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Table 4 Seniors vs Juniors

From: Perceptions of healthcare professionals towards palliative care in internal medicine wards: a cross-sectional survey

 

Senior Physicians

(n = 22)

Junior Physicians

(n = 21)

p-value

When would you consider a referral to palliative care?* n(%) agree

When first diagnosed with life limiting illness

6 (28.6)

8 (38.1)

0.513

At symptom onset

21 (95.5)

21 (100)

0.323

How confident are you in explaining the role of palliative care to patients?† Mean (+/−sd)

3.95 (0.6)

3.42 (0.8)

0.020

 

Senior Nurses

(n = 45)

Junior Nurses

(n = 111)

p-value

When would you consider a referral to palliative care?* n(%) agree

When first diagnosed with life limiting illness

32 (71.1)

83 (74.8)

0.638

At symptom onset

34 (75.6)

94 (85.5)

0.140

How confident are you in explaining the role of palliative care to patients?† Mean (+/−sd)

3.07 (0.8)

3.24 (0.9)

0.273

  1. † As measured on the following scale: 1 “not at all confident”; 2 “not so confident”; 3 “somewhat confident”; 4 “confident”; 5 “very confident”
  2. All p-values for * obtained from chi square test
  3. All p-values for †, ‡ and § obtained from Wilcoxon Rank Sums test