Survey on Attitudes and Medical Knowledge at Hospital Palliative Management

Abstract

Introduction: Palliative care is defined as the total active care of patients whose disease is not responsive to curative treatment, therefore this study aims to identify the level of attitudes and knowledge in palliative care hospital with high level of complexity. Materials and methods: Observational, cross-sectional method; using a validated survey. It was self-supplied via web. Per­spective practice, knowledge degree, comfort level, perspective relevance and appropriateness of the respondents (doctors) in palliative care were assessed. General characteristics, reliability and scores per item and domain were described. Results: 145 physicians, mostly males, were surveyed, most of them with 0-5 years of professional practice and working in the emergency department (51.03 %). Appropriate reliability coefficients were found; overall level of attitudes and knowledge of palliative care was 59.09 points out of 100; lowest score domains were the prospects suitabil­ity (40.73 points) and practice (47.04 points). Conclusions: The survey showed moderate to low degrees in attitudes and knowledge, the weakest points were practical perspective and expertise in decision-making. Training aimed at establishing prognosis and improving decision making as to referring to palliative care service must be carried out. Survey results of inspection after train­ing will allow an assessment of the improvements in knowledge and attitudes of palliative care.

Keywords

• Palliative care
• Palliative medicine
• Hospital medical staff
• Interprofessional relations
• Quality of Health care