Enhancing awareness and efficacy of palliative care consultation through educational intervention among healthcare professionals in a tertiary hospital: A promotional education study.

초록

Background: Palliative Care Consultation (PCC) has demonstrated efficacy in augmenting patient quality of life, diminishing hospitalization durations, lowering medical costs, and improving survival outcomes. Despite its benefits, there still remains low awareness of PCC in Korea, with healthcare professionals (HPs) treating terminal cancer patients often lacking knowledge about it. Thus, we aimed to assess the awareness of PCC among HPs in a tertiary hospital, subsequently implementing targeted educational interventions to ascertain their impact through a survey. Methods: Face-to-face instructional session focusing on PCC was administered to HPs by palliative care professional. The datasets from pre- and post- education questionnaires of a cohort comparing 120 participants were subjected to analysis. Utilizing t-test, we evaluated the statistical significance of score variations observed before and subsequent to the educational intervention. Results: Within the participants, 61.7% of the HPs reported having experience with PCC. Preliminary survey results indicated that 11.8% were “Completely unaware” of PCC, while 37.8% possessed “unaware”. The mean scores demonstrated an improvement in knowledge of PCC from 18.04 pre-education to 19.84 post-education. (P=0.003). Conclusions: Through promotional education, an enhancement in knowledge levels regarding PCC was observed. Emphasizing sustained concern in CPC is essential to ensure that palliative care recipients receive appropriate care at the optimal time.