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KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE TOWARDS PROVISION OF PEDIATRIC PALLIATIVE CARE AMONG HEALTH WORKERS AT WHISPER’S MAGICAL CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL, JINJA DISTRICT
In Uganda pediatric palliative care has been ignored with less than 5% of patients at Hospice Uganda being children. This has been attributed to knowledge deficiency and negative attitudes among health workers. The purpose of the study was to assess the Knowledge, Attitude and Practices towards provision of pediatric palliative care (PPC) among health workers at Whisper magical children’s hospital, Jinja District. The study was carried out at Whisper magical children’s hospital and employed a descriptive cross-sectional design. A total of 30 health workers were selected using a simple random sampling method to collect data which was analyzed using Microsoft excel program 2013. The findings of the study showed that, 17(56.7%) were female, 19(63.3%) were nurses and 20(66.7%) had worked for 6 – 10 years. All respondents 30(100%) had heard of PPC, 28(93.3%) knew cancer as disease requiring PPC, 29(96.7%) knew pain management as a component of PPC and 23(76.7%) knew face scale as method used to assess pain in children. Attitudes of participants revealed that, 28(93.3%) strongly agreed that PPC is important, 17(56.7%) disagreed that parents should be present during very painful procedures and 11(36.7%) agreed that EOL should be offered in PPC. It was found out that 11(64.7%) rarely offered PPC and 14(82.4%) offered PPC towards death. In conclusion, the study revealed that health care workers have adequate knowledge and positive attitude yet unsatisfactory practices regarding PPC. It is therefore recommended that stake holders should join hands to enhance implementation of PPC services.
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