• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.152-162
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• 2011

Purpose: This study was conducted to analyze a trend in studies of hospice care in Korea and to suggest future research directions. Methods: This study analyzed a total of 183 studies related to hospice care which were found at http://www.riss.kr. Results: Of the 183 studies, 62 (33.9%) were for thesis studies for a degree, 121 (66.1%) for academic journals. There were 159 (87.8%) quantitative studies, 18 (8.9%) qualitative studies, and 6 (3.3%) Q-Method studies. The most frequently used study design was a descriptive study. The majority of study participants were terminal cancer patients, patients' family members and health care personnel. The thesis articles were searched by using key words as follows: health, nursing, environment, children's hospice, and others. Conclusion: The number of studies of hospice care has increased, and research key words varied. Furthermore, more experimental research is needed on nursing intervention such as pain relief, alternative therapies and hospice care for children.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.222-232
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• 2016

Purpose: This study was to investigate the relationships between spiritual well-being, attitude towards death and perception of hospice, and the factors influencing hospice perception of high school students. Methods: A survey was conducted with 229 students in four high schools in B city from May 1, 2015 through May 31, 2015. The data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficients, stepwise multiple regression using the SPSS 18.0 program. This study was approved by the internal review board. Results: The factors influencing hospice perception of the high school students were previous recognition of hospice (${\beta}=0.412$, P<0.001), attitude towards death preparation among sub-variables of attitude towards death (${\beta}=-0.244$, P<0.001), subjective school life satisfaction (${\beta}=-0.215$, P<0.001), and sex (${\beta}=0.191$, P<0.001). The more positive the attitude towards my body after death and that towards death preparation was, the more positive recognition for hospice was. The total explanatory power of these factors was 34.5%. Conclusion: To improve high school students' perception of hospice, it is necessary to provide them with a hospice education program to help them with their attitudes towards death preparation and their understanding of hospice.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.124-136
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• 2018

Purpose: This descriptive study is aimed at identifying how nursing hospital workers' performance of end-of-life care is influenced by their knowledge and awareness of hospice palliative care, attitude towards end-of-life care, performance, importance, awareness of death and the factors. Methods: A self-reported questionnaire was used to collect data from 113 workers at an accredited nursing hospital in K province. Variables were their knowledge and awareness of hospice palliative care, attitude towards end-of-life care, end-of-life care performance and importance and awareness of death. An analysis was performed with the frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, t-test, ANOVA, Scheffe's test, Pearson's correlation coefficient and multiple regression using IBM SPSS 21.0. Results: The factors affecting the nursing hospital workers' end-of-life care performance were the importance of end-of-life care and their marital status, which showed an explanatory power of 38.2%. Conclusion: In order to improve the nursing hospital workers' end-of-life care performance, a training on the importance of end-of-life care should be provided. Therefore, we would like to propose establishing administrative measures such as 1) efficient staffing to help the caregivers better perform what they think is important, 2) development of a training program that can improve their performance of end-of-life nursing care and 3) a study to verify the effectiveness of the program.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.39-47
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• 2019

Purpose: This study was performed to investigate the current status of pediatric palliative care provision and how it is perceived by the palliative care experts. Methods: A descriptive study was conducted with 61 hospice institutions. From September through October 2017, a questionnaire was completed by experts from the participating institutions. Data were analyzed using SPSS 21.0. Results: Among 61 institutions, palliative care is currently provided for pediatric cancer patients by 11 institutions (18.0%), all of which are concentrated in Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi and Gyengsang provinces; 85.2% of all do not plan to provide specialized pediatric palliative care in the future. According to the experts, the main barriers in providing pediatric palliative care were the insufficient number of trained specialists regardless of the delivery type. Experts said that it was appropriate to intervene when children were diagnosed with cancer that was less likely to be cured (33.7%) and to move to palliative care institutions when their conditions worsened (38.2%); and it was necessary to establish a specialized pediatric palliative care system, independent from the existing institutions for adult patients (73.8%). Conclusion: It is necessary to develop an education program to establish a nationwide pediatric palliative care centers. Pediatric palliative care intervention should be provided upon diagnosis rather than at the point of death. Patients should be transferred to palliative care institutions after intervention by their existing pediatric palliative care team at the hospital is started.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.19-29
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• 2019

Purpose: In this study, the hospice nursing research trend in 1998~2017 was investigated by analyzing research articles on hospice nursing. Methods: Literature search was performed with keywords of 'nursing' and 'hospice on an academic research information service. Also reviewed were all articles published in the Korean Journal of Nursing Science and its 8 subcategory journals, the Korean Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care and the Korean Hospice Association from 1998 through 2017, except thesis papers. Results: In 2013~2017, 79 articles (31.0%) were relevant, up over 7% from 61 articles (23.9%) in 2008~2012. The most studied field was psychology (92 papers, 36.2%) in the Korean Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care. Enrolled in most papers were patients with end-stage cancer (75, 29.5%), which is overwhelmingly high. Most studies used quantitative methods (183, 72.0%). Recognition was the most studied theme (62, 24.4%), and 16 of them focused on recognition of death (6.3%). Intervention studies totaled 34 (13.4%), and most of them (7, 2.8%) were conducted for palliative education. Conclusion: Most hospice nursing studies were quantitative studies, conducted with patients, and hospice nursing intervention programs were similar to each other. Thus, more studies with hospice patients and their families are needed. And more experimental and qualitative studies are needed to build an evidence-based nursing study environment. Considering how most studies examined psychological factors, physiological factors such as pain, a major issue in hospice care, should be analyzed in experimental studies to construct a pain intervention program for hospice patients.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.112-119
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• 2015

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the level of occupational stress and emotional intelligence in hospice volunteers. Methods: Participants were 158 hospice volunteers at hospitals in B city. Occupational stress, emotional intelligence, and general characteristics of hospice volunteers were measured. The data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, t-tests, ANOVA, and Pearson's correlation coefficients. Results: The mean score for occupational stress was 2.16 points out of 4 and 4.65 out of 7 for emotional intelligence. The scores for occupational stress and emotional intelligence were significantly different by educational level and monthly income in hospice volunteers. Occupational stress was negatively correlated with emotional intelligence (r=-0.196, P=0.013). Conclusion: A continuous educational program is needed to offer volunteers with new hospice-related trends. To ensure quality care for patients and their families, it should be helpful to encourage hospice volunteers to build a social network to enhance their emotional intelligence.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.185-197
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• 2019

Purpose: Hospice volunteers are serving an invisible yet pivotal role in the hospice and palliative care team. This study investigated how effectively a continuing education program could enhance hospice volunteers' competency. Methods: A total of 20 hours (four hours per week) of training was provided to 30 hospice volunteers who participated in the continuing education for hospice volunteers. Efficiency of the education was analyzed with an exploratory mixed-methods design. For quantitative analysis, the volunteers were asked, before and after the training, about their attitudes towards hospice care, what makes a meaningful life, self-efficacy and satisfaction with their volunteer service. Descriptive statistics, paired t-tests, and Wilcoxon signed-rank test were performed using SPSS Window 20.0. For qualitative research, participants were placed in three groups for a focus group interview, and data were analyzed by content analysis. Results: A quantitative study result shows that this training can significantly affect hospice volunteers' attitudes and improve their self-efficacy. A qualitative study result shows that participants wanted to receive continuous education from the physical/psychosocial/spiritual aspects to better serve end-of-life patients and their family members even though they have to spare significant time for the volunteer service. They wanted to know how to take good care of patients without getting themselves injured and how to provide spiritual care. Conclusion: The continuing education program reflecting volunteers' requests is strongly needed to improve their competency. An effective continuing education requires continuous training and support in areas where hospice volunteers are interested in. A good alternative is to combine web-based and hands-on training, thereby allowing hospice volunteers freely take training that suits their interest.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.329-334
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• 2015

Purpose: This study was aimed at analyzing the characteristics and symptoms in home-based hospice-palliative care (HBHPC) patients registered at local public health centers. Methods: A retrospective study was performed; Data of 144 HBHPC patients registered at six public health centers in Pusan City were analyzed, including their initial visit records (registration cards, initial pain evaluation and symptom evaluation). Results: The average age of the patients was 67.7 years old. Among all, 46.2% of the patient lived alone, and 65% had middle school education or lower. The most popular (36.3%) religion was Buddhism, and 47.5% received medical assistance from the government. The most frequent diagnosis was lung cancer followed by stomach cancer and liver cancer in that order. Of all, 48.9% were functionally too weak to lead a daily life, 39.6% were under cancer treatment when registered at the public health center, and 84.5% were aware of the fact that they have reached the terminal phase. Moreover, 83.6% complained about pain, and the pain level was moderate or severe in 36.5% of them. Besides pain, fatigue was the most complained symptom (84.7%), and 49.3% of them rated their fatigue as moderate or severe. Conclusion: Most of the HBHPC patients were socio-economically underprivileged and complained about moderate or worse pain and symptoms. Therefore, it appears necessary to develop an integrated strategy that is tailored for each patient reflecting their characteristics.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.161-168
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• 2010

Purpose: This study investigated the Korean social workers’ burn-out factors and personal traits in hospice and palliative care field, and also examined the effect and correlation between their professionality, social support and supervision. Methods: Data (N=46) from 46 social workers working at hospice and palliative care field were collected, and the data were analyzed for the inferential statistics using t-test, ANOVA, correlation and multiple regression with the SPSS 12.0 program. Results: General factors of the burn-out were age and work experience. The effect of the organization environment is greatly dependant on social support and supervision, and the burn-out were protected when workers got an emotional support from their family. For the workers with supervision, the less negative feeling, the better for the burn-out protection. Furthermore, the low burn-out was thought about when professional organization, self regulation, job vocation and autonomy were utilized. Regression analysis needed that the burn-out were protected well when individual autonomy among expertise was guaranteed. As for social support, vertical support was able to protect physical burn-out. Conclusion: The training program for social workers in hospices and palliative care field is essential to reduce and prevent the burn-out. Hospice should be more activated and a training program with up-to-date knowledge and information should be adopted.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.30-41
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• 2008

Purpose: This study was designed to investigate various role changes of nurses who have cared both medical cases and hospice patients and what they experienced. Methods: Focus group interviews were done 3 times and participants were 12 nurses who have worked in the hospice unit of medical ward. Results: Role changes in 4 areas such as holistic care, end-of-life care, care fur rare givers, and coordination of hospice team were reported by the participants. What they felt were as follows : fear, confusion, maturation, increasingly labor, regret, accomplishment, sympathy and depression. Conclusion: Although hospice care in general medical ward added extra tasks, it helped clinical nurses recover professional identity and led to growth of nursing by acquiring new knowledge and skill in hospice care.