What Is the Knowledge of Pediatric Nursing Staff About Palliative Care? A Cross-Sectional Greek Study

Pediatric Palliative Care is a field that demands specific knowledge and skills.

The purpose of the study was to explore the knowledge of pediatric nursing staff concerning palliative care.

In this multicenter, cross-sectional descriptive study, we used convenience sampling, consisting of 115 nursing staff who worked in general pediatric, pediatric oncology, pediatric surgery units, and Pediatric and Neonatal Intensive Care Units of the three biggest hospitals of Thessaloniki (Greece's second-largest city). The research tools included the demographic and working data of the participants and the Palliative Care Quiz for Nursing. The statistical package SPSS 26.0 was used, and the significance level was set at 0.05.

The mean age of the participants was 43.1 ± 10.0 years, the majority (96.5%) were women and 82.6% of them were registered nurses. The total score mean value of correct answers was 7.4 ± 2,6. It was found that the total score of correct answers was associated with the participants' previous training on palliative care (p = 0,033) and the consideration that they applied palliative care in their clinical practice (p = 0.005). On the contrary, no relationship was found between the total score of knowledge and the demographic characteristics of the participants.

The knowledge of the pediatric nursing staff concerning palliative care is inadequate. Training programs concerning palliative care could improve health professional's level of knowledge as well as the quality of the provided care.