Effect of Palliative Care Program on Nurses Performance and Clinical Outcomes for Hepatocellular Carcinoma Patients

Background: Palliative care has been shown to prolong survival in a number of non-hepatocellular carcinoma malignancies and enhance quality of life. Aim: Evaluate the effect of palliative care program on nurses’ performance and clinical outcomes for hepatocellular carcinoma patients. Design: Quasiexperimental design. Setting: was conducted at Clinical Oncology and Nuclear Medicine Department and University Hospital Oncology at Tanta University Hospital. Subjects: Available nurses (80), and purposive sample of (60) adult patients Tools: Five tools were used for the collection of the necessary data and achieving the aim of the study as follows; Tool (I): A structured Interviewing Questionnaire for Nurses , Tools (II) : Nursing Practices of Palliative Care Observational Check list, Tool (III): A structured Interview Questionnaire for Patients, Tool IV: Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy- for Hepatobiliary cancer patients and Tool V: The Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale. Results: Revealed that there was highly statistically significant positive correlation between total nurses’ practices regarding palliative care for hepatocellular carcinoma patients and total nurses’ knowledge before and after program implementation (r = 0.591, p < 0.001). Conclusion: According to the study's findings, palliative care improves the quality of life for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. Recommendations: Palliative care should be started as soon as the patient is diagnosed.