Prem, V., Krvannan, H., Kumar, S. P., Karthikbabu, S., Syeed, N., Sisodia, V., & Jaykumar, S. (2012). Study of Nurses’ Knowledge about Palliative Care: A Quantitative Cross-sectional Survey. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3477365/
Past studies have always been showing that nurses working in palliative care have got limited knowledge about they are supposed to be do in such settings. As such, this study was done to establish the knowledge levels that nurses working in this unit of healthcare have (Prem et al., 2012). To achieve this objective, the Palliative Care Knowledge Kit (PCKT) was used in the assessment process.
Data collection was mainly focused on staff nurses working in palliative care units. The sample size was 363 participants drawn from the palliative care unit. Questionnaires were used to collect the data. The questions on the questionnaire had about 20 items which required the participants to provide answers to whether they were correct, incorrect or unsure. The questionnaires were subdivided into subsections that required the participants to give their responses concerning the philosophy of care, pain, dyspnea, psychiatric problems and gastrointestinal problems (Prem et al., 2012).
This method of data collection was the appropriate one for this kind of study since the questions contained in the questionnaire served to collect the pertinent information concerning what the scope of the palliative nursing care is supposed to entail. Therefore, this method was suitable for this study.
The usage of questionnaires as the sources of data collection for this study is both valid and reliable. The validity of the measure comes from the fact that the degree to which the results of the study were done was as a result of the experiment carried out. Additionally, the usage of the PCKT tool reduces the aspect of generalisability (Prem et al., 2012). The measures are also reliable since the tests done can be repeated over time without losing the intended objective of the study. Therefore, the aspect of consistency and homogeneity of the expected results is upheld in this situation.
The statistical tests done for this study included making comparisons and carrying out correlation analyses. Comparisons were done for individual and professional variables for the study using ANOVA specifically focusing on the Bonferonni test. Correlation analysis was done by the application of the Karl-Pearson’s coefficient by using SPSS software version 11.5(Prem et al., 2012).
These two methods were appropriate for the study in the sense that by comparing the responses of the participants in the study concerning palliative care, it would be easy to establish their competence in the care department they work. In the same line, correlation analyses are meant to ascertain the connection between the dependent and independent variables which in this case are the palliative care (dependent variable) and the core principles that define palliative care which are the independent variables.
The overall PCKT tool result showed that the participants had a score of 7.16 representing 35.8% of the expected result. As such, the implication that this study has on the field of palliative care is that indeed care providers in this healthcare section are not adequately prepared to serve this purpose. Therefore, this study agrees with past researches done that palliative care nurses are not well versed with the services they are supposed to provide (Prem et al., 2012).
This study has established the inadequacies that affect the palliative care unit. The nurses taking care of patients in this unit are not well acquainted with what their job is supposed to entail. As such, there is the need to review the nursing education, provide enough curriculum materials for pain management and generally, nurses to expand their knowledge on pain management and palliative care. These efforts are directed at improving service delivery and caregiving in the palliative care unit.
Reference
Prem, V., Krvannan, H., Kumar, S. P., Karthikbabu, S., Syeed, N., Sisodia, V., & Jaykumar, S. (2012). Study of Nurses’ Knowledge about Palliative Care: A Quantitative Cross-sectional Survey. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3477365/
