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. 2022 Nov 1;23(11):3743-3751.
doi: 10.31557/APJCP.2022.23.11.3743.

Caregivers' Knowledge of and Attitude towards Palliative Care in Iran

Leila Khanali-Mojen  1 , Mohammad Esmail Akbari  2 , Hadis Ashrafizadeh  3 , Salman Barasteh  4 , Samira Beiranvand  5 , Azam Eshaghian-Dorcheh  6 , Maryam Karami  7 , Fatemeh Khademi  8 , Eric L Krakauer  9   10 , Azam Shirinabadi Farahani  11 , Maryam Rassouli  2
Affiliations

Caregivers' Knowledge of and Attitude towards Palliative Care in Iran

Leila Khanali-Mojen et al. Asian Pac J Cancer Prev. .

Abstract

Background: Addressing the palliative care needs requires clinicians to have sufficient knowledge of and positive attitudes toward palliative care. The study aimed to determine nurses' and physicians' knowledge of and attitudes towards palliative care in Iran.

Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in 2021 on 493 physicians and nurses, selected through convenience sampling. Three online questionnaires addressing caregivers' demographic and professional's questionnaire, Health Care Providers' Attitude toward PC Questionnaire, and Health Care Providers' Knowledge of PC Questionnaire were used. The data was analyzed in SPSS using correlational and descriptive statistics and regression analysis.

Results: The mean score of attitude towards palliative care was 142.03 ± 11.35 and the mean score of palliative care knowledge, 19.47 ± 2.62. Considering the regression coefficients between these two mean scores (P-value = 0.001, b = 1.304), it can be inferred that knowledge is a good predictor of attitude. In addition, the mean scores of knowledge and attitude have a significant relationship with age, female gender, holding a master's or PhD degree, the need for formal education in the field of palliative care and the need to take a palliative care course.

Conclusions: The present study showed that Iranian nurses and physicians have a moderate level of knowledge and attitude towards palliative care. It is necessary to take measures in order to improve knowledge and attitude by holding retraining courses, theoretical and clinical training sessions and relevant seminars in short term, and also by integrating related topics into nursing and medical curriculums in long term.

Keywords: Attitude; Iran; Knowledge; caregiver; palliative care.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interests.

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