selected from the medical and surgical oncology units of National Institute of Cancer Maharagama (NICM) (n=38) and Teaching Hospital Karapitiya (THK) (n=37) using convenient sampling technique as the intervention and control groups respectively. An educational intervention was prepared including printed material and DVD on cancer PC. The duration of the intervention was eight weeks. Pre and post intervention assessment of knowledge was done on intervention and control group. Ethical approval was obtained from the ethical review committee of the Faculty of Medical Sciences. Independent t-test and ANOVA were applied to determine significant differences (p>0.05).

Results: The age, educational qualifications and the professional experience was similar in the two groups. Pre intervention knowledge was similar in the intervention (28.61±6.66) and the control (28.73± 5.31) groups. However, the knowledge of intervention group improved significantly immediately after the intervention (47.00±3.93). Further when assessing knowledge of nurses 12 weeks after the intervention, there was a significant improvement in knowledge of intervention group (50.36±3.97) when compared to control group (28.23±4.88). When comparing the pre-intervention knowledge of intervention group (28.61±6.66) the post intervention (12th week) knowledge was significantly higher (50.36±3.97).

Conclusions: The educational intervention for nurses on cancer palliative care was effective in improving knowledge.