Knowledge and Attitude Towards Palliative Care Among Clinical Undergraduate Students of Physiotherapy in Nigerian Universities: A Cross-Sectional Study

Introduction Palliative care demands a special skill from health care providers which begins with the right attitude and adequate knowledge during training. Little is known about knowledge and attitude of physiotherapy undergraduates towards palliative care. Objective of this study was to assess knowledge and attitude of clinical undergraduates of physiotherapy in Nigerian universities towards palliative care. Method This was a cross sectional survey involving 281 (132 females and 149 males) clinical physiotherapy undergraduates from 10 purposively selected universities across Nigeria. Palliative care knowledge was assessed with a structured questionnaire while attitude was assessed using FROMMELT attitude towards care of the dying scale. Both questionnaires were administered online via Google forms. Socio-demographic data of each respondent was also collected. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Level of significance was set at p<0.05. Results Majority of respondents were males (53%) aged 21-25 years (87.9%) from Obafemi Awolowo University (40.3%) and had above average knowledge (62%). Almost all, (99.6%) of the respondents displayed favourable attitude. There were significant associations between knowledge and university of respondents (p=0.001), attitude and age of respondents (p=0.003), as well as attitude and geopolitical zone of origin of respondents (p=0.006). There was significant correlation between knowledge and attitude of respondents (r =0.441, p =0.001). Conclusion There are knowledge gaps, but positive attitudes towards palliative care among clinical physiotherapy undergraduates in Nigeria. This signifies an essential and urgent need for inclusion, reform or improvement in palliative care education in the curriculum of undergraduate physiotherapy training in Nigerian universities.