Nursing Staff’s Perception of Barriers in Providing End-of-Life Care to Terminally Ill Pediatric Patients in Southeast Iran

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To determine pediatric nurses' perceptions of intensity, frequency occurrence, and magnitude score of selected barriers in providing pediatric end-of-life (EOL) care. METHOD: A translated modified version of National Survey of critical care Nurses' s Regarding End-of-Life Care questionnaire was used to assess 151 nurses' perceptions of intensity and frequency occurrence of barriers in caring for dying children. RESULTS: The highest/lowest perceived barriers magnitude scores were "families not accepting poor child prognosis" (5.04) and "continuing to provide advanced treatment to dying child because of financial benefits to the hospital" (2.19). CONCLUSION: More high perceived barriers by nurses were family-related issues. One of the possible causes of such deficiencies was lack of palliative care (PC) education/PC units in Iran. Thus, developing EOL/PC education may enhance nurses' knowledge/skill to face EOL care challenges.