Assessment of Knowledge and Attitude towards Palliative Care and Associated Factors among Nurses Working in North Wollo Hospitals

BACKGROUND: Palliative care improves the quality of life of patients facing a life-threatening illness. Nurses should improve their caregiving capacity. In Ethiopia, palliative care is underestimated. The availability of data regarding the knowledge and attitude of nurses towards palliative care is critically important. Thus, this study aimed to assess the level of knowledge and attitude of nurses towards palliative care. METHODS: Institution-based, cross-sectional study was conducted in North Wollo hospitals. A simple random sampling technique was used. The data was collected using structured self-administered questionnaires from February to March 2019. The analysis was done using a binary logistic regression model. P-value < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. RESULTS: The result revealed that 59.7% of the respondents had good knowledge and 44.2% had a favorable attitude towards palliative care. Level of education, experience in caring for chronically ill patients, and experience in caring for dying family members within the last 6 months had a significant association with the knowledge of nurses. Monthly income, experience in caring for chronically ill patients, formal palliative care education, and knowledge were found statistically significant with the attitude of nurses towards palliative care. CONCLUSION: More than half of the nurses had good knowledge, but less than half of the respondents had a favorable attitude towards palliative care. Attention should be given towards palliative care by the health policy and needs to be incorporated into the national curriculum of nursing education.