• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.15 no.12
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• pp.355-369
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• 2015

Purpose: This study aimed to identify on the attitudes toward the life support care among elderly people using Q methodology. Methods: Thirty-nine elderly people classified 34 selected Q statements into a shape of normal distribution using a 9 point scale. The obtained data were analyzed by using a PQ Method PC program. Results: Principal component analysis identified 4 types of the attitudes toward the life support care among elderly people. Type I is "Situational & Self-determination linear type", type II is "Destiny & Life support care denied type", type III is "Avoidant & Family decision emphasis type" and type IV is "Respect for life & life support care approved type". Most of elderly people have been attitude that wish to receive honor their own decisions toward the prolongation treatment. Conclusion: The findings indicate a need to policy guidelines and public information that express self-determination of elderly people.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.10 no.8
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• pp.335-344
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• 2019

This study is a descriptive research to measure the awareness and attitude toward withdrawal of life-sustaining medical treatment (WLSMT) among medical and nursing students. The data collection was conducted between 8 October and 15 November 2018, and the responses of 240 students were analyzed. The analysis results are as follows. More than 95 percent of medical and nursing students said the WLSMT was necessary. The medical students answered that 'patient's will' is important and nursing student answered that 'patient and family's will' is important. The nursing student showed that "family will and decision" was more important than the medical student in deciding to discontinue life care. Based on the results of the study, continuous discussion on the development and application of education programs to form attitudes and awareness of the discontinuation of life-saving treatments based on correct values is needed for prospective medical students and nursing students.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.489-499
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to attempt to analyze factors affecting elderly persons' life-sustaining treatment preferences, focusing on ego integrity trait. This study used data from Elderly Profiles and Welfare Needs of the Elderly Persons(2014). The analysis sample was 10,451 cases. 86.4 percent of the sample responded that they disagree with life-sustaining treatment. Analysis results are as follows: being female(${\beta}=-.045$, p<.001), the younger(${\beta}=-.024$, p<.05), having more education years(${\beta}=.027$, p<.05), higher satisfaction of life(${\beta}=.022$, p<.05), responding that they had thought about their own funeral(${\beta}=.032$, p<.01), responding that they had used senior centers over the last one year(${\beta}=-.038$, p<.01) are related to disapproval of life sustaining treatment. This research shows that ego integrity trait such as satisfaction of life, or accepting and preparing one's own death, is related to disapproval of life-sustaining treatment.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.93-99
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• 2017

Purpose: This study investigated changes in life-sustaining treatments in terminally ill cancer patients after consenting to a do-not-resuscitate (DNR) order. Methods: Electronic medical records were reviewed to select terminally ill cancer patients who were treated at the oncology unit of the Asan Medical Center, a tertiary hospital in South Korea and died between January 1, 2013 and December 31, 2013. Results: The median (range) age of the 200 patients was 59 (22~89) years, and 62% (124 persons) were male. Among all patients, 83.5% were aware of their medical condition, and 47.0% of the patients had their DNR order signed by their spouses. The median of the patients' hospital stay was 15 days, and time from admission to DNR decision was 10 days. After signing a DNR order, 35.7~100% of the life-sustaining treatments that had been provided at the time of the DNR decision making were administered. The most commonly discontinued interventions were transfusion (13.5%), blood test (11.5%) and parenteral nutrition (8.5%). Conclusion: It is necessary to define the scope of life-sustaining treatments for DNR patients. Treatment guidelines should be established as well to secure terminal patients' death with dignity after their consent to a DNR order, thereby avoiding meaningless life-sustaining treatments and allowing administration of active terminal care interventions.

• Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
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• v.10 no.12
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• pp.226-235
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• 2020

This study aimed to identify the integral factors influencing the attitudes of nursing students toward withdrawal of life-sustaining treatments. Methods: 139 nursing students were selected from the school of nursing of a single university. Questionnaires were used as measurement tools to measure their good death recognition, attitude towards death & towards withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment. The degree of good death recognition, attitude towards death & towards withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Correlation between variables was analyzed using Pearson's correlation coefficient and factors influencing the attitude towards withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment using multiple linear regression. Results: Attitude towards withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment was significantly positively correlated with good death recognition(r=.312, p=.000). As a result of multiple linear regression, good death recognition significantly influenced (β=.312, p=.000), accounting for 8.5% of the variance in attitude towards withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment. Conclusions: The results from this study can be contribute to develop educational programs to foster positive attitudes towards withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.275-284
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• 2018

This study was a descriptive study to investigate the effects of nursing students' consciousness of biomedical ethics, good death recognition, and self-esteem on attitudes toward withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment. The subjects of this study were 204 nursing students attending university. The data were collected from October 24 to October 31, 2017 and analyzed using the SPSS Win. 22.0 program. Attitudes toward withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment scored $2.97{\pm}0.29$ out of 4, $3.01{\pm}0.31$ for biomedical ethics, $3.24{\pm}0.38$ for good death recognition and $3.23{\pm}0.41$ for self-esteem. There was a significant positive correlation between attitudes toward withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment and good death recognition, and there was a significant positive correlation between attitudes toward withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment and self-esteem. As a result of multiple regression analysis, it was found that good death perception affected nursing students' attitudes toward the withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment. In other words, elevated perception of good death was associated with more positives attitudes toward withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment. Based on the above results, it is necessary to develop a systematic education program for nursing college students. In addition, this researcher proposes an in-depth study to explore the variables that influence nursing students' attitudes toward withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.136-144
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• 2016

Purpose: To provide practical data for bioethics education, we identified correlations between recognition of good death, attitude towards withdrawal of meaningless life-sustaining treatment, and attitude towards euthanasia in nurses. Methods: Using convenience sampling, we recruited 218 nurses who had at least six-month work experience in one of the six general hospitals with 500 or more beds in Seoul, Busan, and Gyeongsang province. All participants understood the purpose of the study and agreed to take part in the study. The research tools used included the Concept of Good Death Measure (CoGD), the measurement tool for attitudes towards withdrawal of meaningless life-sustaining treatment (WoMLST), and the measurement tool for attitudes towards euthanasia. Data were analyzed using an Independent t-test, one-way ANOVA, and Pearson's correlation coefficient using SPSS 21 for Windows. Results: Nurses had normal levels on CoGD, WoMLST, and attitudes towards euthanasia. Nurses' CoGD, WoMLST, and euthanasia scores significantly differed depending on their education level, working period, and the importance of religion to them. A negative correlation was found between the CoGD and WoMLST scores, and WoMLST and euthanasia scores were positively correlated. Conclusion: Nurses should be trained to deal with ethical issues that may arise while caring for terminal patients. It is necessary for nurses to understand the concepts related to CoGD, WoMLST, and euthanasia, and to promote bioethics education with focus on decision-making and problem-solving ability in ethically conflicting situations.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.16 no.9
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• pp.453-463
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• 2018

This research was a descriptive study to investigate the effects of nursing students' biomedical ethics, and critical thinking on attitudes toward withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment. The Participant were 367 nursing students and date were collected from November until December of 2017. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation, and multiple regression with SPSS/WIN 21.0. There was a significant positive correlation between attitudes toward withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment. Also, the influencing factor on attitudes toward withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment were biomedical ethics, academic grade, subjective health status, and personality types. These factors explained 36.6% of variance. In conclusion, the higher the awareness of biomedical ethics, the more positive attitude toward the withdrawal of lifelong treatment. Based on the results above, we need to develop diverse and systematic educational programs for nursing students.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.147-154
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• 2012

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to understand family members' experience of deciding to withdraw life-sustaining treatments for terminally-ill patients in an unconscious state. Methods: Data were collected by performing an in-depth interview with eight terminally-ill patients' family members who decided to withdraw life-sustaining treatments. Colaizzi's phenomenological method was used for data analysis. Results: Questions were classified into 12 groups and finally into five categories. The five categories were about family members' frustration with patient's condition, emotional preparation for the patient's death upon medical professionals' recommendation, patient's wishes, exhaustion due to caring and past experiences related to life-sustaining treatment. Conclusion: Using the five categories, hospice and palliative professionals could better understand family members' decision making experience of withdrawing life-sustaining treatments for terminally-ill patients. Based on that, the family members could be provided with appropriate counseling and care, which in turn could improve hospice and palliative care intervention.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.169-178
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• 2020

This study was attempted to know the awareness of Advance Directives of adults in Gandwon-do province. Data was surveyed from 60 adults in Gangwon-do province by 42 item questionnaire for the awareness of Advance Directives. Subcategories of Advanced Directives questionnaire were knowledge, preference, experience for life-sustaining treatment and Advance Directives. The data was analyzed with the frequency and percentage using SPSS 24.0. 45% of Participants replied they knew the 'life-sustaining treatment' exactly. They preferred CPR 78.3%, mechanical ventilation 63.3% and blood transfusion 51.7% for their future special life-sustaining treatments. They did not preferred hemodialysis 8.3%, artificial respiration 6.7%, intensive care unit 6.7%, 8.3 percent of participants said that they well aware of Advance Directives. 86.6% of them hoped to write their Advance Directives. Despite such low awareness of the Advance Directives, the intention to write Advance Directives was high. Based on these results, it was found that the level of awareness of Advance Directives was very important for the intention to prepare Advance Directives. Therefore, regional programs and education on Advance Directives and periodic survey study for awareness of Advance Directives should be continued.