By Umobi Chima P.
Cancer is a global health problem, a leading cause of death and a major burden of disease worldwide. The burden of Cancer in Nigeria is appreciable. In response to the unmet needs of patients with life threatening illness such as cancer, palliative care emerged. This study investigates the nurses’ knowledge and practice of palliative care and associated factors for management of cancer patients in selected hospitals in Anambra State, Nigeria. A survey design was employed; the target population was 556 nurses working at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Teaching Hospital Nnewi and Anambra State University Teaching Hospital Amaku Awka from which sample size of 251 was determined. A validated questionnaire with two-third of its item developed by the researcher and the remaining one-third adapted from standard instrument Palliative Care Quiz for Nurses (PCQN) was used for data collection. Data collected were analysed using frequencies, percentages and mean. The hypotheses were tested using Chi-square and t-test. Major findings showed that nurses’ knowledge of palliative was generally poor, 71.8% were not knowledgeable in both institutions especially on the area of pain in PC practice. Nurses’ practice of palliative care was equally poor in both institutions with mean of means score < cut-off mean of 2.50. Only 2(2.5%) of the participants had ever attended seminar/workshop on palliative care and there was no known policy on palliative care existing in the institutions studied.