Attitudes of nurses in palliative care – A Sri Lankan study

Abstract

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: Care of terminally ill patients and their families by health care workers (HCW) is variable from person to person. The quality of care is influenced by attitudes that the provider holds towards the concept of palliation. There is no formal education or training of HCW in Sri Lanka. This study aimed to determine the attitudes of nurses towards the dying process of a patient in the context of palliative care. METHOD: Nurses working in general medical and surgical wards and critical care units at the Colombo North Teaching Hospital, Ragama were assessed with the Frommelt Attitudes Towards Care of the Dying (FATCOD) scale (a 30 item, 5 point Likert Scale) using a self administered questionnaire. A total of 105 volunteers (general ward – 53, critical care- 52) participated in this study. RESULTS: The total FATCOD score for nurses in general wards was 107.51 (+/- 12.3) while it was 110.64 (+/-15.4) for critical care nurses (range 30-150). The mean FATCOD score for nurses in general wards was 3.58 (+/- 0.49) while nurses in critical care units achieved 3.68 (+/- 0.52). There were no significant differences of the mean scores with regards to nursing grade or duration of service (p<0.05). Scores related to communication between nurses and patients/carers were observed to be low along with the score on family interference in patient care. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study demonstrate lower scores in all questions when compared to studies done in developed countries. The importance of developing strategies to improve delivery of palliative care services is paramount.