Knowledge, attitudes, practices of cancer palliative care and their associated factors among nursing officers in Apeksha Hospital, Maharagama

Abstract

Introduction: Nursing officers, having a good knowledge, favourable attitudes, and correct practices in cancer palliative care uplift patient’s quality of life. Objectives: To describe the level of knowledge, attitudes, practices of cancer palliative care and associated factors among the nursing officers in Apeksha Hospital, Maharagama. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out among 252 participants with more than one year of work experience at Apeksha Hospital, Maharagama. Stratified sampling technique was adopted to select the nursing officers from different wards. Data were collected using a validated self-administered questionnaire. Sum of points of each participant and the percentage was calculated. Depending on the mean score they were categorized into groups accordingly. Data were analysed initially by a descriptive analysis and then by Chi square test using SPSS software version 26. P<0.05 was the significance level. Results: Response rate was 70. %. The mean age of the study participants was 32.9 (SD=6.55) years. The majority (59.5%) had good knowledge, 53.2% had favourable attitudes and 54% engaged in correct practices. Mean knowledge score was 26.4 (SD=3.44). Nurses above 30 years of age, married and having more than 10 years’ experience had significant association with knowledge (p<0.05). Most of the participants who had good knowledge had correct practices (p<0.001). Most of the participants those who had favourable attitude had correct practices (p<0.001). Association of level of knowledge and attitude was not found to be statistically significant (p=0.109). Conclusion: The majority of the nurses had a good knowledge, favourable attitudes and were engaged in correct practices in palliative care. There is a significant association between the year of experience and the nurses’ knowledge on palliative care. Having a good knowledge and favourable attitude on palliative care were positive factors for correct practices.
Keywords: Knowledge, Attitude, Practices, Cancer palliative care, Nurses