Knowledge and practices of critical care nurses regarding palliative care of cancer patients and suggestion for nursing guidelines booklet

Hassan, Sousan Sayed; Fares, Khaled Mohamed; Mehany, Mogedda Mohamed

doi:10.21608/asnj.2016.60353

Knowledge and practices of critical care nurses regarding palliative care of cancer patients and suggestion for nursing guidelines booklet

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Clinical Nurse Specialist at Dierout Fever Hospital, Egypt.

² Professor of Anesthesia, Intensive Care and Pain Management at Anesthesiology Department South, Cancer Institute Assuit University, Egypt.

³ Lecturer of Critical Care Nursing Department, Faculty of Nursing, Assuit University, Egypt

10.21608/asnj.2016.60353

Abstract

Palliative care is care for patients with serious illness that focuses on relieving suffering and improving quality of life for patients and their families. Aim of the study: assess knowledge and practices of critical care nurses regarding palliative care of cancer patients, and suggest nursing guidelines booklet about palliative care for cancer patients. Sample: The study subjects consist of all available nursing staff (60) at medical intensive care unit (30), surgical intensive care (30) unit. Research design: Descriptive exploratory research design was used to conduct this study. Tools: Two tools were included nurses' structured interview sheet, and nurse observational checklist sheet. Results: the majority of studied nurses (97%) had unsatisfactory knowledge scores regarding palliative care with Mean+SD 21 + 3.2., more than half of studied nurses (63.3%) had unsatisfactory level of practice regarding palliative care with Mean+SD 19.8 + 2.7., there were no statistically significant relation between practices and knowledge. Conclusion: The majority of studied nurses (97%) had unsatisfactory knowledge, as well more than half (63%) of studied nurses had unsatisfactory level of practices regarding palliative care of patients with cancer Recommendations: Enrichment of all nurses about knowledge and practices related to palliative care will be helpful to achieve quality of life, and reading nursing guidelines booklet.

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