title: Development of a Needs Scale for Nurses Receiving In-Service Palliative Care Education.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Nurses play pivotal roles on palliative care teams and are able to spend more time with patients and their families than are other healthcare professionals. As a consequence, assessing the needs for palliative care education in connection with in-service classes for nurses is clearly extremely important and can help in the planning of appropriate palliative care classes to enhance the quality of care.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The goals of this study were to investigate the content needs of nurses with regard to a palliative care in-service education program and to perform exploratory factor analysis on those needs.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study used a cross-sectional questionnaire survey. A total of 614 questionnaires were distributed, and 600 valid questionnaires were returned (97.72%). Data analysis was performed by means of descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, factor analysis, and Pearson correlation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The 6 factors discovered by exploratory factor analysis were handling of pain and symptoms, ethical issues concerning terminal patients, hospice preparation and care, the concept of palliative care, communication and counseling, and cultural and spiritual factors, which together explained 77.22% of the variance.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results of this study shed light on the program needs for in-service education about palliative care and the 6 factors most associated with those needs.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In order to realize the whole-person concept of care, future efforts should target the planning of palliative care in-service education programs, strengthening of nurse training, coordination of administrative resources, and interteam cooperation.
authors.affiliation: Author Affiliations: Chang Gung Medical Foundation, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital at LinKou, Kweishan, Taoyuan (Ms Chang); Graduate Institute of Health Allied Education, National Taipei University of Nursing and Health Sciences, Beitou (Dr Hsu); Department of Nursing, Chang Gung University of Science and Technology, Kweishan, Taoyuan (Dr Hsieh); and Nursing Department, Chang Gung Medical Foundation, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital at LinKou, Kweishan, Taoyuan (Ms Chu and Mr Yu), Taiwan.
authors.forename: Hui-Ju
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: Li-Ling
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Hsu
authors.forename: Suh-Ing
authors.initials: SI
authors.lastname: Hsieh
authors.forename: Tsung-Lan
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Chu
authors.forename: Wen-Pin
authors.initials: WP
authors.lastname: Yu
mesh_terms: D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004506:Education, Nursing; D006801:Humans; D007318:Inservice Training; D020380:Needs Assessment; D010166:Palliative Care; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires