• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.119-130
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• 2017

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to understand the nurses' experiences of end of life care of older adults with dementia living in long-term care hospitals and geriatric care facilities. Methods: The participants were nine nurses. Open in-depth interviews were used to collect data from June, 2016 to November, 2016. Colaizzi's phenomenological approach was used to analyze the data. Results: Three categories were identified. The nurses' reported experiences of end of life care of older adults with dementia were 'warm care with living together', 'care for family', and the 'self-reflection and responsibility as a nurse'. There were ten clusters of themes and 24 themes. The participants stated that the end of life care of older adults with dementia were individualized holistic care with dignity, being in older adults with dementia and family, and responsibility as a professional. Nurses reported the need for dementia hospice care. Conclusion: These results could be considered in planning nursing intervention for hospice care. The findings support the need for educational strategies and programs to improve end of life care among older adults with dementia.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.159-168
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• 2022

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the impacts of end-of-life care competency and ethical dilemmas on psychological burnout in nurses who care for terminal cancer patients. Methods: A cross-sectional study of 160 nurses who cared for terminal cancer patients was conducted. The participants were recruited from the hospice-palliative care wards, hematology or oncology wards, or intensive care units of three general hospitals in a single metropolitan area. Data were collected using a self-administered survey to assess end-oflife care competency, ethical dilemmas, psychological burnout, and general sociodemographic characteristics. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, the independent ttest, analysis of variance, Pearson correlation coefficients, and hierarchical linear regression analysis using SPSS for Windows (version 26.0). Results: Psychological burnout was significantly correlated with end-of-life care competency (r=-0.23, P=0.003) but not with ethical dilemmas. The results of the hierarchical linear regression analysis indicated that endof-life care competency (β=-0.280, P=0.010) and ethical dilemmas (β=0.275, P=0.037) were significant predictors of psychological burnout, after adjusting for age, religious status, clinical experience, and unit type. Conclusion: The current study's findings demonstrate that end-of-life care competency and ethical dilemmas are crucial factors that affect psychological burnout in nurses who care for terminal cancer patients. Substantive education programs must be developed to improve nurses' competencies in end-of-life care and ethical dilemmas to decrease psychological burnout.

• The Korean Journal of Emergency Medical Services
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.107-120
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• 2016

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors influencing death anxiety, hospices knowledge, and attitude towards end-of-life care among paramedic students. Methods: A self-reported questionnaire was completed by 196 paramedic students in D university college in J city from November 2011 to November 2014. The study instruments included death anxiety, hospices knowledge, and attitude towards end-of-life care. Data were analyzed by t test, ANOVA, post hoc $Scheff{\acute{e}}$ test, Pearson's correlation test, and stepwise multiple regression analysis using SPSS v. 20.0. Results: According to a stepwise regression on the factors influencing attitudes towards end-of-life care, 80.4% of variance (F=161.360, p<.001) was explained by experience of death, hospices knowledge, disappearance of death anxiety, satisfaction with relationships (${\geq}2$) and student attitude toward end-of-life care. In addition, 44.1% of the variance (F=39.434, p<.001) was explained by experience of death, satisfaction with relationship(${\leq}4$), warning of others about death anxiety, and family attitude towards end-of-life care. Conclusion: The attitude towards end-of-life care was influenced by hospices knowledge and death anxiety in paramedic students. It is necessary to provide training in understanding attitudes towards death anxiety and end-of-life care. An effective educational program should be developed and implemented among paramedic students to improve their awareness of death and anxiety hospices knowledge.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.199-211
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• 2020

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe the essence and the meaning of nurses' experiences of end-of-life care (EOLC) for elderly patients in the long-term care hospitals (LTCHs). Methods: Data were gathered from 12 nurses who had been working at LTCHs in Korea through one-on-one interviews and the data were analyzed by Colaizzi's phenomenological method. Results: The emergent 5 themes were 'Doing the best for protecting patients' life', 'Providing a comfortable dying process for patients', 'Supporting a family's keeping on patient's death', 'Reflecting on life' and 'Desiring for the establishment of a humanity end-of-life care environment'. Conclusion: The end-of-life care for the elderly patients includes supporting elderly patients' comfortable dying process and helping the family keep the death of the elderly. The results indicated that physical facilities and end-of-life nursing capacity should be established in LTCHs for improving the quality of EOLC.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.127-133
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• 2012

Purpose: This study was conducted to assess needs at each end-of-life care stage and to analyze importance and difficulty of care needs for home care nursing among non-cancer patients. Methods: We used a retrospective design. Total eligible patients were 117 at the ages of 40 and over, who continuously received home care nursing throughout beginning, stable, and near death stages, and finally died at home from January 1, 2006 to December 31, 2006. Descriptive statistics, Cochran's Q test, Friedman's test were used for data analysis. Results: In the area of physical care, the care need for 'assistance for activities in daily life' was significantly highest in the beginning stage. The care need for 'aggravation or adverse changes in physical symptoms' was significantly increased in the near death stage. In the area of psychospiritual care, 'family's psychological burden' was revealed as having the highest rate of care needs in the every stage. Conclusion: Future intervention should consider assessing care needs in end-of-life care for non-cancer patients who are provided with home care nursing.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.12 no.9
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• pp.273-283
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• 2021

The purpose of this study is to identify factors affecting the stress of End-of-life care in long-term care hospitals and to identify perception and education requirement of End-of-life care. The subjects of this study were 163 nurses who had worked at seven long-term care hospitals in Gyeongsangnam-do for more than six months and had more than one end-of-life care experience. They agreed to participate in the study using structured questionnaires from May 27 to June 7, 2021. As a result of this study, the most influential factor for the terminal care stress of the nurses in the long-term care hospitals is the education needs of End-of-life care(β=.25, p=.001). The following factors have been identified death anxiety (β=.21, p=.005), satisfaction with the End-of-life care environment (β=.17, p=.017), and End-of-life care perception(β=-.15, p=.040). Based on the results of this study, it is necessary to meet the educational needs of the End-of-life care for the nurses in the long-term care hospitals in order to relieve their stress. For this, it is necessary to develop and apply educational programs for End-of-life care.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.93-102
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• 2020

Purpose: The Act on Hospice and Palliative Care and Decisions on Life-Sustaining Treatment for Patients at the End of Life came into force in February 2018 in Korea. This study reviews the practices of end-of-life care for patients who withdrew or withheld life-sustaining treatment at a tertiary care hospital, addresses the limitations of the law, and discusses necessary steps to promote patient-centered self-determination. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the medical records of patients who died after agreeing to withhold life-sustaining treatment in 2018 at our university hospital. The cause of death, the intensity of end-of-life care, and other characteristics were reviewed and statistically analyzed. Results: Of a total of 334 patients, 231 (69%) died from cancer. The decision to stop life-sustaining treatment was made by family members for 178 patients overall (53.3%) and for 101 (43.7%) cancer patients, regardless of the patient's wishes. When the patient decided to stop life-sustaining treatment, the time from the authorization to withhold life-sustaining treatment to death was longer than when the decision was made by family members (28.7±41.3 vs 10.5±23.2 days, P<0.001). Conclusion: In many cases, the decision to discontinue life-sustaining treatment was made by the family, not by the patient. In order to protect human dignity based on the patients' self-determination, it is necessary for patients to understand their disease based on careful explanations from physicians. Ongoing survey-based research will be necessary in the future.

• Journal of Korean Critical Care Nursing
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.41-50
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• 2017

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe what critical care nurses perceived about life-sustaining treatment at end of life. Methods: A qualitative content analysis method was utilized. The unit of analysis was interview text obtained from fifty critical care nurses of a general hospital. Results: Seven categories in two content areas were abstracted. In the negative perception area, the following five categories were abstracted: patients' suffering, dying with damaged dignity, patients' isolation from family members, regret about choosing life-sustaining treatment, and family members' burden. In the positive perception area, the following two categories were abstracted: willingness to sustain life and duty as family members. Conclusions: Nurses have better competencies pertaining to understanding patients' responses and suffering than any other health care professions do. Nurses should play an important role in advocating for patients and their family in the process of end-of-life care decision making.

• Journal of muscle and joint health
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.111-119
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• 2023

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe end-of-life care stress, compassionate competence, and job satisfaction among nurses caring for cancer patients and to identify the relationship between variables. Methods: The participants comprised 141 nurses at the D cancer center in Busan metropolitan city. Data were collected from October 14 to the 31, 2022. The data were analyzed using the SPSS/WIN 29.0 program. Results: There was a significantly positive correlation between a participnat's job satisfaction and compassionate competence (r=.45, p<.001), and end-of-life care stress (r=.42, p<.001). Conclusion: Compassionate competence and end-of-life care experience among nurses caring for cancer patients are factors that influence job satisfaction. A program that can improve compassionate competence should be developed to improve job satisfaction.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.17 no.9
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• pp.301-310
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• 2019

This study aims to examine eligibilities, services and delivery of services for the current end-of-life care and analyze the quality control of services for end-of-life care. We analyzed the literature and laws on end-of-life systems in Korean and the United States. Current end-of-life care, hospice and palliative care in Korea is being provided mainly in hospital setting. Quality control for the services focuses on setting the criteria for structures in hospitals (i.e. staffing, facilities and equipment). Whereas American end-of-life care system has much broader eligibility for service beneficiaries and provides care mostly at home. Also quality control for services includes process (delivering service) and outcomes, such as monitoring performance indicators and consumer's satisfaction. This is linked to annual payment. The comparative analysis findings contributed to give the next direction of current Korean end-of-life care system. It is nessary to establish the better and extensive end-of-life care system in Korea in considering other countries' end-of-life care systems based on more future research.