• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.156-165
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• 2019

Purpose: This study was conducted to identify subjective attitudes towards terminal patients in nursing students who had clinical practice. The types of subjective attitude were classified by applying Q methodology. According to those types, basic reference data for the development of educational programs were provided. Methods: Thirty-four final Q samples were selected, and Q classification with a nine-point scale was performed with P samples of 43 nursing students. A key factor analysis was conducted with the collected data using the PC QUANAL program. Results: Nursing students' attitudes towards terminal patients were grouped into three types. The total variable was 49.96%. Students with Type 1 ("wish for life-sustaining medical treatment") thought that terminal patients accurately understood their medical condition and wanted to prolong their lives. Others with Type 2 ("need for service and support") believed that a multidisciplinary nursing system needs to be established to help terminal patients prepare for death. Students with Type 3 ("awareness and acceptance of death") thought that terminal patients wanted to die with dignity at a hospice unit. Conclusion: This study analyzed various types of attitude towards terminal patients, as perceived by nursing students with clinical training experience. Development of educational programs for each attitude type analyzed in this study could contribute to systematic training programs for nursing students caring for terminal patients.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.211-221
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• 2016

Purpose: Dignity therapy is a very effective intervention to improve the dignity of end-stage patients. A concept analysis by Walker and Avant (2005) was adopted to define, describe, and delimitate the concept of dignity therapy. Methods: Nursing literature in the National Digital Science Links (NDSL) and Medline database were searched for the definitions of "dignity" and "dignity therapy". Definitions, uses, and defining attributes of dignity therapy were identified; model and contrary cases were developed; and antecedents, consequences, and empirical references were determined. Results: Through dignity therapy patients and their families share their stories, and that in turn improves the quality of life and death. Five attributes were identified: higher quality of life and death, therapeutic conversation, respect of human dignity and worth, expressing thoughts about life and death and systematic process. Conclusion: Patients at the end of their lives feel more comfortable about death. Hospice care providers should try to protect dignity of patients in their care. The attributes of the dignity therapy clarified in this study should be applied for terminally ill patients to improve their quality of life and death.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.10-17
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• 2014

Purpose: This study was conducted to examine understanding of the meaning of well-dying and types of such views held by medical practitioners and nursing students. Methods: The Q-methodology was used to analyze the subjectivity of each item. The P-sample was made up of 22 medical practitioners or nursing students. The P-sample was instructed to rate 33 statements using a 7-point scale to obtain forced normal distribution. They were asked to make extra comments on the statements that were placed on both ends of the distribution curve. The PC-QUANL Program was used for the factor analysis of the collected data. Results: The participants had three types of meaning of well-dying. Total variance explained by these types was 57.97%" where type 1 was "reality-oriented", type 2 "relationship-oriented" and type 3 "obeying-the-nature". Conclusion: The participants' subjective views on well-dying influences their medical practice on patients who are facing death. Therefore, medical practitioners should have profound insights concerning life and death. To that end, a training program is needed to help medical practitioners develop a proper view on well-dying by subjectivity type.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.5-13
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• 2009

Purpose: This exploratory study was undertaken to analyze the information needs of family members of terminal cancer patients, collected through the telephone counselling service by National Cancer Information Center. Methods: The study included 113 family members of terminal cancer patients who had enrolled at the National Cancer Information Center for the period from June, 2007 through March, 2008 and had agreed to the survey. Results: The subjects (n=113) consisted of grown-up children (n=82) and spouses (n=8) of patients'. Those in their 40's (n=40) and 30's (n=36) accounted for the majority of the sample. The questions raised most were about the information on treatment methods (n=117), management of terminal cancer patients (n=46), terminal cancer patients' life (n=27), deathbed and prediction of remaining life (n=18), hospitalization (n=16), and financial support (n=15). Most of the subjects were satisfied with the telephone counseling services, and 69% of the subjects had come to know about the telephone counseling service via Internet, and 10.6% of them stated that the PR for the service was poor. Conclusion: It is deemed essential for the government to use the mass media for PR of the hospice services, since family members of terminal cancer patients' are less aware of the hospice conducive to enhancement of patients' remaining quality of life, being involued too deeply in their treatment.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.100-110
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• 2017

Purpose: We explored Koreans' perception of the meaning of death with dignity that Korean people. Methods: A phenomenological research methodology was applied. A total of 13 participants were sampled based on their age and gender. Participants were interviewed in depth from September 2015 through February 2016. Colaizzi's phenomenological analysis method was used for data analysis. To establish the validity of the study, we evaluated its realistic value, applicability, consistency and neutrality of the qualitative evaluation criteria of Lincoln and Guba. Results: Koreans' perception of death with dignity was structured as 19 themes, nine theme clusters and four categories. The four categories were "comfortable death", "good death", "resolving problems before death", and "death with good reputation". The theme clusters were "death without pain", "death submitting to one's fate", "death that is not ugly", "leaving good memories to others", "dying in a way we want", "death after proper settling of things", "dealing with chronic resentment before death", "death after living a good life", and "death with recognition". Conclusion: For Koreans, death with dignity meant not burdening others, settling things right and leaving good memories to their families and friends. Such perceptions can be applied to hospice care for terminally ill patients.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.45-51
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• 2005

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the factors surrounding burnout of nurses caring for cancer patients. Methods: The sample of this study was conveniently selected among nurses who had hospice care experiences working in General Hospitals located in Seoul. This study was conducted by a self-administered questionnaire. Two hundred forty four questionnaires were retrieved and the response rate was 81.3%. The period of data collection was from February 25th to March 5th in 1994. Mean, standard deviation, T-test ANOVA, and multiple regression analysis were performed for statistical analysis. Results: The data showed that respondents reported to have burnout as many as 2.71 out of a 5.0 score. Bivariate analyses indicated that those who had hospice education reported to have a lower burnout than those without hospice education. Multivariate regression analyses revealed factors associated with burnout the nurses have had. They include being a Christian, higher job satisfaction, and experiences of hospice education. Hospice education reducing burnout for the nurses was observed by hierarchial multiple regression analyses, after controlling out the effect of coping methods, sociodemographic characteristics, job satisfaction, and job-related stresses on experience of burnout. This observation was not hue for physical and psychological burnout but for burnout in general and emotional one. But this was not confirmed among the nurses with type A personality. Conclusion: The findings of this study have a weakness in generalizability due to the sampling methodology used in this study. However, for the better hospice care further research with a probability sampling method are necessary.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.306-313
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• 2015

Purpose: This study was performed to explore factors that influence attitudes toward terminal care in nursing students. Methods: Data were collected using a self-reported questionnaire filled by 175 nursing students at a university in a metropolitan city B. Data were analyzed using descriptive analysis, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficients and stepwise multiple regression with the SPSS/WIN 22.0 program. Results: Attitudes toward terminal care in nursing students was significantly correlated with communication competence (r=0.438, P<0.001), spirituality (r=0.374, P<0.001), and gratitude (r=0.318, P<0.001). Communication competence explained 18.7% of the variance in attitudes toward terminal care. Conclusion: The study shows communication competence is an important factor for attitudes toward terminal care in nursing students. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a communication competence enhancement program to foster nursing students with appropriate attitudes toward terminal care.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.267-275
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• 2015

Purpose: This study is aimed to investigate the relationship among terminal care stress, job satisfaction and terminal care performance nurses in internal medicine wards and to provide a basis to improve terminal care performance. Methods: This is a descriptive study performed with 201 nurses who have at least one year of experience and are stationed at the internal medicine department of three general hospitals and three university hospitals in P city of a metropolitan city B. The nurses also had an experience with a dying patient. Data were collected from March 1 through March 31, 2014. The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Kosin University. Results: Job satisfaction was negatively correlated with stress in end-of-life care (r=-212, P=0.003) and positively correlated with terminal care performance (r=0.383, P<0.001). There was no correlation between terminal care stress and terminal care performance. Conclusion: Appropriate programs are needed to improve job satisfaction for high quality terminal care performance.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.77-86
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• 2019

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to confirm the influence of hematoonchology unit nurses' positive psychological capital and death awareness on their terminal care performance. Methods: This descriptive study data were collected from self-reported questionnaire filled by 127 oncology nurses at a tertiary hospital in Seoul, Korea. The variables were positive psychological capital, death awareness, and terminal care performance. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 22.0 software. Results: The participants scored $3.93{\pm}0.83$ on positive psychological capital, $3.68{\pm}0.99$ on death awareness and $2.86{\pm}0.65$ on terminal care performance. The three variables were positively correlated. The factors affecting the nurses' terminal care performance were hope and resilience in the subcategory of positive psychological capital and experience of death of family members, relatives or friends within the past year; The explanatory power was 32.1%. Conclusion: It is necessary to develop educational programs to foster hope, resilience, etc. in hematooncology unit nurses to improve their quality of terminal care performance.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.276-284
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• 2015

Purpose: This study was performed to identify factors affecting terminal care performance of clinical nurses. Methods: The participants in this study were 175 nurses working in hospitals in Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province. Data were collected using a self-reported questionnaire and were analyzed with the IBM SPSS WIN 19.0 program. Results: Nurses' terminal care performance was significantly related with suffering experience, empathy ability and caring behaviors. Significant predictors for terminal care performance were their department, empathy ability and caring behaviors. These factors explained 43.52% of the variance in terminal care performance of clinical nurses. Conclusion: Our study results suggest that terminal care performance of clinical nurses can be strengthened by improving empathy ability and caring behaviors.