Nurses Perception towards the Care of Patients with Terminal Illness in University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu State, Nigeria

Background: Part of becoming a good nurse is being able to understand one’s own perception of death and dying, which can affect the quality of care a patient with terminal illness will receive. This study was carried out to assess the nurses perception towards the care of patients with terminal illness in University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu State, Nigeria Part of becoming a good nurse is being able to understand one’s own perception of death and dying, which can affect the quality of care a dying patient will receive.

Methods: A descriptive survey method was used, and the population of 284 nurses was used, the instrument used for data collection was questionnaire and checklist developed based on the objectives of the study. The data collected were analyzed and presented using descriptive statistics of frequency and percentages.

Results: The result of the study revealed that Nurses at UNTH have a positive perception of deaths with the most prevalent nurses perception being death is the cessation of all life processes (100%), In caring for the dying patients; 97.6% agreed that it is a good thing to care for the dying, 98% agreed that the rights of the patients should be protected even till death, 97.3% nurses should aim at achieving a peaceful death in all patients at the end of life and 97.6% agreed that it is good to involve the family members in the care of the dying patient. The study revealed religion (65.8%), belief (84.6%), previous experience with a dying patient (79.1%) and loss of a loved one (79.4%) as personal factors which influenced the perception of nurses towards the care of the dying. Furthermore, 78.7% and 72.8% of the respondents identified Euthanasia and Advance directive as legal and ethical factors influencing the care of the dying (x-0.728 with a p-value of 0.502).Also, in examining the relationship between nurses perception of death and their years of experience the result showed that the years of experience did not significantly influence nurses care of the dying (x=4.653, with a p-value of 0.166).

Conclusion: It is however recommended that basic knowledge and continuing educational program on palliative care should be made available for student nurses and practicing nurses respectively.