Knowledge and Attitude towards Palliative Care among Nursing Students in Imphal West

Abstract

AbstractContext: Palliative care increases comfort by lessening pain, controlling symptoms and lessening stress for thepatient and family.Having adequate knowledge with proper attitude and practice among nurses is crucial toestablish a good palliative care service.Aims: Hence the study has been contemplated which aims at identifying the level of knowledge and attitude ofnursing students.Methods: A self-administered questionnaire containing a validated instrument ‘Palliative care quiz for nursing(PCQN) was use. A stratified two-stage cluster sampling design with a probability proportionate to size wasused. Data was collected from 430 students and entered in IBM SPSS version 21. Results were summarised usingdescriptive statistics. Chi-square test was used to see the significant difference between proportions.Results: Knowledge was inadequate in 60.2% of the nursing students while 82.1% showed favourable attitude.There was significant association between academic year and knowledge for BSc nursing and FHW/ANMstudents. Knowledge was significantly associated with training received and attitudeConclusion: Knowledge was inadequate in three-fifth of the nursing students while majority of them more thanfour-fifth showed favourable attitude. There was significant association between academic year and knowledgefor BSc nursing and FHW/ANM students.Knowledge was significantly associated with training received andattitude.