• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
• /
• v.13 no.4
• /
• pp.216-224
• /
• 2010

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate a community-based cancer patient management program (CBPCMP) which was collaborated between a hospice center and public health centers. Methods: The CBPCMP proceeded on four steps; 1) Signing agreements with three public health centers, 2) Enrolling the domiciliary terminal cancer patients, 3) Providing home hospice service, and 4) Inquiring patient's level of satisfaction. From February 1 to December 31 in 2009, 43 terminal cancer patients were referred and provided with home hospice service. The hospice team made a total of 605 visits. Medical records for each visit and data from satisfaction surveys were analyzed. Results: 76.7% of patients were older than 60 years, and 90.7% of the patients were alert. The level of functional status for 76.7% of patients rated as lower than ECOG grade 1. 62.8% of the patients or their caregivers signed hospice service agreements. On the initial evaluation, the most frequent reasons for referral were general weakness (86.0%), followed by anorexia (72.1%). Nurses visited the patients' most frequently (371 visits), followed by volunteers (216 visits). Nurses provided emotional support and health promotion counseling on 95.1% and 22.9% of visits, respectively. The mean satisfaction score rated by patients and their family was 4.45 out of 5. Conclusion: This study tested CBPCMP in collaboration with hospice centers and public health centers. CBPCMP showed a possibility to improve the quality of end of life care. To insure the quality care, however, the guidelines for home hospice service should be developed.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
• /
• v.15 no.4
• /
• pp.205-211
• /
• 2012

Purpose: This study was performed to identify the level of stress perceived by nurses who attend dying patients in the cancer care unit; their understanding regarding end-of-life care and related training needs. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted with 151 nurses stationed at the cancer care units of four general hospitals located in Seoul and Gyeonggi province in Korea. Data were collected using self-reported questionnaires and the response rate was 96%. The data were analyzed using t-test, ANOVA and Pearson's correlation analysis. SPSS 12.0 was used for data analysis. Results: Nurses experienced a high level of stress in the end-of-life care settings. Their understanding of end-of-life care was above the mid-point of the scale while their training needs for end-of-life care was relatively high. The more experienced the nurses were, the more stressed they were, particularly due to excessive workload. Nurses who served longer in the cancer unit tended to show greater needs for end-of-life care training. Conclusion: This study found nurses perform end-of-life care with a high level of stress but with insufficient understanding, and thus, showed great needs for related training. Such findings can be useful to develop an end-of-life care training program for nurses.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
• /
• v.8 no.1
• /
• pp.45-51
• /
• 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
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.154-162
• /
• 2016

Purpose: This descriptive study was aimed at identifying the relations among geriatric nurses' terminal care performance, death anxiety and self-esteem and the factors that affect nurses' terminal care stress. Methods: Data were collected using a self-reported questionnaire completed by 212 geriatric hospital nurses working in 10 hospitals in K city and B metropolitan city. Results: The survey results showed that the stress factors were terminal care performance and death anxiety. Significant predictors for terminal care stress were death anxiety and terminal care performance. (And the higher the level of death anxiety and terminal care performance were, the heavier the stress was.) These factors explained 32.5% of the variance in terminal care stress. Conclusion: The results of the study suggested that terminal care performance was an important factor of terminal care stress for geriatric nurses. Therefore, it seems that it is necessary to develop an educational intervention program to improve nurses' terminal care performance to reduce their terminal care stress.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
• /
• v.16 no.4
• /
• pp.223-231
• /
• 2013

Purpose: This study was conducted to explore how nurses' attitude toward dignified death and moral sensitivity affect their end-of-life care performance. Methods: Study participants were 172 nurses who work at university hospitals in a metropolitan city in Korea. Data were collected from June 20 through August 13, 2012 using the Dignified Death Scale, Moral Sensitivity Scale, and End-of-Life Care Performance Scale. Data were analyzed using the SPSS/WIN 19.0 program. Results: Factors affecting nurses' end-of-life care performance included moral sensitivity, dignified death and education level. Conclusion: Moral sensitivity, dignified death and education level should be considered when developing an educational program for nurses' end-of-life care performance.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
• /
• v.10 no.3
• /
• pp.137-144
• /
• 2007

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify and assess the needs of the cancer patients and their families and provide basic data to meet with their needs. Methods: This is a descriptive study using questionnaire method. Questionnaire were collected by mail from 76 discharged patients from a hospice ward from May until the end of October, 2004, and data were analyzed by SPSS 10.0. Results: Admitted patients had needs of pain control (85.5%), non-pain symptoms (63.2%) such as vomiting, dyspnea, ascites, etc, and emotional and spiritual problem solving (28.9%, 14.5%). Interests of patients were health care of himself/herself (65.8%), concern for their spouses left alone (32.9%), and future of their children (15.8%). In families' needs of care of 5 areas, "information on patient's status and treatment/nursing care" was shown most high score ($3.48{\pm}0.62$). In detailed questions, they request most 'to inform the prognosis of patients' and the next is 'to inform the reasons that nursing care was required'. The next highest score was to 'inform family roles' ($3.39{\pm}0.64$), and next was spiritual support ($3.11{\pm}0.79$), and emotional support ($3.08{\pm}0.72$). Expectations of family on the treatment were comfortable dying (73.4%) scored the highest. Patients' families were satisfied with volunteer service most in service area (97.4%). The next was pain control (89.5%) and nursing service (77.6%). Conclusion: Health care staff should identify the actual needs of families caring cancer patients and they should operate realistic programme which can give continuous and assistance by reflecting individual needs and characteristics. With these srategies, the quality of life of patients and families can be improved. And then the intervention programme should be developed to measure subjective nursing care needs of terminally ill cancer patients and their families.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
• /
• v.13 no.1
• /
• pp.41-49
• /
• 2010

Purpose: This study was performed to explore the preference for care near the end-of-life of nurses who had been working in an acute hospital. Methods: Data were collected by using PCEOL-K which was originally developed in U.S. and standardized into Korean version. Two hundred nurses from one acute hospital who agreed to participate in the study filled out questionnaires and 177 questionnaires were analyzed for the study results. Results: Relatively positive preference toward spirituality and pain control and negative preference toward decision making by health care professional were uncovered. Conclusion: Nurses consider patient's autonomy, pain control and spirituality as important factors at the end-of-life care. Further studies regarding the preference for the care near the end-of-life of diverse groups such as patients, doctors, and family members are called for.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
• /
• v.17 no.4
• /
• pp.232-240
• /
• 2014

Purpose: This descriptive study is aimed at understanding how clinical nurses' terminal care attitude and spiritual health affect their terminal care stress. Methods: Data were collected from self-reported questionnaire filled by 238 nurses at a general hospital in G Metropolitan City. Results: The study showed that nurses' attitudes toward terminal care, spiritual health, marital status, and clinical experience largely affect their terminal care stress. In particular, the higher they scored on terminal care attitudes, the lower they scored on terminal care stress. These variables accounted for 52.3% of the total variance. Conclusion: The study shows terminal care attitude is an important factor for terminal care stress perceived by clinical nurses. Therefore, it is necessary to develop an educational intervention program to improve nurses' terminal care attitudes and spiritual health, which in turn would lower their terminal care stress or help them effectively cope with it.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
• /
• v.20 no.2
• /
• pp.122-130
• /
• 2017

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to describe and understand the meaning and the structure of subjective experiences of intensive care nurses with death of patients with do-not-resuscitate (DNR) orders. Methods: Data were collected from eight intensive care nurses at general hospitals using individual in-depth interviews and analyzed by phenomenological research method. Results: The nurses' experiences were grouped into four theme clusters: 1) ambiguity of death without correct answer, 2) a dilemma experienced at the border between death and work, 3) the weight of death that is difficult to carry and 4) death-triggered reflection of life. Conclusion: It is necessary to develop accurate judgment criteria for DNR, detailed regulations on the DNR decision process, guidelines and education on DNR patient care for nurses. It is also needed to develop an intervention program for DNR patients' families.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
• /
• v.20 no.1
• /
• pp.37-45
• /
• 2017

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the relationships between death anxiety and terminal care performance of nurses at long term care hospitals. Methods: Data were collected from 148 nurses working at 12 long term care hospitals in Busan from March 16, 2016 through May 16, 2016. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, one-way ANOVA, $Scheff{\acute{e}}$ test and Pearson's correlation coefficient with SPSS 18.0 for Windows. Results: Terminal care performance was positively correlated with anxiety about other people's death (r=0.310, $P{\leq}0.001$) and that of their own death (r=0.250, P=0.002). Conclusion: It appears necessary to develop a systematical educational program for terminal care nurses of to reduce their death anxiety and improve their terminal care performance.