The relationship between eHealth literacy and palliative care knowledge, attitudes, and practice among nurses: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: The crucial role that nurses play in offering palliative care to patients with life-threatening diseases is widely acknowledged, but the correlation between their eHealth literacy and their knowledge, attitudes, and practice in this domain has yet to be investigated. This study is conducted to investigate the status of eHealth literacy and knowledge, attitudes, and practice regarding palliative care among nurses, and to examine their relationship. METHODS: A cross-sectional study design was conducted among 546 nurses selected from the first-class tertiary hospitals located both inside and outside of Zhejiang Province between May 12 and May 20, 2022. The online survey of eHealth literacy scale (eHEALS) and scale of knowledge, attitudes, and practice (KAP) regarding palliative care was performed using snowball sampling through the WeChat mini program “Questionnaire Star”. The Spearman rank correlation and binary logistic regression model were used to analyze the independent association between eHealth literacy and KAP toward palliative care. RESULTS: The median scores of eHEALS and KAP regarding palliative care were 32 (interquartile range[IQR] 29 to 38) and 82 (IQR 54 to 106) points. The results of correlation analysis showed that the KAP regarding palliative care was significantly correlated with eHEALS (rho = 0.189, P < 0.001). In addition, the results of binary logistic regression analysis demonstrated that the eHEALS score was independently associated with the KAP score regarding palliative care when controlling for sociodemographic factors (OR = 2.109; P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Nurses who worked in first-class tertiary hospitals have good levels of eHealth literacy, while the overall level of KAP regarding palliative care is moderate. Our findings highlight that the eHEALS score is independently associated with the KAP score regarding palliative care. Therefore, nursing managers should adopt multiple measures to comprehensively improve eHealth literacy among nurses, further enrich their knowledge of palliative care, promote a positive transformation of attitudes towards palliative care, and efficiently implement palliative care practice, in order to promote high-quality development of palliative care.