• Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.147-162
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• 1997

This study was attempted to provide the basic data for nursing intervention to improve the psychosociological adaptation of patients receiving chemotherapy for breast cancer by examining relationship between anxiety and hopelessness that they are experiencing and family support, in order to help them successfully cope with various psychological problems. This study was carried out with 93 breast cancer patients who are receiving chemotherapy in the injection treatment room of K University Hospital located in the downtown of Taegu after having underwent mastectomy in the hospital between December 1995 and August 1996. This study used the systematized questionnaires which contain 7 questions about general characteristics, Spielberger's trait anxiety & state anxiety scale, the tool that WON(1987) modified the hopelessness scale which was developed by Beck et al.(1967) and the family support tool made by TAE(1985). By using the SPSS/PC program, this study obtained the real number and percentage for the general characteristics of the subjects, and mean and standard variation for the degrees of trait anxiety, state anxiety, hopelessness and family support. The correlation between each variables was identified on the basis of the Pearson Correlation, and the degrees of trait anxiety, state anxiety, hopelessness and family support in the general characteristics of the subjects were analyzed by using the t-test, ANOVA, and Duncan test. The results of this study were summarized as follows. In the general characteristics of the subjects, most of each group were 51 years old or more and the middle class in income, had educational background under elementary school, no job, Buddhism in religion and spouse, and were receiving chemotherapy using MTX and 5FU. It was shown that the degree of the subjects' trait anxiety is, on an average, 50. 29, state anxiety 49. 68, hopelessness 51. 46 and family support 34. 28. Both trait anxiety and hopelessness showed normal correlation ; the higher the degree of trait anxiety is, the higher the degree of hopelessness is, while trait anxiety and family support showed reverse correlation ; the higher the degree of trait anxiety, the lower the degree of family support that the subjects perceive is. State anxiety and hopelessness also showed normal correlation ; the higher the degree of state anxiety is, the higher the degree of hopelessness is. Family support and hopelessness showed reverse correlation ; the higher the degree of family support is, the lower the degree of hopelessness that the subjects perceive is. And family support and state anxiety showed reverse correlation but there was a statistically significant difference. The degree of trait anxiety in the general characteristics of the subjects showed a significant difference by age, job and religion, the degree of state anxiety a signigicant difference by job and religion, the degree of hopelessness a signigicant difference by age, educational background and existence or not of spouse. In conclusion, the breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy perceive anxiety and hopelessness due to several causes such as diagnosis itself or side effects of chemotherapy, so that it is required not only to develop specific nursing interventions including family support to alleviate anxiety and hopelessness but also to apply such interventions to clinical practice.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.119-126
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• 2016

Purpose: This study analyzed the difference in survival time of patients with delirium according to sedative medication. Methods: From January 2012 through December 2013, a retrospective cohort study was performed using the electronic medical records (EMR) of Pusan National University Hospital. Among 900 patients who died from cancer, we selected 240 who suffered delirium based on the EMR. The Nu-DESC delirium screening test was used to diagnose delirium. Results: The median length of delirium period was five days. Delirium characteristics were dominated by inappropriate behaviors (35.0%). Sedatives were administered in 72.1% of the cases. The most frequently used sedative was haloperidol which was used in 59.6% of cases. The delirium period significantly differed by patients' age (F=3.96, P=0.021), cancer type (F=3.31, P=0.010), chemotherapy (t=-3.44 P=0.001). The average survival time was 16.85 days for the sedative medication group and 9.37 days for the non-medication group, which, however, was not significant (t=1.766, P=0.079). Conclusion: In this study, the use of sedatives did not affect patients' survival time. Thus, appropriate sedative medication can be positively recommended to comfort terminal cancer patients and their families.

• Journal of Korean Clinical Nursing Research
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.368-380
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• 2012

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a home-based video exercise program on cancer-related fatigue, physiological and psychological status in patients with colon and rectal cancers undergoing chemotherapy. Methods: The study design was a non-equivalent control group non-synchronized design. Data were collected from patients with colo-rectal cancers in Yonsei cancer center from July 5th to October 31st in 2011. There were 40 participants; 20 in the experimental group and 20 in the control group. The structured questionnaire was used to measure fatigue, physical function and emotional status. Data were analyzed using SPSS 18.0 and a chi-squre test, Fisher's exact test, Mann-Whitney U test and Wilcoxon signed- rank test were conducted to examine the homogeneity and the research hypotheses. Results: There was a statistically significant difference in White Blood Cell count in the experimental group compared with that of the control group. The exercise group showed a slight decrease of White Blood Cell count compared with that of the control group after 4 week program (z=-2.935, p=.003). However, there were no significant differences in fatigue, physiological and psychological status between the two groups. Conclusion: In this study, the developed video exercise program was effective in markedly slightly decreasing White Blood Cell count in patients with colo-rectal cancers undergoing chemotherapy. Therefore, utilizing the video exercise program can be an useful method to promote health among patients with cancer in clinical practice.

• Asian Oncology Nursing
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.204-216
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• 2001

The purpose of this study was to test the effects of foot reflexology on pain and mood in patients who have just had a mastectomy. The research design was a nonequivalent control group, non-synchronized design. The participants for this study were 28 patients with breast cancer on first or second day after mastectomy surgery. The first 12 patients were assigned to the control group and the second 16 to the experimental group. The study was conducted from October 28, 2001 to December 22, 2001 on a surgical unit of Y Medical Center in Seoul, Korea. Pain intensity, blood pressure, pulse rate and mood were measured as dependent variables. The instrument used for pain intensity and mood was a 10 cm visual analogue scale. Cronbach alpha for this study was .70. For the experimental group pre and post tests were done immediately before and 15 minutes after completion of foot reflexology. Foot reflexology was performed once for 20 minutes. After the pretest, patients in the control group were instructed to have a quiet time for a 35 minute period and then the post-test was done. The number of participants was small so the data were analyzed by Mann-Whitney U test, and Wilcoxon signed ranks test. The results of this study are as follow : 1. In the experimental group there were significant decreases between the pre and post tests for pain intensity (z=-3.47, p<.001), diastolic blood pressure (z=-2.67, p<.01) and pulse rate (z=-3.44, p<.001) but there was no difference between the two groups on the post test. 2. The systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure and pulse rate were also not significantly different between the experimental group and the control group on the post test. 3. The mood score was significantly improved after foot reflexology(z=-3.52, p=.000) and the difference between the two groups was also significant (u=49.0, p=.03). In conclusion, there was a statistically significant difference in mood between the two groups, but no difference for pain intensity, blood pressure, or pulse rate. However, there were significant differences between the pretest and post-test for pain intensity, diastolic blood pressure and pulse rate in the experimental group. On the basis of the above findings, this study suggests that foot reflexology can be an effective method of relieving pain and improving mood in clinical practice in women who have had mastectomy surgery.

• Asian Oncology Nursing
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.103-109
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• 2004

The disease occurrence rate of the cancer is rapidly increased and It is becoming the main factor for the death The chemical therapy for preventing the cancer is recently used for many patients and thus extended the life of the patients. However, the side effect caused by the medical substances when performing the chemical therapy for preventing the cancer and the consequent mental and social problem are incurred to deteriorate the quality of the life. Therefore, it is needed to help the patient In order to reduce the above problems, and so this study was executed in order to examine the effect of the individual education on the quality of the life of the patients who are treated by the chemical therapy for preventing the cancer. The study was performed from Jan. 19. 2004 to Apr. 18. 2004 for the patients who were firstly treated by the chemical therapy for preventing the cancer in a university hospital located in the downtown in Seoul. The individual education on the chemical therapy for preventing the cancer was provided to 40 patients of the experimental group. The study plan is the experimental plan before and after the sole group, and it is the beginning experimental plan. The title of the booklet on the chemical therapy for preventing the cancer is "Cancer, The more you know, the more you can be cured", and the book was composed up of the side effect of the chemical therapy for preventing the cancer, treatment way for the side effect, and guide of the daily life. The survey with the questionnaire sheet was distributed to the experi- mental group before the education, the survey sheet was made out when they were hospitalized for 3-4 weeks after the education, and the data were examined by using SPSS statistical program with making our the survey questionnaires and the change of the quality of the life before and after the education of the patients who are treated by the chemical therapy for preventing the cancer was analyzed by using the parred t-test. The research result was verified that it has the meaningful that the quality of the life for the physical field, mental field, social field, and spiritual field after the individual education. The suggestion concluded by the above research result is as follows. First, there is the limitation to interpret the result since it was the beginning experimental plan for the sole group. Thus, it is suggested that the similar experimental plan should be executed with the expansion of the research subject and also with the contrast group. Second, it is suggested that the study on the change of the quality of the lifeaccording to the support of the individual education and family of the patients who are treated by the anti-cancer therapy.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.74-88
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• 1997

The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship between perceived social support and the quality of life of cancer patients receiving gene therapy. The subjects for this study were 50 cancer patients receiving gene therapy at two general hospital in Seoul. The data were collected during the period from October 14, 1996 to November 11, 1996. The perceived social support was measured by the family support scale made by Hyun Sook Kang, by the medical support of life scale developed by Ok Soo Kim. The quality of life scale developed by Bang-Whal-Ran was used, among the questionnaire, physical factors was developed by U.S.A National Conference on Cancer Nursing. The data was analysed by the SAS statistical program. Percentile, means and standard deviations, t -test, ANOVA, Scheffe test, Pearson correlation were utilized for analysis. The results of this study were as follows. 1. The mean score of the perceived social support of the subjects was 83.66, the item score was 3.8. 1) The mean score of the perceived family support of the subjects was 44.96, the item mean score was 4.5. 2) The mean score of the perceived professional medical support of the subjects was 38.70, the item mean score was 3.2. 2. The mean score of quality of life of the subjects was 120.38, the item mean score was 3.17. For each factor in quality of life scale, the mean score was follows: for attitude toward life, 3.95, for familial relationship and financial status, 3.53, for social activity 3.24, for emotional status, 3.08, for healthy perceptive, 2.90, for physical symptom, 2.80. 3. The result of the analysis of the relationship between perceived social support and quality of life showed a positive correlation(r=.4853, p=.0004). Therefore, the higher the perceived social support of the patients, the higher the quality of life. 1) The result of the analysis of the relationship between perceived family support and quality of life showed significant correlation(r=. 3566, p=.0110). Therefore the higher the perceived family support of the patients, the higher the quality of life. 2) The result of the analysis of the relationship between perceived professional medical support and quality of life showed significant correlation (r=.4477, p=.0011). Therefore, the higher the perceived professional medical support of the patients the higher the quality of life. 4. There was a significant difference in perceived social support according to sex(F=2.1437, p= .0371), others coping non-family (F=2.4863, p=.0164) and duration of treatment (F=4.16, p=.0218). 5. There was a significant differance in quality of life according to sex(F=2.6932, p=.0097), degree of education(F=2.3610, p=.0223), others coping non-family(F=2.0502, p=.0458). In conclusion, this study revealed that social support is an important factor that associated with the quality of life in cancer patients receiving gene therapy.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.206-220
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• 2001

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of depression, discomfort, spirituality, physical care, and opioid use on pain with terminally ill cancer patients residing in hospice units. The convenient sample of this study consisted of 41 terminally ill cancer patients at three hospice units in university affiliated hospitals. Patients were interviewed with structured questionnaires three times at predetermined intervals: admission to the hospice unit (Time 1), one week later (Time 2), and two weeks later (Time 3). The data was collected from January 1998 to January 1999 and was analyzed using ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient, and multivariate multiple regression. 1. The mean age of the participants was approximately 55 years old. In terms of diagnosis, lung cancer showed the highest frequency (19.5%), followed by stomach cancer and rectal cancer (17.1%). The motive of seeking hospice unit admission was control (72. 2%), followed by spiritual care (50%), and symptom relief (38.9%). 2. Regarding the type of pain felt, the highest pain frequency the participants experienced was deep pain (55%), followed by multiple pain (25%), intestinal pain (10%), then superficial (5%) and neurogenic pain (5%). For the level of pain measured by VAS, there was no significant difference among the three time points; Time 1 (5.04$\pm$2.21), Time 2 (4.82$\pm$2.58) and Time 3(4.73$\pm$2.51). 3. There was significant change seen in spirituality and physical care in each time interval. Namely, the longer the length of admission at the hospice unit, the higher the importance of spirituality (p=0.0001) and the more the physical care the participants received (p=0.01). The opioid use at the three time points showed the following frequencies : Time 1 (75.6%), Time 2 (85.4%) and Time 3 (75.6%). 4. Regarding factors influencing pain, the pain level was significantly affected by the depression level (p〈0.01) and the opioid use (p〈0.1). These results were the most significant at the two time points (Time 1 and Time 2). At Time 3 (two weeks later), the pain level was significantly affected by the depression level (p〈0.05) and the amount of physical care the participants received (p〈0.1). In conclusion, the terminally ill cancer patients had moderate pain, were generally depressed, and were treated with opioid analgesics. As approaching death, the patients received more physical care due to increased physical symptoms experienced and they had a higher perception of the importance of spirituality. Thus, health care professionals need to provide continuous care for each of them to die comfortably physically, psycho- logically, and spiritually.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.1365-1378
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• 1999

This study is a methodological research study to develop an instrument to measure in patients with cancer and to test the validity and reliability of the instrument. The research procedure was as follows : 1) The first step was to develop conceptual framework based on a comprehensive review of the literature and in-depth interviews with patients with cancer. This conceptual framework was organized in to three dimensions (the intrapersonal dimension, the significant-other and context related dimension, the transcendental dimension). Initially 59 items were adopted. 2) These items were analyzed through the index of content validity(CVI) and 53 items were selected which met more than 80% on the CVI. 3) The pretest was carried out with 87 patients with cancer. After the pretest results were analyzed by item analysis, 44 items were selected. A second test of content validity was conducted and 6 items were eliminated considering the 80% CVI. 4) To test for reliability and validity, data collection was done during the period from January 25, 1999, to February 26, 1999. The subjects for the test were 160 patients with cancer and 185 healthy persons. analysis, item analysis and multitrait-multimethod method to analyze validity. The findings are as follows : 1) The Cronbach's alpha coefficient for internal consistency was .92 for the total 38 items and .79, .82, .85, for the three dimensions in that order. 2) The item analysis was based on the corrected item to total correlation coefficient( .30 or more) and information about the alpha estimate if this item was dropped from the scale. 3) As a result of the initial factor analysis using principal component analysis and varimax rotation, one item was deleted because of factor complexity (indiscriminate factor loadings). In the secondary factor analysis, 7 factors with eigenvalue of more than 1.0 were extracted and these factors explained 56 percents of the total variance. The seven factors were labeled as 'family relationship', 'emotional condition', 'physical discomfort', 'meaning and goal of life', 'contextual stimuli', 'change of body image', 'guilt feelings'. 4) The convergence effect between this instrument and the life satisfaction scale was identified and there was significant positive correlation(r= .52, p= .00). The discriminant validity between this instrument and the depression scale(CES-D) was tested and there was significant negative correlation(r= -.50, p= .00). The instrument for accessing the suffering of patients with cancer developed in this study was identified as a tool with a high degree of reliability and validity. In this sense, this tool can be effectively utilized for assessment in caring for patients with cancer.

• Asian Oncology Nursing
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.38-48
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• 2004

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the effects of foot massage on the degree of nausea/vomiting, anxiety, sleep satisfaction and fatigue during chemotherapy. Method: Total 36 subjects who were admitted to C university hospital in G city during 3 days and 2 nights for chemotherapy were selected from January to June, 2003. Seventeen of these subjects were assigned to control group and the rest were assigned to experimental group. Tools were Index of Nausea, Vomiting & Retching (INVR), Spielberger's state anxiety, sleep satisfaction, & fatigue VAS. Data were collected at both pre-test and post-test. Results: Difference of pre-test and post-test was not significant between control group and experimental group on the degree of nausea/vomiting, anxiety and sleep satisfaction. However, the effect of foot massage on the fatigue was significant. Conclusion: Further studies need to identify the immediate effect of foot massage on either nausea and vomiting or anxiety and to develop strategies for lengthening and strengthening the short-term effect of foot massage.

• Journal of Korean Academic Society of Home Health Care Nursing
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.54-60
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• 2006

This study, a quasi-experimental study using a nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design. conducted a survey on 30 patients test group and control group of IS patients sampling an adjacent population at random - who are operated on the breast cancer and are in the A University Hospital located in Suwon, to examine into the effects of foot reflex zone massage on their pain and sleep satisfaction through the nursing interventions. It gave them a foot reflex zone massage for the total 30 minutes-basic massage 10 minutes and reflex massage 20 minutes required to alleviate their pain day in day out covering a two-month period from the first of July to the first of September 2004. for the purpose of collecting data. It launched into a two-round foot reflex zone massage at 6 and 24 hours since mastectomy through a direct visit at the hospital room to measure pain intensity, physiological index(pulse and blood pressure) and sleep satisfaction of them. The results are as follows. First, it showed that there is all the difference between pain intensity of test group and that of control group. In result, the first hypothesis, pain of test group. which measure at 6(p=.000) and 24 hours(p=.001) since mastectomies, will be bigger than that of control group, was established. Second, it showed that there is all the difference between physiological index of test group and that of control group. In result. the second hypothesis, pulse(p= .025, p= .002), systolic blood pressure(p= .004, p=.012) and diastolic blood pressure(p=.004. p= .003) of test group, which investigate at 6 and 24 hours since mastectomies, will be bigger than that of control group, was established. Third, it showed that there is a significant difference between sleep satisfaction of test group and that of control group(p=.000). In result, the fourth hypothesis, sleep satisfaction of test group. which examine in the morning after mastectomies, will be bigger than that of control group, was established. In the result. a foot reflex zone massage is seen to be effective in the pain reduction and sleep promotion of patients who are operated on breast cancer, and in providing them with more qualitative care by improving confidence between them and nurses through a physical touch. Also, it can be applied to a clinical examination through an independent nursing intervention.