• Journal of Christian Education in Korea
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• v.75
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• pp.127-152
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• 2023

Purpose of study: This study aims to explore 'labyrinth walking,' a lesser-known Christian spiritual practice within the Korean church. Additionally, it intends to propose ways for implementing labyrinth walking through literature reviews encompassing theory and practice. Research content and method: The article begins with its exploration by defining labyrinth walking from a historical perspective. It was a spiritual practice that existed in the Middle Ages, involving the traversal of a labyrinthine shape, typically a single path on the floor, often accompanied by prayer or contemplation. The contemporary spiritual practice of labyrinth walking was recovered and reinterpreted by Christian scholars and spiritual directors during the mid and late twentieth century. Additionally, within Christianity, labyrinth walking, rich with symbolism representing Jesus' suffering and salvation, baptism, pilgrimage, and purification, comprises five essential steps: preparing, walking with prayer or contemplation, remaining in the center, returning, and journaling and sharing. By merging pilgrimage, walking, prayer, and meditation, the practice of walking the labyrinth can enable people to have an opportunity for retreat, to encounter and be accompanied by God, to experience moments of serenity and healing, to reflect on themselves, to create life-transforming resolutions, and to build a sense of community. As a result, many Korean churches should acknowledge the value of and utilize labyrinth walking to nurture faith and spirituality. Conclusions and Suggestions: Accordingly, this paper suggests some practical ways to employ labyrinth walking as a form of prayer, part of a ritual or religious activity, an embodiment of pilgrimage, and a tranquil and nonverbal experience. Furthermore, the study recommends that Korean churches establish proper goals, consider essential principles for labyrinth design and installation, and follow specific guidelines while conducting labyrinth walks.

• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.121-130
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• 2001

Although the general concept of suffering care includes palliative care technology for terminally ill person to alleviate his pain, it is much more holistic including emotional, spiritual and other life dimension. This inclusive concept of caring can be possible with the fundamental reflection on the human suffering. Far from the concept of pain understood in the context of materialist medical approach, human suffering has many dimensions including aesthetic, psychological, and religious: its meaning is holistic. With this perspective, the experience of the suffering client must be reconsidered before one starts with an objective side or a subjective side of suffering. Indeed, the actual strategies of suffering care can be different depending on the definition of human suffering accepted by practicians. In this caring perspective, 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 for dying person, his family members and the caring team. Despite this impending importance of the inclusive understanding of human suffering, the actual nursing practice still does not reflect this growing understanding of human suffering. This approach, which tried to pursuit the more fundamental meaning of human suffering, can contribute to the development of nursing education and practice which pay attention to the more inclusive view of human suffering.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.270-277
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• 2008

Purpose: This study was done to identify predictors of the fighting spirit or helplessness/hopelessness in the patients' mental adjustment to cancer. Cancer patients' characteristics like performance status, metastasis and duration of diagnosis with demographic factors, spiritual support and social support were used as predictors of a fighting spirit or helplessness/hopelessness. Methods: A total of 124 ambulatory cancer patients completed the Mental Adjustment to Cancer (MAC) scale and responded in a structured instrument about their characteristics, spiritual and social support. Results: The results of multiple regression analysis revealed that confidence in the supporter ($R^2=.114$, p=.000), duration of cancer diagnosis ($R^2=.041$, p=.000) and faith ($R^2=.030$, p=.000) were predictive of a fighting spirit ($R^2=.185$, p=.000); whereas, education ($R^2= .074$, p=.001), performance status ($R^2=.055$, p=.000), satisfaction with social support ($R^2=.046$, p=.000), and metastasis ($R^2=.037$, p=.000) were predictive of helplessness/hopelessness ($R^2=.202$, p=.000). Conclusion: Social support, spiritual support and disease related factors like metastasis, performance status, and duration of cancer diagnosis need to be considered in a psychosocial nursing intervention for a fighting spirit or helplessness/hopelessness.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.15
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• pp.6331-6334
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• 2015

Background: The main purpose of this study was to survey the education and training of certified gynecologic oncologists and fellows in Thailand. A secondary objective was to study the problems in fellowship training regarding palliative care for gynecologic cancer patients. Materials and Methods: A descriptive study was conducted by sending a questionnaire regarding palliative care education to all certified gynecologic oncologists and gynecologic oncology fellows in Thailand. The contents of the survey included fellowship training experience, caring for the dying, patient preparation, attitudes and respondent characteristics. Statistics were analyzed by percentage, mean and standard deviation and chi-square. Results: One hundred seventy completed questionnaires were returned; the response rate was 66%. Most certified gynecologic oncologists and fellows in gynecologic oncology have a positive attitude towards palliative care education, and agree that "psychological distress can result in severe physical suffering". It was found that the curriculum of gynecologic oncology fellowship training equally emphasizes three aspects, namely managing post-operative complications, managing a patient at the end of life and managing a patient with gynecologic oncology. As for experiential training during the fellowship of gynecologic oncology, education regarding breaking bad news, discussion about goals of care and procedures for symptoms control were mostly on-the-job training without explicit teaching. In addition, only 42.9 % of respondents were explicitly taught the coping skill for managing their own stress when caring for palliative patients during fellowship training. Most of respondents rated their clinical competency for palliative care in the "moderately well prepared" level, and the lowest score of the competency was the issue of spiritual care. Conclusions: Almost all certified gynecologic oncologists and fellows in gynecologic oncology have a positive attitude towards learning and teaching in palliative care. In this study, some issues were identified for improving palliative care education such as proper training under the supervision of a mentor, teaching how to deal with work stress, competency in spiritual care and attitudes on responsibility for bereavement care.

• Korean Journal of Hospice Care
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.14-25
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• 2005

This study was conducted to examine the present state, types of services, difficulties, education programs, motivation, satisfaction and attitude of hospice volunteers and also to suggest supporting programs for the volunteer. For these purposes, a questionnaire was distributed among the 200 hospice volunteers in ten hospice organizations in Daejeon and Chungcheong province. In this research, 85.5% of the respondents were women and most of them were housewives in their forties and fifties. The majority of hospice volunteers had an education background of more than high school. Christianity (94%) was the dominant religion of volunteers. Among the service area of the hospice, emotional caring, such as listening closely and establishing empathy were the most frequently done by the respondents and the next one was spiritual care. Hospice volunteers who had started with altruistic motivation show more dynamic activities in emotional, spiritual, physical caring and so on, than those with non-altruistic motivation. Most of the respondents expressed that they felt a hospice volunteer was valuable. However they had a hard time to overcome the sorrow coming from sharing empathy with the dying patients. Those who had started with altruistic motivation usually took part in two times per a week and had more positive attitude. Volunteers who had been working more than five years showed better attitude than those who had been working less than three years. The longer the voluntary services, the more positive attitude experienced by volunteers. Hospice volunteers encountered the most considerable difficulty with lack of background knowledge and their actual capability. Insufficiency of time was the next reason for the considerable difficulty of the hospice volunteer. On the other hand, those who served more than twice per week replied that lack of background knowledge and their capability were the least considerable difficulty. Insufficiency of time was the reason of difficulty for male volunteers, as well as for females under thirty and those in their forties and fifties respectively. Generally most of the hospice volunteers (70%) were satisfied with their services and they usually satisfied with physical caring, spiritual caring, hospice's family caring. The less difficulty in voluntary services, more satisfaction for the volunteers in the end. There is a positive correlation between a attitude of the hospice volunteer and frequency of voluntary services while the volunteers' difficulty affect negatively their attitude as well as the frequency of voluntary services. Most of the hospice volunteers want to have more education about basic skills, volunteer's attitude and role, spirituality, the way of attending on the hospice and so on. Most of them considered discussion and sharing different cases as the most effective method. They also wish to had more supporting programs for the hospice volunteers(in the order of their needs) such as regular events, newsletters, personal concern, social meetings among the volunteers, insurance and minimum expenses. Based on the study results, more programs should be run in order to activate the voluntary services regardless of their gender and education background. A continuous practical supporting policy and education programs are required in order to provide special education and training courses considering every field of voluntary services. Expanding the role of the volunteers allows them more opportunities to take part in voluntary services and th activate participation. It is necessary to establish a new hospice system as a part public medical system, which can not only facilitate the voluntary services for a hospice but also enhance professional hospice volunteers. Finally, experts are needed to operate the voluntary services effectively.

• Asian Oncology Nursing
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.83-92
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• 2011

Purpose: This study was to analyze the characteristics and effect size of intervention studies in reference to cancer pain. Methods: In order to conduct a meta-analysis, a total of 208 studies were retrieved from search engine. And 29 studies published from 2000 to 2010 were selected upon their satisfaction with the inclusion criteria. The data was analyzed by the RevMan 5.0 program of Cochrane library. Results: 1) Intervention studies included 7 studies on reflexology (24.1%), 5 for pain management education (17.2%), 3 studies for each music therapy, spiritual care and hand massage (10.3%, respectively), and 2 studies for each hospice and horticultural therapy (6.7%, respectively). 2) The effect size of the intervention studies were high in hand massage (d=-0.98), reflexology (d=-0.74), spiritual care (d=-0.72), pain management education (d=-0.66), music therapy (d=-0.41), and horticultural therapy (d=-0.32). Conclusion: This study suggest that non-drug therapy can reduce the levels of cancer pain intensity, even though the numbers of intervention studies and randomized controlled trials are very rare.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.179-202
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• 2005

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop the health promotion program for rural elderly through PRECEDE process. Method: The health promotion program was developed based on the preliminary diagnosis. The data collection was performed from March 10th to April 9th, 2003. The subjects were selected at Mari Myun, Geochang Gun, in Korea. The preliminary diagnosis was examined with the 115 elders. Data was analyzed by descriptive statistics and Cronbach's n test with SPSS/Win 10.0 program. Results: The health promotion program was developed based on diagnostic result using PRECEDE model. The developed program was corrected and revised with the advices from 6 experts. The final program included health responsibility(cancer prevention and early detection, hygienic, false teeth management no smoking and moderation in drink, and chronic disease prevention and management), physical activity(6 kinds of exercise), nutrition(low sodium diet calcium intake, and right eating habit), spiritual growth(spiritual demand and death preparation teaching), interpersonal relations(relationship with couple, children, grandchildren, neighborhood), and stress management(sports dance, foot massage, positive thought, and song class). Conclusion: I propose that it is necessary to identity the effect of health promotion program for rural elderly. And strategy development that can spread the health promotion program elderly is needed.

• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.136-144
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• 2009

Purpose: To evaluate the effects of a logotherapy education program. Methods: A nonequivalent control group, non-synchronized design was conducted with a convenience sample of 29 children with cancer. The experimental group (n=17) participated in the logotherapy education program which consisted of 5 daily sessions for one week. The control group (n=12) received the usual nursing care. The effects were measured using suffering, adolescent meaning in life (AMIL), and spiritual well-being (SWBS) scales. Results: There were significant differences in suffering (W=153.00, p<.05) and meaning in life (W=78.00, p<.05) between the experimental and control groups. However, there was no significant difference in spiritual well-being (W=136.50, p>.05). Conclusions: Logotherapy was effective in reducing suffering and improving the meaning in life. Logotherapy can be utilized for adolescents with terminal cancer to prevent existential distress and improve their quality of life.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.97-109
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to investigate the reading habits, reading patterns and reading motivation of 362 college students from the capital area majoring in child development or early childhood education. The main findings of this study were as follows. Firstly, 70 percent of students spent less than three hours a week on reading academic or school-related material, and 75 percent spent less than three hours a week on independent or recreational reading. Students most preferred reading the "cultural" genre and least preferred reading the "human life(spiritual)" genre. The "cultural" and the "human life(spiritual)" genres also represented the most and least frequently read genres, respectively. Secondly, students presented high-level reading patterns, in that they previewed the reading material before reading, understood the meaning of it during reading, and shared their reading experience with others after reading. Thirdly, the average reading motivation levels scored near the midpoint on a five-point scale. Fourthly, students with higher reading motivation levels displayed higher reading frequencies and preference levels for each genre, with the exception of the "fiction and humor" genre. Moreover, students with higher levels of reading motivation received higher ratings for their reading patterns.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.20 no.11
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• pp.501-510
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• 2020

The aim of this study was to examine the characteristics of views of life and death and spiritual wellbeing of medical and non-medical university students and to compare their correlation. To this end, 95 medical students from H University and 103 non-medical students from A University were sampled for this research. The research results are as follows: For both medical and non-medical university students, negative meaning of death was found to be most high among sub-factors of views of life and death. Medical and non-medical university students differed in death anxiety and life respect will as medical students showed lower death anxiety and higher life respect will than non-medical students. As a result of analyzing the correlation between view of life and death and the sub-factors of spiritual wellbeing, religious wellbeing showed negative correlation with meaning of death, and both existential and religious wellbeing showed positive correlation with life respect will in medical university students. The results of this study are expected to be helpful in constructing differentiated contents in biomedical ethics education for medical university students who will be exposed to medical deaths.