The Practice of Palliative Care amongst Nurses in Selected Hospitals in Eastern Nigeria

In recent times, palliative care nursing has caught the attention of nurse researchers in Africa as more individuals are being diagnosed with chronic diseases of the aged like cancer, cardiac and cerebrovascular conditions. This study examined the influence of knowledge and attitude on the practice of palliative care among practicing nurses in eastern part of Nigeria. A descriptive cross-sectional research design was used for the study. The population of the study is all registered, licensed and practicing nurses working in the named public and private hospitals where palliative care is supposedly well established. Proportionate sampling technique was used to select 289 respondents. Three commercial instruments that were modified were used for data collection. Level of significance was set at 5%. The study was conducted from October 2018 to June 2019. Results revealed that 52.7% of the respondents had satisfactory practice of palliative care, 73.7% of the respondents had adequate knowledge of palliative care (mean 2.64 (1.06) and 77.5% of the respondents had positive attitude towards palliative care (Mean 2.81 (1.14)). There was also a significant weak positive association between nurses’ educational level and their knowledge of palliative care with an effect size of 21.9% (P = 0.003). There was also a significant association between nurses’ years of experience and their attitude to palliative care with an effect size of 35.6% (P < 0.001). There was no significant association between type of hospital facility nurses work in and their practice of palliative care (P = 0.343). Recommendations were made on how to improve the practice of palliative care among professional nurses.