(340) Nurses’ knowledge of Palliative Care

Background: Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is a life limiting disease; medical advances have led to dramatically improved survival. With increased life expectancy, CF patients must cope with an increase chronic burden of symptoms and treatments, including distressing symptoms such as pain, dyspnea, cough, fatigue, insomnia, nausea, depression, and anxiety. Palliative care (PC) focuses on improving quality of life (QOL) by relieving suffering at all stages of the disease [1]. Lack of knowledge of PC among care providers is one of the most common barriers to quality PC [2]. The purpose of this project was to increase nurses comfort level in evaluating and treating distressing symptoms, integrating advance care planning (ACP) and referring to PC when needed.

Methods: University of Cincinnati Holmes’ building outpatient pulmonary nurses received a 45 minutes PC education session, based on current evidence and literature, during their February staff meeting. A pre-test was be provided to nurses prior to the intervention and a posttest occurred 4 weeks post intervention. The test contained 13 true or false questions that covered symptom management, PC philosophy and advance care planning. Nurses also received a two pre and post-test Likert scale questions. These questions assessed their comfort level in regard to discussing goals of care and taking care of the dying CF patient.

Results: Descriptive analysis indicated the average nurses correctly answered 85% of items on pretest and correctly answered 92% on posttest. Prior to intervention, data indicated a 75% comfort level with addressing GOC, which improved to 87% post intervention. Prior to intervention, data indicated an 81% comfort level with caring for a dying patient, which improved to 87% post intervention.

Conclusions: The education intervention has the potential to reduce physical and emotional suffering, improve QOL, and aid in complex medical decision for adults with CF. Findings showed an increase level of knowledge and comfort level regarding PC in CF patients after a onetime 45-minute educational intervention. This project has the potential to develop a standardized education plan and knowledge tool specifically for CF nurses. This intervention should be done on annual basis.

Acknowledgements: Leadership and Education Advance Practice Providers CF Fellowship Program [CFF ODER21C2 – 001690C320 LEAPP CF]

References: [1]Linnemann, R. W., O'Malley, P. J., Friedman, D., Georgiopoulos, A. M., Buxton, D., Altstein, L. L., Sicilian, L., Lapey, A., Sawicki, G. S., & Moskowitz, S. M. (2016). Development and evaluation of a palliative care curriculum for Cystic Fibrosis Healthcare Providers. Journal of Cystic Fibrosis, 15(1), 90–95. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcf.2015.03.005

[2] Nakazawa, Y., Miyashita, M., Morita, T., Umeda, M., Oyagi, Y., & Ogasawara, T. (2009). The palliative care knowledge test: Reliability and validity of an instrument to measure palliative care knowledge among health professionals. Palliative Medicine, 23(8), 754–766. https://doi.org/10.1177/0269216309106871