Assessment of nurses' knowledge and practices in delivering palliative care for oncology patients

Background: Palliative care is a cornerstone of comprehensive oncology management, requiring a multidimensional approach to manage physical, psychological, social, and spiritual needs. The level of nurses' knowledge and practice concerning palliative care significantly influences on effectiveness of care provided to patients. Aim: To identify nurses' knowledge and practices in delivering palliative care for oncology patients. Design: Descriptive research design. Sample: A selected sample of (120) accessible nurses. Setting: The study was performed in Aswan Oncology Institute, Egypt. Tools: Tool I: A structured interview questionnaire for nurses to evaluate nurses’ knowledge concerned to palliative care and divided into two parts, part 1: Demographic characteristics of the studied nurses and part 2: A questionnaire designed to evaluate nurses' knowledge of palliative care: Tool II: Nurses' observational checklist to evaluate nurses’ practices concerned to palliative care and divided into two parts: part 1, nurses' practices regarding common physical symptoms of cancer; part 2, nurses' practices concerning psychological symptoms of cancer; and part 3, nurses' practices concerning spiritual symptoms of cancer. Results: The analysis of the study concluded that 51.8% of the participating nurses demonstrated an unsatisfactory level of knowledge, while 39.3% exhibited an incompetent level of practice. Conclusion: The study identified an unsatisfactory level of knowledge and practice related to palliative care among the participating nurses. Additionally, a positive correlation was observed between the nurses' overall knowledge and their practical performance. Recommendation: Provide regular continuing education programs to improve nurses’ performance concerning to palliative care.Keywords: Knowledge, Nurses, Oncology patients, Palliative care, Practice.