Self-Perceived Attitudes Toward End-of-Life Care among Nurses Working in Acute Hospital in Kenya

Background: Despite of the fact that nurses play a key role in caring for dying patients, nurses describe themselves as lacking confidence in providing care for the dying.

Aim: This study sought to assess nurses’ perceived attitudes toward end-of-life nursing care. Further, the study aimed to assess whether a relationship exists between work setting and nurses’ attitudes toward end-of-life nursing care.

Methods: Descriptive cross-sectional survey research design was utilized in this study. The data were collected from eight units in an acute hospital using a self-administrative questionnaire. A simple random sample consisted of 191 nurses and 173 nurses responded. Internal consistency among the questionnaire items was 0.94 Cronbach’s alpha (α).

Findings: The attitudes of Kenyan nurses toward caring for dying patients had deficiencies than the reported attitudes of nurses in other studies. A relationship was found between work setting and attitudes toward end-of-life nursing care. Most of the nurses who worked in the palliative care department (75%), and half of those who worked in the high dependence unit and oncology clinic reported favorable attitudes toward end-of-life nursing care. Majority of nurses reported that they had not received education on end-of-life nursing care. 

Conclusion: The deficiencies in attitudes observed in this study may have occurred as a result of lack of education on end-of-life nursing care. The study highlights the need for development of end-of-life nursing care educational programmes in Kenya in both academic and clinical settings to facilitate nurses’ understanding of their attitudes toward end-of-life nursing care. This is especially so because attitudes are learned.