• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.227-234
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• 2015

Purpose: This study was done to analyze how a death preparation education program have the effects on awareness of hospice palliative care and withdrawing life sustaining treatment in older adults. Methods: This study employed a non-equivalent control group design among quasi-experimental designs. The experimental group was comprised with 35 adults and the control group with 40 adults. The death preparation program consisted of five two-hour sessions and was administered once a week for five straight weeks. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, t-test, ${\chi}^2$ test, Fisher's exact test, and ANCOVA using SPSS version 18.0. Results: The mean age of the participants was 66.2 years. A significant difference between the experimental and control groups was observed in withdrawing life sustaining treatment (F=3.380, P=0.040). However, no significant difference was found in awareness of hospice palliative care (F=0.163, P=0.850). Conclusion: The study results indicate that death preparation training could positively affect people's awareness of withdrawing life sustaining treatment. More studies should be conducted to explore effects of death preparation education for all ages and help people better understand hospice palliative care.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.35-42
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• 2007

Purpose: Colorectal ranter is the 4th leading cause of cancer death in Korea and the prevalence is increasing continuously. This study was aimed to figure out the problems through the clinical consideration about terminal colorectal ranter patients who had died in hospice unit. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records in 78 patients with colorectal ranter who had admitted, received palliative care, and died in a hospice unit between April 2003 and November 2006. Results: The median age of patients was 59.6 years with 45 men (58%) and 24 women (42%). The median survival in hospice and palliative care was 36 days. The median hospitalization was 22 days. The most prevalent reason for admission was pain (38 patients, 49%), and the most common symptom was also pain (70 patients, 90%). Forty eight patients (62%) took analgesics before hospice referral. Twenty seven patients (65%) of 45 patients with intestinal obstruction have been performed palliative procedures. Median survival of patients with palliative procedure was higher than that of no palliative procedure group (47 days vs 19 days, P-value=0.005). Conclusion: The duration of hospice and palliative care was not enough to care the terminal colorectal cancer. Therefore, we suggest that proper education and information should be provided to physician, patients and their family members for effective hospice and palliative care.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.130-134
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• 2021

In the era of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), social distancing and strict visitation policies at hospitals have made it difficult for medical staff to provide high-quality end-of-life (EOL) care to dying patients and their families. There are various issues related to EOL care, including psychological problems of patients and their families, difficulties in EOL decision-making, the complicated grief of the bereaved family, moral distress, and exhaustion of medical staff. In relation to these issues, we aimed to discuss practical considerations in providing high-quality EOL care in the COVID-19 pandemic. First, medical staff should discuss advance care planning as early as possible and use the parallel planning strategy. Second, medical staff should play a role in facilitating patient-family communication. Third, medical staff should actively and proactively evaluate and alleviate dying patients' symptoms using non-verbal communication. Lastly, medical staff should provide care for family members of the dying patient, who may be particularly vulnerable to post-bereavement problems in the COVID-19 era. Establishing a system of screening high-risk individuals for complicated grief and connecting them to bereavement support services might be considered. Despite the challenging and limited environment, providing EOL care is essential for patients to die with dignity in peace and for the remaining family to return to life after the loved one's death. Efforts considering the practical issues faced by all medical staff and healthcare institutions caring for dying patients should be made.

• Korean Journal of Hospice Care
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.55-67
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• 2008

Purpose: This study was to test the effects of wholistic hospice nursing intervention program on pain and anxiety for in-patient of hospice palliative care unit. This study's design was one-group pre-post test quasi- experimental research. Methods: The subjects of study were 27 patients who were over 18 years old and admitted in hospice palliative care unit of S hospital in P city with agreement in hospice palliative care in their terminal disease. The experimental group subjects participated in holistic hospice nursing program took 120 minutes per session, a total of 1,200 minutes altogether for 10 sessions. The period of data collection was from April 6, 2004 to April 20, 2005. The collected data were analyzed by Paired t-test with SPSS/WIN 12.0 program. A Wholistic Hospice Nursing Intervention Program (named ‘Rainbow Program’) was used as a experimental tool in this study. This was developed by the authors. It was provided by interdisciplinary hospice team (nurses, medical doctors, social worker, pastors, art therapists, and volunteers). In addition, Korean Version of Brief Pain Inventory (BPI-K) by Young-Ho Yun(1998) was used to test degree of pain in physical aspect. And State-Anxiety Inventory was developed by Spielberger(1975) and translated by Kim, Jung-Tack & Shin, Dong-Gyun(1978) was used to test the degree of state-anxiety in emotional aspect. Results: (1) Hypothesis No. 1 "The experimental group which received Wholistic Hospice Nursing Program will have a lower degree of pain than before" was supported (t=-10.585, P= .000). (2) Hypothesis No. 2 "The experimental group which received Wholistic Hospice Nursing Program will have a lower degree of state-anxiety than before" was supported (t=-8.234, P= .000). Conclusion: Our results testified that this Wholistic Hospice Nursing Intervention Program was effective to decrease pain and state-anxiety of the in-patients of hospice palliative care unit. Therefore it can be used and applied actively in practice as a useful model of interdisciplinary team approach by hospice professionals in hospice palliative care unit.

• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.45-52
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• 2002

Recently cancer, AIDS, chronic sickness have increased according to the elevation of socioeconomic level and fast change of lifestyle. The number of patients receiving terminal care increased fairly because the span of life is extended by development of medicinal technology. Also necessity of hospice and palliative care was risen according to the request of terminal patients that remove pain and keep calm life by interest about quality of life. However architectural plan and type specialization of facility which can correspond team's composition and supplied nursing program are not consisting. This study researches about care environment of hospice facility plan through investigation into terminal patient's special quality. The purpose of this study is to propose fundamental datas of hospice facility for architectural plan through comparative analysis of cases of domestic and outside facilities.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.101-110
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• 2002

Purpose : With the elongation of the average life span, the main causes of death are chronicle illness including cancers resulting in a large amount of medical resources. And there are still many patients to whom a sufficient medical care is not given. All these bring on the uneven distribution of medical resources together with the increase of medical cost. Hence, an efficient system should be set up to solve these problems. Methods : The hospice draws a great attention as a resolution of high medical cost and uneven medical resource distribution, and has been proved to be an alternative to the existing medical system. So, the characteristics of the hospice has been reviewed, particularly with respect to its scopes and related resources. And by tracking the actual cases, the necessary services and supports are investigated. Results : The intrinsic characteristics of hospice is that it executes not only the medical exercise but also all the subjects related with patients and their families. And the hospice is performed not only by the medical experts but also by all the disciplines including social and spiritual affairs. This indicates that the hospice requires the integrated system comprised of medical, social and other welfare entities. Conclusion : To establish the actual hospice, an efficient and systematic integration of all the existing medical and other welfare resources in the local society is necessary. The most practical way is the networking of resources, which practices the hospice more efficiently without additional investment.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.124-136
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• 2018

Purpose: This descriptive study is aimed at identifying how nursing hospital workers' performance of end-of-life care is influenced by their knowledge and awareness of hospice palliative care, attitude towards end-of-life care, performance, importance, awareness of death and the factors. Methods: A self-reported questionnaire was used to collect data from 113 workers at an accredited nursing hospital in K province. Variables were their knowledge and awareness of hospice palliative care, attitude towards end-of-life care, end-of-life care performance and importance and awareness of death. An analysis was performed with the frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, t-test, ANOVA, Scheffe's test, Pearson's correlation coefficient and multiple regression using IBM SPSS 21.0. Results: The factors affecting the nursing hospital workers' end-of-life care performance were the importance of end-of-life care and their marital status, which showed an explanatory power of 38.2%. Conclusion: In order to improve the nursing hospital workers' end-of-life care performance, a training on the importance of end-of-life care should be provided. Therefore, we would like to propose establishing administrative measures such as 1) efficient staffing to help the caregivers better perform what they think is important, 2) development of a training program that can improve their performance of end-of-life nursing care and 3) a study to verify the effectiveness of the program.

• 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.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.289-300
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• 2014

Purpose: The aim of this research was to explore nurses' knowledge of and attitudes toward pediatric palliative care (PPC) in Korea. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional design was used. A total of 196 participants were recruited from the ELNEC-PPC course held in Seoul, Korea. All participants completed a 20-item survey questionnaire which assessed knowledge of and attitudes toward PPC using a 7-point Likert scale. Results: Nurses' knowledge of PPC correlated with their educational level and work experience in the pediatric unit and hospice care unit. The work experience in the pediatric unit, career length in PPC and completion of palliative education course made differences in the attitudes toward PPC. Married nurses scored significantly higher on the parental rights in determining palliative care service for their child, and nurses with master's degree or higher showed a higher level of understanding of and attitudes toward the differences between PPC and adult palliative care. Conclusion: The factors influencing nurses' knowledge of and attitudes toward PPC need be considered to develop a pediatric palliative training program.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.21-28
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• 2007

Although hospice care includes palliative care technology in terminally ill person for pain, it is much more holistic including emotional, spiritual and other life dimension. Human suffering that experiencing the hospice client must be reconsidered whether one starts with an objective side or a subjective side of suffering, the strategies about the expanded consciousness is important. In the hospice caring perspectives, the body, mind and spirit are integrated so the objectivity and subjectivity can merge; the extended awareness with inner resource or energy, and the positive thinking about the God is meaningful especially dying person, family member, and the hospice team.