Abstract

Background:


Hospice care is an emerging area of medical care for chronically ill patients. Globally, the need for providing appropriate quality health care services at the end of life is evolving, largely due to advance medical science and


technology. The World Health Organization (WHO) has recognized palliative care as a global public health concern. This has led to planning and delivering of hospice care for patients in their final stages of life. This study


investigated the knowledge and perception of health professionals in two urban tertiary teaching hospital in the south-south zone of Nigeria towards hospice care.


Materials and Methods:


The study was a cross-sectional questionnaire-based study. The data collected was coded and analyzed using SPSS version 22. A total of 250 respondents were included in the study and only 220 questionnaires were retrieved


(retrieval rate 88.7%).


Results:


The findings of the study revealed that 82 (63.07%) nurses, 33 (73.33%) doctors and 28 (62.22%) pharmacists understood the term hospice care while 82 (63.08%) nurses, 31 (68.89%) doctors and 31(68.89%) pharmacists


perceived hospice care as beneficial to the patient and family during the course of the patient’s illness and death.


Conclusion:


These findings show that there is fair knowledge and perception of healthcare professionals on hospice care.


Recommendation:


The researchers therefore recommend further research with more settings to spread the knowledge and acceptance of hospice care to all health workers in Nigeria for the benefit of terminally ill patients and advocate interventions


to improve their services.


Keywords: Health professionals, Knowledge, Hospice, Hospice care, Perception