A Scoping Review on Palliative Care: Knowledge and Attitude of Nurses

Abstract

Background: Palliative care is an essential aspect of care for advanced life-threatening illnesses. It involves holistic care that helps improve the quality of life for chronically ill patients. Palliative care is not meant to cure disease. Instead, it focuses on alleviating the burden of symptoms, easing the discomfort and stress that accompanies living with a life-threatening disease. The attitudes and knowledge of nurses play a vital role in the delivery of palliative care. Nurses should have a positive attitude and a good knowledge of palliative care. This review aims to identify, synthesize, and appraise the relevant evidence on nurses’ level of knowledge and attitude toward palliative care and factors associated with such knowledge and attitude. Methods: A literature search was conducted using several databases: CINAHL, PubMed, MEDLINE, and ScienceDirect. The search was limited to publications written in English between 2016 and 2020 using the search terms “nurses’ knowledge,” or / and “attitude” AND “palliative care.” Results: 12 studies were identified, analyzed, and synthesized in this review. All studies were quantitative, cross sectional. The finding demonstrates a general lack of sufficient knowledge on palliative care among nurses; however, nurses’ attitudes toward palliative care were positive. Factors found to affect nurse’s knowledge and attitude regarding palliative care included age, educational level, years of experience, and education/training in palliative care. Conclusion: This review demonstrates a gap on nursing knowledge about palliative care. Nurses have inadequate knowledge of palliative care, suggesting a need for increased attention to this subject. It is necessary to Incorporate palliative care education/ training in nursing curricula and establish regular/continuous professional education courses on palliative care by the national health policies. In contrast to the negative findings regarding knowledge, nurses’ attitudes towards palliative care were favorable. The need to implement strategies to improve knowledge as well as attitudes is necessary. Therefore, further research is required to develop interventions that improve knowledge and attitudes toward palliative care among nurses.