• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.27-43
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• 1970

This study is designed to find out proper nursing activities for the needs of the colostomy patients, i.e., mental and psychological as well as physical needs for rapid recovery, and to help them build up the follow-up care for proper social adjustment. The study is based on 268 cases out of 381 colostomy patient's records kept in Ewha Womans University Hospital, Yonsei Medical Center, and National Medical Center in between the period from Jan. 1953 to Jan. 1970. The items of study are mainly on etiology, sex, age, duration of hospitalization, mortality rate, seasonal frequency, time from the onset of illness to the admission of the hospital, signs and symptoms. 1. Frequency of onset by etiology: Neoplastic disease 112 cases (42%), Inflammatory disease 33 cases (12%), Congenital malformation 30 cases (11%), Intussusception 25 cases (9.3%), Trauma 24 cases (9%), Volvulus 17 cases (6.3%), and Crohn's disease 6 cases (2.2%). 2. By sex: male 167 cases (62.9%), and female 101 cases (37.1%). So the ratio of portion of male and female 2:1. 3. By age: under 1·year·old 27 cases (10.1%) highest, 41-50 yrs 54 cases (20.2%), 51-60 yrs 42 cases (15.5%), above 71 yrs 5 cases (1.9%). 4. Duration of hospitalization: the shortest is 2-days and the longest is 470 days. 1-20-days 52%, 40-60 days 14%. 5. Mortality rate: Under the 10-days-admission 19.5%, and the beyond 30-days-admission 3.9%. 6. Seasonal frequency: Higher in summer (32% ). 7. Signs and symptoms: abdominal pain (56%), abdominal distention (54%), vomiting (40%), bloody mucoid diarrhea (38%) , pain of anal region (18%), abdominal tenderness, anorexia, indigestion, constipation, disuria, tenesmus, high fever and chilling sensation, bile tingled vomiting. Nursing activities for the patient's physical needs are as follows: Skin care for colostomy region, Prevention of colostomy constriction and depression, Removal of an offensive odor, The use of colostomy bag-selection for, and demonstration of the use of inexpensive colostomy irrigation equipment, Personal hygiene, general skin care, care of hair, finger nails and toe-nails, Oral hygiene, sleep and rest, aquate, Daily activities, etc. Measures for regulation of bowl movement. Keeping the instruction of taking food, Preparing the meal and help for anorexia, Constipation and it's solution, Prevention of diarrhea, helping the removal of mucous, and stretch constricted steam as needed. Nursing activities for pt's socio-psychological needs are as follows; Help the patient to make decision for the operation, Remove pt's anxiety toward operation and anesthesia, To meet the pt's spiritual needs at his death bed, Help to establish family and friends cooperation, Help to reduce anxiety at the time of admission and it's solution, Help to meet religious need, Help to remove pt's anxiety for loosing his job and family maintenance, Follow-up studies for 7 cases have been done to implement the present thesis. The items of the personal interviews with the patients are as follows: Acceptability for artificial anus, The most anxious thing they had in mind at the time of discharge, The most anxious thing they hat·e in mind at present, Their friends and family's attitudes toward the patient after operation, Relations with other colostomy patients, Emotional damage from the operation, Physical problem of enema, irrigation, Control of diet, Skin care, Control of offensive odor, Patient's suggestions to nurses during hospital stay and after discharge. In conclusion, the follow-up care for colostomy patients shares equal weight or perhaps more than the post-operative care. The follow-up care should include the spiritual care for moral support of the patient, to drag him out of isolation and estrangement, and make him fully participate in social activities. It is suggested that the following measures would help to rehabilitate the colostomy patients (1) mutual acquaintance with other colostomy patients if possible form a sort of club for the colostomy patient to exchange their experiences in care (2) through the team work of doctor, nurse and rehabilitation specialists, to have a sort of concerted effort for betterment of the patient.

• Korean Journal of Hospice Care
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.28-48
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• 2002

The advances of medical technologies have not only prolonged human life span, but also extended suffering period for the patients with incurable medical diseases. Hospice movement was developed to help these patients keep dignity and lives peaceful at the end of their life. Since many patients prefer to spend the last moment of life at home with their family, hospice home care has become very popular worldwide. The purpose of this study for a promotion and development of hospice home care in Korea, and features basic research on medical profession's knowledge and attitudes to hospice home care. This study which was used for the research questionnaires developed by the researcher that were answered by 100 physicians and 127 nurses in a general hospital. Data were collected from April 22, 2002 to May 10, 2002. The SPSS was used to make a comparative analysis of the frequency, percentile, ANOVA, and x2-test. The results of the study were as follows; 1.The medical profession showed high level of knowledge of the definition and philosophy of hospice. However, the physician group of the examinees showed insufficient knowledge of the fact that hospice care includes bereavement care, while the nurse group's response to the same question showed a significant difference(x2=10.752, p=.001). 2.For whom the hospice home care is provided, 95.6% of the respondents showed very high level of knowledge as answering that the incurable terminal illness patients and their families are the beneficiaries of hospice care. The respondents counted nurses, volunteers, pastors, physicians and social workers, consecutively, as hospice care providers. More nurse were positive toward pastors than physicians in regarding as a hospice care provider by a significant difference(x2=11.634, p=.001). 3.For when to referral hospice home care to the patients, only 34.2% answered that patients with less than 6 months of survival time are advised to receive hospice care, reflecting very low level of knowledge. 23.0% of the physicians and 48.0% of the nurses answered that hospice care should be provided when death is imminent, making a significant difference between the two groups(x2=6.413, p=.000). 4.To promote hospice activities, 87.2% pointed out that it is crucial to make general people, including those engaging in the medical field, more aware of hospice. 79.7% answered that a national hospice management should be developed, marking a significant difference between the physician group and nurse group(x2=10.485, p=.001). 5.Advantages of hospice home care are 87.2% responded that patients can have better rest at home receiving hospice home care. Economical merit was brought forward as one of the advantages also, where there was a significant difference between the physicians group and nurse group(x2=7.009, p=.008). 6.The medical professions' attitude to hospice home care are 92.8% of the physicians answered that they would advise incurable terminally ill patients to be discharged from hospital, with 44.3% of them advising the patients to receive hospice home care after leaving the hospital. From the nurses' point of view, 20.9% of the terminally ill patients are being referred to hospice home care after discharge, which makes a significant difference from the physicians' response(x2=19.121, p=.001). 7. 30.6% of physicians have referred terminally ill patients to hospice home care, 75.9% of whom were satisfied with their decision. Those physicians who have never referred their patients to hospice home care either did not know how to do it(66.7%) or were afraid of losing trust by giving the patients an impression of giving up(27.3%). 94.9% of the physicians responded that they would refer their last stage patients to a doctor who is involving palliative care. 8.Only 36.2% of nurses have suggested to physicians that refer the terminally ill patients discharged from the hospital to hospice home care. Once suggested, 95.8% of the physicians have accepted the suggestion. Nurses were reluctant to suggest hospice home care to the physicians, as 48.8% of the nurses said they did not want to. From the result of this study the following conclusion can be drawn, the medical profession's awareness of general hospice care has been increased greatly compared to the results of the previously performed studies. However, this study result also shows that their knowledge of hospice home care is not good enough yet. There is a need for high recommended that medical education institute and develop regular courses on various types of hospice care. Medical field training courses for physicians and nurses will be very helpful as well. It is also important to train hospice experts such as palliative physicians and develop a national hospice management urgently in order to improve the hospice care in Korea.