International Journal of Innovative Research in Health Science

Background: Palliative care aims at enhancing the quality of life of both critically and life-threatening sick patients and treating their physical, psychological, social, and spiritual needs. Nursing students are thought to be significant in giving palliative care, but they might encounter various obstacles in giving quality care. Methods: Quantitative descriptive research design was taken to evaluate the perceived obstacles on palliative care among B.Sc. Nursing students at the Faculty of Nursing, Dr. M.G.R. Educational and Research Institute, Chennai. Simple random sampling was adopted to select the total 80 students in 3 rd and 4 th year. A structured rating scale was used to obtain the data. There was analysis of data in descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (chi-square test). Results: The results showed that 1.25 percent of students possessed low perceived barriers, 80 percent perceived barriers were moderate and 18.75 percent were high in respect to palliative care. The mean value was 60.67 and the standard deviation was 10.97. The perceived barriers were statistically significantly associated with the demographic variable type of family (p ≤ 0.05) and the rest did not exhibit any significant association. Conclusion: The researchers also found out that the perceived barrier to palliative care was moderate among the majority of nursing students. These barriers can be mitigated by strengthening education and training on palliative care which would lead to better quality care offered to patients with serious illnesses.