Establishing Palliative Nursing Organization to Foster Palliative Care Literacy and Services in Indonesia: An Embedded Mixed Methods Study

Background and Objectives: The proactive activities of professional organizations have significantly contributed to improving nurses’ knowledge related-specialty in order to improve health care services quality offered by nurses. Since the palliative care improvement and development in Indonesia remain still in their infancy, and the organization of palliative care for Indonesian nurses has not been established yet, it is imperative to investigate the Indonesian nurses’ viewpoints concerning the importance of establishing a palliative nursing organization in fostering palliative care services in Indonesia. This study aimed to identify what kind of palliative care related activities are carried out by Indonesian nurses and what are the perspectives of nurses regarding the importance of establishing palliative nursing organizations in Indonesia. Materials and Methods: A national study was conducted using an embedded mixed-methods design, for which the quantitative and qualitative data were collected and analyzed in the same time period from October – December 2020.. Results: There were a total of 552 (92) respondents who participated through WhatsApp, and Telegram platforms, and completed our online survey. There were four themes and nine sub themes found in this study: namely, services improvement (quality improvement, and literacy improvement sub themes), human resource development (knowledge development, individual nurse development, and professional development sub-themes), boarding and information source (boarding, and information source sub themes), and policy and legality (policy, and legality sub themes). Conclusion: While barriers exist, respondents confirmed the importance of establishing an Indonesian palliative nursing organization. Establishing a palliative nursing organization could be an important step in developing palliative care in Indonesia. © 2024, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved.