• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.16-22
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• 1999

Purpose : Today, people usually die in hospitals and institution-sterile and strange, and equipped with a complex range of technology capable of supporting and prolonging life, frequently only biological one, when a return to health and vitality is no longer possible. Consequently, 'dying with dignity' has become a slogan of opposition to useless and degrading prolongation of life when a patient's organ, though still minimally functional, can no longer support or permit the exercise of self-fulfilling personal control over life's events. Dying with dignity, however, means entirely different things to different people. This study is to investigate the college students' attitude on terminal care and passive euthanasia. Methods : During June 1997, 337 college students participated in this study by responding to the pre-made questionnaire. It deft with the attitude to passive euthanasia, hospice, the most suffering fear facing the death, the preferred place and person to be with if dying. Results : 63.2% of subjects agreed to passive euthanasia. Only 14.2.% of college students can explain the concept of hospice, exactly They got the information about hospice by TV(43%), book(33.5%), religious group(12%) in order. The preferred death place was home(76.6%) and hospital(11.9%) in order. The Most suffering fear facing the death were about unknown(41.5%), loosing colleague(13.6%), pain(11%), isolation(6.5%) in order. Conclusion : About two-thirds of college students agreed to passive euthanasia. But euthanasia is dangerous and unnecessary. We should vigorously promote programmes of education in hospice and palliative medicine and care.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.162-178
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• 1974

The present study is purported to provide a basic information to be utilized by nurses to care and attend effectively for patients nearing the moment of death. Therefore, the primary purpose of the study has been placed upon grasping an understanding of the trends of death in general. For this purpose: 1. By utilizing the schneidman questionnaire, the trend of death has been categorized by 6 parts and analyzed. 2. A search has been conducted to find out dying patient's needs, nurse's attitudes viewed by the patient, and nurse attitudes to dying patient. The followings are itemized results of analysis: 1. Analysis by the schneidman questionnaire. (1) In general concepts of death. the first sighting of the occurrence of death was experienced upon strangers, grandfather and great grandfather. The death is openly discussed among people of all ages and sex. Ages in which the death is mostly feared were from 12 to well over 70 yews old that are evenly distributed regardless of difference in age. (2) As to the attitudes toward death the occurrence of death to most closely associated person influenced most upon the attitude of their own termination of lives. Among the reading materials, the maximum influence was effected by the Bible. In terms of religion, the thoughts of death were Influenced by religions education in case of the believers of the western religions (36%), and by their own health and physical conditions in case of the believers in the oriental religions (35%). In case of non-believer, their attitude toward death were largely determined through their own thinking meditation (45%). People aged 20 or thereunder revealed that they wished to know the day of their own death to be occurred (58%). However, the older the less thor wanted to know. (3) As to the choosing the time of death, 57% preferred senility, and 30% preferred the time in mediately following the prime period of their lives in general. In terms of religion, 85% of the believer in the oriental religion preferred senility, and 67% in the western religion, 58% in others, Therefore. the desiring of their lives to be terminated in earlier stage, not by the natural senility. sequenced as follows : Others, western religions and oriental religions. (4) Referring to the disposal of the corpse under the assumption that it had already occurred, majority desired the burial system. There has been seen a slight tendency to consider the importance of holding funeral services for the sake of survivors. Concerning the life insurance policy, it showed that the nurse had less belief in it than the patient (5) Upon the subject of life-after-death. religion wise, 72% of western religion believers preferred to have an existence of life-after-death: Among the believers of oriental regions, 35% desired this category, 30% did not mind either way. and 35% did not desire the existence of such a life-after-death. In others, 53% did not mind whether or not such a life existed. (6) In general, serious thoughts were not being attended to the commitment of suicide. 37% emphasized that such an act should be prevented. However, 30% insisted that such commitment should not be bothered, and that society possesses no right to prevented it. More male wished to commit suicide (13%) than females (9%). 2. Nurse's attitudes toward terminal patients and patient's needs. In the instance where the patient realized that their death is imminent, most of them showed desire to discuses mainly on the problems of life. When faced a situation of this nature, it is revealed that 40% of nurses could not furnish appropriate care for them.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.145-153
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• 2001

Purpose : This study was conducted to describe the attitude of hospital staff toward the hospice program. The purpose of this study was to promote the extension and organization of hospice activities to include hospital staff. Method : This is a descriptive study using a survey method. The subjects for this study were the nurses, physicians, technicians, and support staff at Wonju Christian Hospital. Using a stratified sampling method based on position of staff, the researchers recruited 430 staff members as the sample for this study. Data collection was done through a questionnaire developed by the researchers. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and content analysis. Findings : 1)Ninety seven percent (n=417) of the subjects understood the concept of hospice care, and 97.4% (n=419) answered that dying patients should be respected. When considering the hospice team, the subjects of this study indicated that the team should include family members (n=245), physicians (n=77), pastors (n=41), and nurses (n=34), in that order of priority. 2) When asked to indicate priorities for systematic operation of a hospice program, the subjects indicated that the highest priority was "setting up a team for hospice service(31.4%)", followed by "setting up a hospice ward(28.6%)". Sixty seven percent(n=289) recognized the importance of the hospice activities provided by the volunteers, and 85.3%(n=367) intended to use the hospice service of the hospital. The highest merit of hospital-based hospice program is 'acomplishment of mission'. 3) The average score on attitude toward death was 2.84(maximum=4), and the best needful service except hospitalization is 'constructing of support system'. Conclusion : Most of the staff at Wonju Christian Hospital perceive the necessity for systematic hospice activities, and that to achieve this goal, administrative and structural support at the hospital governance level is the first necessity. The results of this study could be useful for any hospital which is in the first stages of setting up and promoting a hospice program.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.143-162
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• 1998

This is a study for the construction of nursing care based upon the Korean attitude toward medicine. Factors which were investigated include the source of nursing care, the reason for choosing care, the type of heath care chosen, the accessability of caregivers, and the desired location of death. The population examined in this study consisted of 517 adults distributed in six large cities and 191 adults from five rural communities. Data was analyzed using frequency, percent, Cronbach alpha, $X^2$ - test, t - test, F - test and scheffe post hoc contrast with an SAS program. The results of this study are summarized as follows: 1. Among sources of nursing care used, first rank rated-pharmacy(54.4), private hospital(18.2), general hospital(8.4), folk remedies in house (5.0), chinese hospital(2.8), prayer(2.8) and others(8.4), and the reasons for choosing nursing care rated 'the easiest method' (63.6), 'the best method'(15.7), 'reliable'(10.8) and 'lower cost burden'(4.6) in order of preference. 2. The type of nursing care chosen rated western medicine(6.80), chinese medicine(6.15), folk remedies(5.46), faith remedies(3.51) and divination remedies (1.41). There were significant differences in the effect recognition degree to various kinds of medicine. 3. The difference of the type of nursing care chosen according to general characteristics showed that urban residents were higher than rural community residents(t=2.15, p=0.0320) in western medicine, and urban residents, women, and singles were higher than rural community residents(t=2.04, p=0.0414), men (t= -2.89, p=0.0039), and married(t=2.50, p= 0.0126) on folk remedies. With repect to age and education those 21-30, under 20 and 31-40, graduated from college and graduate school were higher than above 51, above 61 (F = 7.76, p = 0.0001), graduated from elementary school(F=4.39, p=0.0006) on folk remedies. In other categories, rural community residents, women, younger people. Christians were higher than urban residents ( t = -2.73, p=0.0305), men(t= -4.15, p=0.0001), older people (F=2.48, p=0.0307), Catholic, Buddhist, or atheist (F= 70.18, p=0.0001) on faith remedies. Those graduated from high school and Buddhist were higher than unschooled, graduated from middle school(F=3.18, p= 0.0075), atheist, Catholic or Christian(F=18.32, p=0.0001) on divination redemies. There were significant differences concerning age and education level. 4. The accessibility of caregivers rated 'caregivers should be nearby if the patients need them' (50.0), 'caregivers must be there all day (24 hours)' (39.6), 'caregivers must be there at night only'(5.0), 'caregivers must be there during the day only'(2.6), 'caregivers always should visit during visiting hours' 0.4), 'caregivers don't need to be there at all' (1.2). The frist rank of suitable caregivers were rated as spouse(66.6), mother(24.2), daughter (3.6), daughter-in-law(1.9), and the reasons of thinking thus were rated as 'the most comfortable' (81.5), 'people should correctly with regards to family they'(7.1), 'the easiest' (5.4), 'take good care of the patient' (5.1) and 'lower cost burden' (0.4). 5. The desired location of death rated as the following: his/her house (91. 6) to the hospital(8. 4). A person going to encounter death in the hospital wanted his house(78.5) over the hospital(21.5), and a person dieing in the hospital prefered his house(52.9) over the hospital(47.1) as a funeral ceremony place. The following suggestions are made based on the above results. 1. A sampling method that enhances the re presentativeness should be used in regional and/or national related research and replicated to confirm the result of this study. 2. This study should be used to understand the Korean view of medical centers and to meet the expectations of patients in Korean nursing. 3. Research on the Korean traditional view of humans and expectations of the sick, health and illness, and health behavior, the perception of dying, the decision to heal, and the view of general medicine should continue to be conducted continuosly so that Korean nursing theory can be advanced on these concepts.