Abstract:
Background: - Palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and
their families facing the problems associated with life-threatening illness, through prevention and
relief of suffering by means of early identification and assessment and treatment of pain and
other problems; physical, psycho-social and spiritual. Since physicians and nurses are pivotal
role players in providing palliative care, identifying their level of knowledge, attitude and
practice is crucial.
Objective: - This study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice towards palliative
care among health care professionals working at Jimma medical center, South-West Ethiopia.
Methods: - Institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 272 health care
professionals working at Jimma medical center from October to November 2022. The study
participants were selected using proportional stratified sampling method and data was collected
using structured self-administrated questionnaire. The data was entered into Epidata manager
version 3.1 and then exported to SPSS version 20 for analysis. Logistic regression analysis was
done to identify covariates associated with the outcome variable. Statistical significance was
considered at a p-value of less than 0.05(95% CI).
Results: - Of the total 294 health care professionals selected, a response rate of 272(92.5%)
registered. Out of the total study participants, 109 (40.1%) had good knowledge and 146 (46.3%)
had favorable attitude towards palliative care. Training on PC, years in practice and type of
health profession were associated with knowledge of health care professionals (AOR=2.75, 95%
CI; 1.14-6.65; P=0.024) and (AOR=6.36 95% CI 2.41-16.79, P<0.001) respectively. Years in
practice showed significant association with attitude towards palliative care (AOR=3.08, 95% CI;
1.76-5.38; P<0.001) and (AOR=3.33 95% CI 1.13-9.79, P=0.026) respectively. Regarding their
practice, 113(41.5%) had good practice towards PC.
Conclusion: - Majority of health care professionals have poor knowledge and practice towards
PC. More than half of the health care professionals have favorable attitude.
Recommendation: - Efforts should be made in designing and providing short and long term
training for health care professionals on palliative care.
