• Journal of Korean Critical Care Nursing
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.51-61
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• 2020

Purpose : This study aimed to explore and describe good nursing experiences of patients with cancer. Methods : Data were collected using individual in-depth interviews with 15 males and 8 females who were hospitalized in a Korean cancer hospital. The transcribed script was analyzed using Colaizzi's phenomenological method. Results : As a result, three theme clusters and nine themes were identified. The three theme clusters were as follows: "being kind and expert in every step along the cancer care trajectory," "taking an omnipotent mediator role supporting patients' well-being," and "providing professional care touching patients' mind and body." Three themes were assigned to each cluster to illustrate the given phenomena. Conclusion : Cancer patients wanted considerate understanding and sincere care from nurses while they experienced physical and emotional suffering owing to the cancer, treatment trajectory, and hospital system. To improve the quality of nursing care for cancer patients, patient-centered care combined with nurses' expertise in oncology care must be provided based on the insights from our study's findings.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.65-76
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• 2008

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of a spirituality/hope promoting program on fighting spirit, helplessness, anxiety, and self-care behaviors. Methods: A nonequivalent control group pretest- posttest design was used. Study subjects were 22 cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy for the experimental group and 31 for the control group. The experimental group received a 4-week intervention, 30-50 minutes a day weekly. Variables were measured at baseline, 4 and 8 weeks later. Fighting spirit and helplessness were measured by MAC(Mental Adjustment to Cancer) and anxiety was measured by Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale. Self-care behaviors scale developed by Oh et al.,(1997) was used. Results: The experimental group revealed significantly more fighting spirit(t=-4.10, p=.000). more self-care behaviors(t=-5.91, p=.000). and less helplessness(t=3.94, p=.000). No difference, however, was found in anxiety between the two groups(t=.24, p=.861). Conclusion: These results suggested positive effects of a spirituality/hope intervention program. Helplessness decreased mainly through an increase in fighting spirit. Self-care behaviors increased mainly through an decrease in helplessness and increase in fighting spirit.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.280-290
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• 2012

Purpose: This study done to identify the experiences of families caring for patients with terminal cancer. The question was, "What is the caregiving experience of a family who has a member with terminal cancer?" Methods: Grounded Theory was applied and in-depth interviews were done with 11 family members. Interviews were recorded with the interviewees' consent and were transcribed and analyzed. Participants' relationships to patients were 6 spouses, 4 daughters, and 1 mother. The ages of the participants were between 32 and 62, with an average of 47.5. Results: The study showed "enduring with bonds" as the main category and the main factor affecting this category was the "patients' diagnosis of terminal cancer." The caregiving experience was divided into four stages: shock, confusion, struggle, and acceptance. Mediating factors were relationship with the patient, intimacy with the patient, social support, communication, and trust. Conclusively, participants underwent internal maturity, and changes occurred in family and social and personal life. Conclusion: The families took care of the patients with responsibility and love. The study results should help with the understanding of a family with a member with terminal cancer and should be used to develop nursing, mediating, and consulting programs for these caregivers.

• Journal of Korean Clinical Nursing Research
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.75-89
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• 2014

Purpose: This study was done to identify conditions of cancer patients who visited an emergency department (ED) with the side effects of chemotherapy. Methods: Data were collected retrospectively from medical records of 294 cancer patients who visited a tertiary hospital in 2009 for treatment of side effects of chemotherapy. Records were reviewed for characteristics of participants and side effects of chemotherapy. Data were analyzed using SPSS software. Results: ED Triage grade 3 was 81.6%. The hospitalization ratio was 72.8%, and 6.5% died during the admission. Most frequent side effects were thrombocytopenia (80.6%), anemia (74.5%), pain (52.0%), neutropenia (50.7%), and leucopenia (46.3%). The hospitalization group showed more severe leucopenia than the discharge group (p=.020). Patients in the group who died had higher scores for dyspnea compared to patients discharged or hospitalized (p<.05). Conclusion: Results of the study suggest that there is a special need to develop a system to manage side effects of chemotherapy. Also it is necessary to provide appropriate care and treatment with prompt initial evaluation when cancer patients with side effects of chemotherapy present in the ED. More effective educational discharge programs should also be developed to help these patients cope with various side effects of chemotherapy.

• The Korean Journal of Rehabilitation Nursing
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.56-63
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• 2006

Purpose: The objectives of this study were to investigate perception of touch therapies among nurses who looking after cancer patients, ultimately to probe possibility of utilization of touch therapies as nursing interventions. Method: A descriptive study conducted from Dec. 2005 to Jan. 2006. 270 nurses taking care of cancer patients in 2 urban hospital were completed self-report questionnaire about general characteristics, utilization of touch therapies, willingness to adopt touch therapies in their practice, and perception of safety and effectiveness of touch therapies. Result: The participants were average 27.97 year-old, 60% of them had bachelor's degree, most of them were staff nurses(83.0%), and 34.6% of them were 3-5 years experienced in oncology nursing. Among 5 touch therapies(therapeutic touch, massage, reflexology, acupressure, and acupuncture), massage was the most positively perceived therapy not only the aspects of safety(67.1%) and effectiveness(65.9%), but also willingness to utilize in their practice(71.2%). There was no significant difference in willingness to utilize in their practice per age and years of working in oncology nursing. Older and more experienced groups perceived more positively to massage and reflexology. Conclusion: Massage might be readily adopted as a nursing intervention in oncology nursing practice. Strategies to encourage the utilization of touch therapies as nursing intervention should be established.

• The Journal of Korean Academic Society of Nursing Education
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.287-295
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• 2011

Purpose: This study was done to compare educational needs for discharge after thyroid cancer surgery between patients and nurses. Methods: The participants were 107 patients who had thyroid cancer surgery and 70 nurses who have had experience of taking care of patients with thyroid cancer surgery at P hospital in Busan. The researcher reviewed the literature and conducted a preliminary survey to develop a questionnaire. Results: Although there was no significant difference in total perceived nursing discharge educational needs after thyroid cancer surgery between patients and nurses, both had a high level of nursing educational needs for discharge. The degree of patients' needs was higher than nurses in areas of dietary management after discharge and the degree of nurses' needs was higher than patients in the other areas. Although the first ranking area of educational needs was medication management for both patients and nurses, dietary management after discharge was the second ranking for patients and operation site and complication management was those for nurses. Conclusions: As the patients had different educational needs from the nurses, nurses need to focus on the patient's educational needs and provide relevant information. Educational programs should be developed and applied to post-surgical thyroid cancer patients.

• Journal of Korean Clinical Nursing Research
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.163-175
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• 2011

Purpose: This study was to analyze the characteristics and effect size of intervention studies applied to cancer-related fatigue in Korea. Methods: For meta-analysis, a total of 963 studies were retrieved from search engines. And 19 studies with a total of 721 participants published from 1990 to 2010 were selected upon their satisfaction with the inclusion criteria. Two authors independently extracted data from the selected studies and assessed the methodological quality. The data was analyzed by the RevMan 5.0 program of Cochrane library. Results: Intervention studies included 4 studies on foot-reflexo-massage (21.1%), comprehensive program (21.1%), and exercise (21.1%), respectively, 3 for hand-reflexo-massage (15.8%), and 4 for others. The effect size of the intervention studies shown higher effect size in order of exercise (d=-1.80), and foot & hand-reflexo-massage (d=-0.55). Conclusion: This study suggest that exercise can reduce the intensity of cancer-related fatigue, even though the number of intervention studies and randomized controlled trials were very few. There is limited evidence that reflexo-massage is effective in reducing cancer-related fatigue.

• Journal of Korean Clinical Nursing Research
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.15-24
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• 2019

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate relationships among menopausal symptoms, functional status, and distress and to identify factors influencing distress in premenopausal breast cancer patients who had been on endocrine therapy. Methods: A descriptive correlational study was conducted. Data were collected using questionnaires from 140 patients with breast cancer undergoing endocrine therapy at a general hospital. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Tukey HSD test, Pearson's correlation analysis and hierarchical regression analysis. Results: The mean scores for menopausal symptom, functional status, and distress were $19.65{\pm}7.86$, $2.67{\pm}0.33$ and $3.69{\pm}2.19$, respectively. The menopausal symptoms and distress were positively correlated (r=.76, p<.001). The menopausal symptoms and functional status (r=-.43, p<.001) and functional status and distress (r=-.31, p<.001) were negatively correlated. The most influential factor for distress was menopausal symptoms (${\beta}=.79$, p<.001). Conclusion: Based on the findings of this study, developing nursing intervention programs focusing on decreasing menopausal symptoms and distress are recommended.

• Journal of Korean Clinical Nursing Research
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.17-26
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• 2009

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare the recovery outcomes between a normal weight group (BMI<25) and an overweight group ($$BMI{\geq_-}25$$), who received laparoscopic surgery for rectal cancer, to provide information for effective decision making. Methods: Data from 76 patients who received laparoscopic surgery for rectal cancer in a university hospital were reviewed retrospectively from September 2004 to March 2007. Collected data were analyzed using Win SPSS 12.0. The recovery outcomes related to the operation were the length of the operation, the amount of bleeding during the operation, the length of stay in the recovery room, first bowel movement, the length of hospital stay, and complications. Results: There was no statistical difference between the two groups with regard to the recovery outcomes. Conclusion: From the above results, nursing information can be offered to help make effective decisions before the operation for overweight patients with rectal cancer who prefer laparoscopic surgery.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.189-199
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• 2004

Purpose: Despite the small incidence, head and neck cancer may cause a wide range of physical transformation by surgical operation, damage to active functions such as eating and speaking. It may provoke hopelessness, change self-esteem and self-concept after its operation, influencing the quality life of head and neck cancer patients. Thus nursing intervention should be developed to provide supportive nursing for head and neck cancer patients and play roles as competent supporters. Methods: This study was a nonequivalent, control group, pretest-posttest, non-synchronized quasi-experimental research designed to determine how supportive nursing intervention effects on hopelessness, self-esteem and self-concept of head and neck cancer patients. Subjects of the study included 40 adult inpatients of K University hospital in Pusan who were diagnosed as having head and neck cancer and operated. They were divided into experimental and comparison groups, each consisting of 20 members. The data were collected during the period from December 1, 1999 to April 11, 2000. Tools of the study included the protocol of supportive nursing intervention which was developed by researcher by means of reference, literal review and expert's advice. The measurement tool of hopelessness was translated by Won was the device of hopelessness self-evaluation from Beck, the tool for self-esteem measurement was developed by Rosenberg and translated by Kim, and the device of self-concept used by Lee et al, modified by Lee were used respectively. Data were analyzed using the SPSS/PC 9.0 program. The homogeneity of the subjects were tested using $x^2-test$ and t-test. 3 hypotheses were tested using t-test. Results: The results of the study can be summarized as follows. 1. The third hypothesis that the experimental group receiving supportive nursing intervention showed a little hopelessness than the control group not receiving supportive nursing intervention was supported (t=4.550, P=.000). 2. The third hypothesis that the experimental group receiving supportive nursing intervention showed more self-esteem than the control group not receiving supportive nursing intervention was supported (t=-6.40, p=.000). 3. The third hypothesis that the experimental group receiving supportive nursing intervention showed more self-concept than the control group not receiving supportive nursing intervention was supported (t=-6.065, P=.000). Conclusion: Supportive nursing intervention was effective nursing intervention strategy for reducing hopelessness and increasing self-esteem and self-concept of head and neck cancer patients. Then the quality of life of head and neck cancer patients can be enhanced by providing supportive nursing intervention in nursing practice.