title: Nurses' knowledge and attitudes on comfort nursing care for hospitalized patients.
abstract: To investigate the knowledge and attitudes of practicing nurses on comfort care for hospitalized patients, a survey was conducted in 311 registered nurses from a major teaching hospital. A total of 212 (68.1%) of the participants showed an adequate knowledge of comfort care. Participants who had 6 years or more working experience returned a higher mean scores on physiological and psychological aspects of comfort care (P < 0.05). The total scores were the highest among participants from intensive care unit and the lowest among participants from the oncology department. Although 282 (90.7%) participants were involved in comfort care, only 210 (67.5%) received formal hospital-based training in this practice. We conclude that there was a large difference in the knowledge between nurses from different departments on comfort care. Continuing education programmes are required to improve the knowledge and skills in comfort care.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Liaocheng People's Hospital and Liaocheng Clinical School of Taishan Medical University, Liaocheng, Shandong, China.
authors.forename: Yan-Fang
authors.initials: YF
authors.lastname: Hou
authors.forename: Ai-Ping
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Ya-Xin
authors.initials: YX
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: Xiao-Ning
authors.initials: XN
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.forename: Ling-Ling
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Le-Xin
authors.initials: LX
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009740:Nursing Staff; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: comfort care; cross-sectional survey; nursing care management; nursing education; patient care