• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.18-27
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• 2000

Purpose : This study aims to find out the quality of life of patients admitted to the hospice unit at Kangnam St. Mary's Hospital, at admission and after weeks hospice service and to assess the effects of hospice service on the quality of life of terminal cancer patients. Methods : This study subjects were 100 patients admitted to the hospice unit at Kangnam St. Mary's Hospital, Catholic University between October 1999 and March 2000, and their primary caregivers. Quality of life data were collected using a questionnaire revised by the authors and were analyzed by means of repeated measures ANOVA. Results : 1) Patient's quality of life as perceived by the primary caregiver was significantly improved and the mean score was 3.31, 3.68, 3.56, 3.73, 3.75 at admission and week 1, 2, 3, 4. With the detailed item analysis, the following items were shown to be significantly improved: "clean bodies"(F=6.50, P=0.0001) "pain control"(F=18.01, P=0.0001) constipate"(F=2.96, P=0.0237) "sleep"(F=3.99, P=0.0048) "nausea/vomiting"(F=4.50, P=0.0022) "medical team's comfortable care" (F=3.95, P=0.0051) "family's care"(F=2.76, P=0.0317) "anxiety" (F=3.14, P=0.0177) "comfort"(F=3.63, P=0.0085) "treat with dignity"(F=3.32, P=0.0136). The item of "death is not the end of life rather the beginning" was significantly decreased(F=2.54, P=0.0450). 2) Patient's quality of life as perceived by the patient showed an improvement but statistically insignificant and the mean score was 3.63 and 3.83 at admission and week 1. With the detailed item analysis, the item of "pain control" was shown to be significantly improved(F=9.19, P=0.0251). 3) The quality of score in the last week of life of patient were 3.48, 3.51, 3.44, 3.46, 3.50, respectively, from 5 week prior to 1 week prior to death and these changes were insignificant. Conclusion : The findings of this study showed a positive effect of hospice service on quality of life of the terminal cancer patients admitted to the hospice unit. To improve the quality of life, we need first of all to develop hospice interventions with a particular emphasis on the spiritual aspect of patient. Secondly, measurement instruments need to be developed to collect the quality of life of the hospice patients who become weakened especially in the last weeks of their life and with this effort more representative data of hospice patients may be collected.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.374-381
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• 2011

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a hospice palliative care performance measure which would cover more than just physical symptoms or quality of life. Methods: Through an intensive literature review, the author chose questions that measured aspects of physical, emotional, spiritual, social, or practical domains pertinent to hospice palliative care for inclusion in the scale. Content validation of the questions was established by 15 hospice palliative care professionals. A preliminary Hospice Palliative Care Performance Scale (HPCPS) of 20 questions was administered to 134 pairs of terminal cancer patients from 5 hospice palliative care units and their main family caregiver. A validation study was conducted to evaluate construct validity and internal consistency. Results: Factor analysis showed 14 significant questions in five subscales; Physical, Emotional, Spiritual, Social, and Patient' rights. There were no significant differences between the ratings by patients and family members except for three out of the 14 questions. The measure demonstrated construct validity, and Cronbach's ${\alpha}$ of the subscales ranged from .73 to .79. Conclusion: The HPCOS demonstrated acceptable validity and reliability. It can be used to assess effectiveness of hospice palliative care for terminal cancer patients in practice and research.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.194-197
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• 2021

End-of-life assessments aim to help dying patients and their families plan clinical interventions in advance and prepare them for a peaceful end of life, in which the patient accepts life and death, and the family accepts the patient's departure. It is important to assess whether death is imminent within a few days, because critical hospice care is provided intensively during that period. The following five changes constitute objective evidence of the end of life: diminished daily living performance, decreased food intake, changes in consciousness and increased sleep quantity, worsening of respiratory distress, and end-stage delirium. As subjective evidence, it is suggested that sensitive perceptions of experienced nurses and the feelings of family members caring for patients should also be considered. When notifying a patient or family members that the end of life is approaching, the members of the multidisciplinary hospice team must communicate with each other, share accurate information, and provide consistent explanations. They must also listen to non-verbal communication in an empathic and supportive manner.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.39-46
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• 1998

Purpose : Hospice Care is considered as one of the most perfect solutions for the problems brought up as the number of chronically ill patients are increasing rapidly and most of social welfare oriented countries are seeking the quality of life. Our former studies(1996, 1997) were to find out the current status of the hospice care in Korea by surveying terminally ill patients and their family members as well as medical professionals. The former study was also to conduct the operation research by developing an information service system for training of hospice care teams and volunteers, and hospice patients management. The purpose of this study was that hospice information service system was tested by home visiting hospice care through visiting nurses. Methods : From October 1, 1997 to March 31, 1998, Twenty six terminal cancer patients were included in this study from Seoul National University Hospital and other hospital. Databases and homepage, hospice information service system were designed and developed for the information needed for the hospice care before this study by our research team and this services were available through the internet. Visiting nurses were trained about this system and they visited the patients with PC notebook and provided them hospice care with hospice information system. They collected physical, psychiatric, social data of the subjects at the first visit and during hospice care at home. Results : Sixteen subjects(61.5%) died during the study and the mean survival was 20.7 days. Anorexia(96.2%), immobility(88.5%) and pain(84.6%) were the major symptom in the 26 subjects, Altered nutrition(26.1%) and pain(12.4%) were the most frequent diagnoses in 226 nursing diagnoses of the subjects. Families understood and demanded the hospice care more than patients. And most patients and families didn't demand spiritual or social care. Conclusion : Through this demonstration study, it was found that we have to provide the information of pain management and nutritional support for patients by the nurses and visiting hospice nurse. The information service system needs to be upgraded with information and manpower of spiritual and social care according to the findings.

• Korean Journal of Hospice Care
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.29-45
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• 2007

People in the end of life and their families suffer in their physical disease and other aspects as a whole person. They need hospice care to palliate their total suffering in physical, emotional, social and also spiritual aspect through professional hospice team. To care their whole personal needs, hospice team must be a multi-discipline team which consists of medical doctors, nurses, social workers, pastors and volunteers. Recently those who die in hospice palliative care unit have trend to increase more than in home year by year. So it is necessary to develop the nursing intervention program to be performed by multi-discipline team approach for in-patient of hospice palliative care unit. The purposes of this study were to develop of wholistic hospice nursing intervention program for inpatient of hospice palliative care unit. The subjects of study were collected from 30 patients those 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 period of data collection was from December 15, 2003 to March 15, 2004. The result were as follows : 1. The result of Wholistic Hospice Nursing Program's development was as follow : A Wholistic Hospice Nursing Program was developed by me in this study is one of the service program for hospice palliative care unit. It was named as ‘Rainbow Program’ to be approached easily by hospice patients. The purposes of it are to improve the quality of life of the terminal patients with their dignity, to help them live in abundant and meaningful in their lives, to care them in peaceful in dying process with understanding them in whole personal, and also to palliate the grief and suffering of the bereaved. It was provided by hospice professionals(nurses, medical doctors, social worker, pastors, art therapists) and volunteers those who were educated in hospice for multi-diciplinary team approach to collaborate with each role play I 20-30 minuters of each through visiting their rooms individually and a place of hospice palliative care unit of S hospital in P city. The subjects of it were the terminal patients those who admitted hospice palliative care unit and their familes. with agreement in hospice palliative care in their terminal disease. The characteristics of it were multi-disciplinary team approach, whole personal care, individual care and total care according to their needs in their condition. The contents of it were pain control, symptom control, counseling patient, counseling family, hair cutting, hair shampooing, bed bath, recreation, taking a walk, event of culture(screen, recital, festival of praises, exhibition and so on), pastoral counseling, ritual service in bed, praying, service in bed, sing a worship praise, listening to the music, sharing remembrance of life, individual visiting music service(sing and praying), meditation Bible, art therapies(dance and drawing), social worker's counselling, confessing and sharing love and thanksgiving. The experimental group subjects participated in Wholistic Hospice Nursing Program which takes 120 minutes per session, total 10 sessions(total 1,200 minutes) altogether. In conclusion, this Wholistic Hospice Nursing Intervention can be used actively for whole personal well-being of the patients in hospice palliative in hospice palliative care unit and also applied in hospice practice as an useful model of multi-disciplinary team approach by hospice professionals.

• Korean Journal of Hospice Care
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.49-54
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• 2008

Purpose: In order to evaluate effects of horticulture program on self-esteem of hospice patients, this study was conducted. Methods: Study population consists of 31 patients who had been registered in hospice care of "G" church and hospice unit of "G" hospital in G-city from Oct. 3rd 2007 to Dec. 3rd. As estimation method of self-esteem, self-esteem scale of Rosenberg(1965) was used. Results: The data were analyzed by frequency, paired t-test of SPSS. Self-esteem score before horticulture program was 5.31 and self-esteem score after horticulture program was 5.97. Conclusion: We concluded that horticulture programs had positive effect in self-esteem improvement, and it could be replaced with an intervention method of self-esteem improvement in hospice patients.

• 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.9 no.2
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• pp.59-66
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• 2006

• Journal of Home Health Care Nursing
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.309-318
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• 2019

Purpose: The study aimed to examine the effects of aroma hand massage on state sanxiety, depression, quality of sleep, and blood pressure levels of palliative patients in hospice. Methods: This study was conducted using a nonequivalent control group with a pretest-posttest design. The participants were 48 palliative patients in hospice (experimental group: 24, control group: 24). The aroma hand massage was given to the experimental group once a day for 5 days. Data were collected between December 2017 to February 2018. Data were analyzed using SPSS 20.0 program with the chi-square test, Fisher's exact test, independent t-test, and repeated measurement analysis of variance(ANOVA). Results: There were significant differences in state anxiety levels (t=2.41, p=.020) and quality of sleep (F=14.29, p<.001). However, significant differences in the levels of depression (t=1.59, p=.119), systolic blood pressure (F=0.37, p=.695), and diastolic blood pressure (F=0.37, p=.695) were observed. The aroma hand massage was effective in improving the quality of sleep and state anxiety levels of palliative patients in a hospice. Conclusion: The aroma hand massage was effective in improving the quality of sleep and state anxiety in a hospice.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.99-108
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• 2016

Hospice palliative care (HPC) in Korea has developed steadily since its introduction in 1965. Currently, HPC in Korea is targeted only towards terminal cancer patients and their families, and the national health insurance scheme covers only inpatient hospice care for said patients. In recent years, healthcare professionals and policy makers began to recognize the need for HPC services in diverse settings including outside hospital boundaries, and for all terminally-ill patients. A law on HPC passed in January 2016 allows terminally-ill patients to refuse life-sustaining treatments, and will likely facilitate further development of HPC services. It is critical for the government and all interested parties in the medical, academic and social sectors to collaborate to ensure its success once it takes effect in 2017. This article will briefly review the half-century history of HPC in Korea, and discuss how to prepare for and cope with death and, thereby, improve the quality of death.