Perspectives on palliative care in Lebanon: knowledge, attitudes, and practices of medical and nursing specialties.

OBJECTIVE: Our objective was to determine the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of physicians and nurses on Palliative Care (PC) in Lebanon, across specialties.

METHOD: We performed a cross-sectional descriptive survey using a self-administered questionnaire; the total number of completed and returned questionnaires was 868, giving a 23% response rate, including 74.31% nurses (645) and 25.69% physicians (223).

RESULTS: Significant differences were found between medical and surgical nurses and physicians concerning their perceptions of patients' and families' outbursts, concerns, and questions. Knowledge scores were statistically associated with practice scores and degree. Practice scores were positively associated with continuing education in PC, exposure to terminally ill patients, and knowledge and attitude scores. Acute critical care and oncology were found to have lower practice scores than other specialties.

SIGNIFICANCE OF RESULTS: Formal education in palliative care and development of palliative care services are very much needed in Lebanon to provide holistic care to terminally ill patients.