• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
• /
• v.15 no.4
• /
• pp.212-221
• /
• 2012

Purpose: This study was performed to compare nursing students' attitudes toward death among South Korea, Japan and Indonesia, and to confirm the need for death education in nursing. Methods: A total of 294 nursing students completed a questionnaire titled as the Death Attitude Profile-Revised (Wong, Recker, Gesser. 1994). Participating students were from two nursing schools in South Korea, two in Japan and one in Indonesia. Data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics including, ${\chi}^2$-test, ANOVA and multiple comparison analysis. Results: The total mean score of the DAP-R for the three countries combined was $3.84{\pm}0.73$. By country, the mean was the highest for Indonesian students ($4.32{\pm}0.71$), followed by Korean ($3.75{\pm}0.57$) and Japanese ($3.56{\pm}0.70$) respectively. In relation to subcategories, Indonesian students showed the highest mean score for death avoidance ($3.67{\pm}1.38$) and approach acceptance ($5.37{\pm}1.00$). Korean students marked the highest ($5.51{\pm}0.91$) in neutral acceptance and Japanese students scored the best ($3.63{\pm}1.46$) in escape acceptance. Nursing students who had an experience of caring terminally ill patients tended to be affirmative in approach acceptance (P=0.047). There were significant differences in each of the four subcategories except fear of death among the three countries (P<0.001). Conclusion: The above results indicate it is necessary to develop education programs based on each country's social and cultural background to help nursing students form desirable attitudes toward death.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
• /
• v.7 no.2
• /
• pp.200-213
• /
• 2004

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to create an electronic nursing record form to build a hospice nursing process database to be used in the u-hospital EMR system. Specific aims of the study were: 1. To generate a complete, accurate, and simple electronic nursing record form. 2. To verify its appropriateness following documentation with the standardized hospice protocol. 3. To verify its validity and finalize the hospice nursing process database through discussion among hospice professionals. Methods: Nursing records from three independent hospice organizations were collected and analyzed by five expert hospice nurses with more than 10 years of experience, and a nursing record database was developed. This database was applied to 81 hospice patients at three hospice organizations to verify its completeness. Results: 1. An electronic nursing record form with completeness, accuracy, and simplicity was developed. 2. The completeness of the standardized home hospice service protocol was 95.86 percent. 3. The hospice nursing process database contains 18 items on health problems, 79 items on related causes and major symptoms, and 229 items on nursing interventions. Conclusion: The new nursing record form and database will reduce documentation time and articulate and streamline the working process among team members. They can also improve the quality of hospice services, and ultimately enable us to estimate hospice service costs.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
• /
• v.7 no.2
• /
• pp.221-231
• /
• 2004

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyze the need for child hospice care programs in families of children with cancer. Methods: The survey of 104 families who were taking care of children with cancer was conducted. This survey was conducted from February 2004 to July 2004 at two general hospitals in Seoul. The data were collected through a self-reporting questionnaire of 22 items. The items were classified into five areas by factor analysis to identify the construct validity. The reliability of the tool was established by Cronbach's alpha as .94 and the data collected were analyzed by descriptive statistics, t-test and ANOVA. Results: 1) The degree of need for hospice care of the subjects showed a high average of 3.40 (${\pm}3.8$). The need for 'emotional care of children' showed the highest mean (M=3.55), 'management of terminal physical symptoms'(M=3.49), 'control of secondary physical problems' (M=3.41), 'acceptance of the family's difficulty' (M=3.20), 'spiritual care for preparing for death'(M=3.17), respectively. 2) With respect to the demographic characteristics of the subjects, there were statistically significant differences in hospice care needs, according to the child's mother's age (F==4.980, P=.009), whether or not there were cancer patients among their siblings or relatives (t=2.423, P=.017). Conclusion: The family of children with cancer have a heavy burden of ambivalence, especially in relieving the anxiety and fear of their children, communicating about death, and managing physical symptoms. Child hospice care must be provided considering the needs of families of children with cancer. Thus popular needs as well as hospice nurses' higher concern and support for hospice care of children require further education and program development to meet the current demands.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
• /
• v.18 no.4
• /
• pp.314-321
• /
• 2015

Purpose: It is well known that a terminal cancer condition affects not only patient themselves but their family members because the patients experience a variety of symptoms. This study was aimed to investigate modifiable factors that influence family caregivers' quality of life, depression, and anxiety. Methods: From January 2015 through May 2015, a survey was conducted with 61 family caregivers of hospice patients who were hospitalized in two university hospitals and one municipal hospital in Busan. The questionnaire was consisted of characteristics of family caregivers and patients, the Korean version of the Caregiver Quality of Life Index-Cancer (CQOLC-K), Beck's Depression Inventory II (BDI-II), Beck's Anxiety Inventory (BAI), and patient's symptom controlling scores rated by family caregivers. Results: Family caregivers' depression was associated with religion. Quality of life and depression of family caregivers were also influenced by monthly household income. Patient age was inversely related to family caregiver's quality of life ($r_s=-0.259$, P=0.043). Family caregivers' quality of life was associated with patient's anxiety (r=0.443, P=0.001). Family caregivers' depression was affected by patient's constipation (r=0.276, P=0.046), anxiety (r=0.508, P<0.001), and daytime drowsiness (r=0.377, P=0.005). And family caregivers' anxiety was influenced by patients' sleep disturbance (r=0.276, P=0.046), depression (r=0.297, P=0.031), and anxiety (r=0.357, P=0.009). Conclusion: According to our findings, family caregivers had higher quality of life and less depression and anxiety when symptoms in hospice patients were well controlled.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
• /
• v.2 no.1
• /
• pp.23-35
• /
• 1999

Purpose : The hospice movement began about 30 years ago in Korea. However, basic studies have seldom been conducted about the general public's knowledge concerning hospice care and their needs for it. The purpose of this study was to investigate the general public's knowledge of and attitude toward hospice, and their needs for hospice care, and to analyze the needs for hospice care in relation to their knowledge and attitude in residents from a specific community. Methods : The survey was conducted with 924 people randomly selected from a district in Seoul. The data were collected through a self-reporting questionnaire constructed by the authors. With 30 items given in the questionnaire, the level of hospice needs showed Cronbach's alpha .89 in a pilot study and .92 in this study and the items were classified into four areas by a factor analysis. The data collected were analyzed by means of t-test and ANOVA. Results : 1) The average age of the respondents was 38. The majority of the respondents were well-educated. 2) Regarding awareness of hospice care, 54%(501 people) indicated they have heard of hospice. About 74% thought that people should be able to prepare for death in advance. About 83% wanted to be informed when they have life threatening illnesses such as terminal cancer. Also, about 63% responded that patients with terminal diseases should be provided with physical, spiritual, and psychological care for minimizing pain and peaceful death. Regarding the attitude toward hospice care, 74% responded that they would use hospice care if needed. The number of the respondents who preferred home visitation by the hospice team to care for the terminally ill ranked first with 34%. Concerning needs for hospice care : 1) By needs area, physical need showed highest mean(M=4.37), followed by social need(M=3.96), emotional need(M=3.87), and the spiritual need(M=3.79). The overall need level showed the mean value of 4.00 which reflects a considerable need for hospice care. 2) By demographic characteristics, people age over 50, the married, and the unemployed indicated higher level of needs for hospice care. Women showed higher level of needs than did men, and Catholics demonstrated higher level of needs than believers of other religion(P<0.0001). 3) As for the knowledge of and attitude toward hospice rare, the level of hospice care needs was significantly higher in the following groups: those who have heard of hospice, those who are aware of death preparation, those who want information on terminal diseases, those who want to use every method to sustain life, and those who are aware of hospice needs(P<0.001). Conclusion : It is assumed that the findings of this study on the knowledge, attitude, and needs for hospice care in the public can contribute to planning a successful hospice care program. Furthermore, the findings of this study will serve as useful data for the promotion of home hospice care to improve the quality of life of community residents, and contribute to the development of hospice care as a whole.