Impact of Palliative Care Education on Nurses' Knowledge, Attitude and Experience Regarding Care of Chronically Ill Children

Abstract

Palliative care of children is the active total care of the child's body, mind, spirit and also involves giving support to the family. It also begins when illness is diagnosed and continuous regardless of whether or not a child receives treatment directed at the disease. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of palliative care education on nurses' knowledge, attitude and experience regarding care of chronically ill children. Quasi experimental design was conducted for this study. The study was conducted in the pediatric units in Menoufiya University Hospital in pediatric medical ward and ICU unit. Tool of data collection was an interviewing questionnaire sheet which includes Socio-demographic Data;  Nurses' knowledge; Nurses' attitude and Nurses' experience. Results of the study revealed that less than two thirds (63.3%) of nurses have bachelor degree, and none of them caring for dying children in  the past year. Regarding nurses' knowledge less than one third of them (30%) in pretest correctly know the philosophy of palliative care is compatible with that of aggressive treatment compared to 60% in posttest. Also, there were statistically significant difference between pre and posttest relating to nurses' attitude in Length of time required to give care to a dying person would frustrate me.  In relation to nurses' experience, 10% of them in pretest have nursed a dying patient with no resuscitate order compared to 70 % of them in posttest. It was concluded that the majority of studied nurses were bachelor degree and most of them none caring for dying children in the past year. Also there were significant difference in nurses' knowledge  pre/ post intervention regarding care of chronically ill children and highly significant difference in nurses' attitude and practice pre/ post intervention related to care of chronically ill children. It was recommended working within systems to develop programs to link hospital’s end-of-life care programs with the community hospice home care agencies, so that children and their families can return home and receive excellent care. Furthermore, evaluating the future impact of such educational programs can be  accomplished by furthering research to include conducting qualitative research to evaluate if patient care was significantly improved as a result of the educational program used.