Assessment of Caregiver’s knowledge, Attitude, and Practice Regarding Palliative Care for Cancer Patients undergoing Chemotherapy in Port Said City

Background: Addressing palliative care needs requires caregivers to have sufficient knowledge of positive attitudes and reported practice toward palliative care. Aimed Assess of caregivers' knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding palliative care for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy in Port Said City. Subjects and Method: Design: A descriptive design was utilized. Setting: This study was conducted at Al-Shifa Medical Complex at Port Said. Subject: A convenient sample of 155 caregivers attending with their cancer patients. Tools: Data were collected by using four Tools, Tool I: Caregiver questionnaire. A: Socio demographic characteristics of patient's cancer and cancer patients' caregivers. B: Medical history of patients Tool II – Caregiver Knowledge questionnaire to as caregiver knowledge about cancer and palliative care. Tool III: Attitude scale to assess attitude about palliative care. Tool IV – Reported practice about palliative care. The Results: Total knowledge regarding cancer of caregivers, Poor knowledge (<50%) was 34.8%, Average knowledge (50-75%) was 65.2%. The total level of knowledge regarding palliative care of caregivers (Poor <50%) was 61.3 % Average (50-75%) 36.1% Good (>75%) was 2.6 %.Conclusion: Total knowledge, attitudes, and practice of palliative care were low and there was a statistically significant strong positive correlation between total caregiver's knowledge of palliative care score and their total caregiver's practices and attitude and there was a statistically significant strong positive correlation between total caregiver's attitudes and practices. Recommendations: Designing and applying regular health education programs of palliative care for caregivers undergoing chemotherapy.