Knowledge, attitude and practice towards palliative care Among health care professionals working at jimma medical Center, south-west Ethiopia

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.