Self-confidence of registered nurses and physicians in the delivery of palliative care
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14528/snr.2014.48.4.37Keywords:
knowledge, palliative care, communication, responses, cross-sectional researchAbstract
Introduction: Health care professionals are confronted with several difficult and unpleasant situations in palliative care where they are expected to relieve pain, provide various services to patients and offer support to family members. The aim of this study was to evaluate self-confidence of health care staff in the delivery of palliative care. Methods: A non-experimental quantitative research included registered nurses and physicians from the primary and secondary health care from Carinthia region in the northern Slovenia (n = 100). A purposive non-random sampling was applied. Data gathered by structured questionnaire was statistically analysed by SPSS ver. 20.0. The reliability of the instrument measuring two domains of palliative care was appropriate (Cronbach’s alpha 0.781 and 0.914). Results: Health care professionals gained experience in palliative care mainly during clinical practice (50.0 %) and evaluated their knowledge as only satisfactory (53.0 %). Their ability to adequately respond to health care problems, to advise and communicate with patients was assessed in mean values from 2.7 to 3.2., which leads to a conclusion that most of the care providers were able to solve palliative care problems autonomously. Primary health care professionals were more confident in discussing the choice of palliative care environment with patients and family members. Discussion and conclusion: The health care professionals did not feel particularly disturbed or embarrassed when confronted with the patients’ end-of-life questions. Future research should focus on specific distressing situations in palliative care and provide guidelines for management of advanced illness.Downloads
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