Background: Critically ill patients confer significant disease related symptoms. Palliative care focuses on reducing symptoms burden and improving quality of life. Objective: The aim of the current work was to assess critical care nurses' performance and obstacles towards palliative care for critically ill patients. Subjects and Methods: This descriptive exploratory research design study included a total of all available 120 nurses, conducted at the Intensive Care Units of Fayoum University Hospitals. Four tools were used. Tool I: A Self-administered interview questionnaire. Tool II: An observational checklist for nurses' practice regarding palliative care. Tool III: Nurses' attitude regarding palliative care. Tool IV: Nurses' perception of obstacles towards palliative care. Results: Revealed that 56.7% of the studied nurses had unsatisfactory knowledge, 59.2% of studied nurses had satisfactory practice and 61.7% of nurses had positive attitude regarding palliative care. Also, 15.8% of nurses had large obstacle toward palliative care. Conclusion: It could be concluded that more than half of studied nurses had unsatisfactory knowledge, more than half of studied nurses had satisfactory level of practice and about two thirds of studied nurses had positive attitude regarding palliative care. Recommendations: Continuing educational programs are needed to improve knowledge and practice of nurses regarding palliative care.

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Meningitis is a serious health problem that is considered an endemic disease in Egypt. Nursing personnel play an active role in the control and management of meningitis Aim: to evaluate the effect of an educational instruction program on nurses' knowledge and practices regarding care of patients with meningitis. Design: A quasi experimental research design (pre-and post-test) was utilized. Setting: Helwan Fever Hospital in Helwan city, Egypt. Subjects: A convenient sample of all nurses working in selected settings (50 nurse). Tools for data collection: Three tools were used, including the nurses' personal characteristics, the knowledge assessment interview questionnaire, and the lumber puncture observational checklist. Results: the studied nurses gained a satisfactory level of knowledge (92%) during the post-test phase followed by follow-up test phase (90%) as compared with pre-test phase (34%). Moreover, there was a highly statistically significant difference between total mean score of knowledge as well as total mean score of practices throughout study phases among the studied nurses at P = 0.000. Significant positive correlation between of total knowledge and practices among the studied nurses. Conclusion: there was a highly statistically significant difference between total mean score of knowledge as well as practices during pre, post & three months follow up among studied nurses. Additionally, there was a large effect size of educational instruction program on nurses' knowledge and practices pre, post and follow-up educational instruction program. Recommendations: Periodical on-the-job training programs for nurses regarding the management of meningitis.