The relationship between quality of care and Attitude of Nurses toward quality of end‐of‐life care for Elderly with Cancer

Nurses are involved in providing end of life care to older adults with cancer. Considering changing age pyramid population world to geriatric, nursing attitude to giving care to these people and quality of care them is important. The purpose of this study is the relationship between nurse’s attitude toward the care of end life and quality of care in older adults with cancer.

In this descriptive-correlational study, 113 nurses working in selected hospitals of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences were randomly selected according to the inclusion criteria. Data collection tools were the Demographic information, the Frommelt attitude toward caring for dying patient’s questionnaire (FATCOD) and QUALPACS questionnaire. Data were analyzed using SPSS software version 16 and Spearman correlation test.

Mean of nurses attitude to care of end life was 87.45 that attitude less than 90 according Frommelt questioner means negative & adverse. Mean of quality of care in psycho-social 2.39 and connecting 2.36 that partly ideal. There was a direct correlation between nurses' attitudes towards caring for cancer patients and their quality of care (P≤0.4).

Due to the negative attitude of nurses towards caring for the elderly with cancer and its direct correlation with the quality of care, and changing the age pyramid of the population towards aging, it is necessary to have courses in student courses and retraining courses for nurses to change their attitude towards To elderly people with cancer.