• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.22-33
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• 2003

Purpose : The purpose of this study was to evaluate the present status of patients' satisfaction and the reasons for any satisfaction or dissatisfaction in cancer pain management Methods : A cross-sectional survey was used to obtain the feedback about pain management. The results of the survey were collected from 59 in- or out-patient who had cancer treatment at two of the teaching hospitals in Seoul from July, 2002 to November, 2002. The data was obtained by a structured questionnaire based on the American Cancer Society Patient Outcome Questionnaire(APS-POQ) and other previous research. The clinical information for all patients were compiled by reviewing their medical records. Resuts : 1) The subjects' mean score of the worst pain was 6.77, the average pain score was 3.80, and the pain score after management was 2.93 for the past 24 hours. The mean score of total pain interference was $25.03{\pm}12.82$. Many of the subjects had false beliefs about pain such as 'the experience of pain is a sign that the illness has gotten worse', 'pain medicine should be 'saved' in case the pain gets worse' and 'people get addicted to pain medicine easily'. 2) 66.1% of the subjects were properly medicated with analgesics. 33.9% of the subjects reported use of various methods in controlling pain other than the prescribed medication. Only 33.9% of the subjects had a chance to be educated about pain management by doctors or nurses. 3) The mean score of patients' satisfaction with pain management was $4.19{\pm}1.14$. 72.9% of the subjects answered 'satisfied' with pain management. The reasons for dissatisfaction were 'the pain was not relieved even after the pain management', 'I was not quickly and promptly treated when I complained of pain', 'doctors and nurses didn't pay much attention to my complaints of pain.', and 'there was no appropriate information given on the methods of administration, effect duration and side effects of pain medicine.' The reasons for satisfaction were: 'the pain was relieved after the pain management.', 'doctors and nurses quickly and promptly controlled my pain.', 'doctors and nurses paid enough attention to my complaints of pain.' and 'trust in my physician'. 4) In pain severity or pain interference, no significant difference was found between the satisfied group and dissatisfied group. On the belief 'good patients avoid talking about pain', a significant difference was found between the satisfied group and dissatisfied group. Conclusions : The patients' satisfaction with cancer pain management has increased over the years but still about 30% of patients reported to be 'not satisfied' for various reasons. The results of this study suggest that patients' education should be done to improve satisfaction in the pain management program.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.29-39
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• 2023

In this study, an analysis of medical waste generation characteristics was conducted, differentiating between ordinary situation and the outbreaks of massive infectious diseases. During ordinary situation, prediction models for medical waste quantities by type, general medical waste(G-MW), hazardous medical waste(H-MW), infectious medical waste(I-MW), were established through regression analysis, with all significance values (p) being <0.0001, indicating statistical significance. The determination coefficient(R2) values for prediction models of each category were analyzed as follows : I-MW(R2=0.9943) > G-MW(R2=0.9817) > H-MW(R2=0.9310). Additionally, factors such as GDP(G-MW), the number of medical institutions (H-MW), and the elderly population ratio(I-MW), utilized as influencing factors and consistent with previous literature, showed high correlations. The total MW generation, evaluated by combining each model, had an MAE of 2,615 and RMSE of 3,353. This indicated accuracy levels similar to the medical waste models of H-MW(2,491, 2,890) and I-MW(2,291, 3,267). Due to limitations in accurately estimating the quantity of medical waste during the rapid and outbreaks of massive infectious diseases, the generation unit of I-MW was derived to analyze its characteristics. During the early unstable stage of infectious disease outbreaks, the generation unit was 8.74 kg/capita·day, 2.69 kg/capita·day during the stable stage, and an average of 0.08 kg/capita·day during the reduction stage. Correlation analysis between generation unit of I-MW and lethality rates showed +0.99 in the unstable stage, +0.52 in the stable stage, and +0.96 in the reduction period, demonstrating a very high positive correlation of +0.95 or higher throughout the entire outbreaks of massive infectious diseases. The results derived from this study are expected to play a useful role in establishing an effective medical waste management system in the field of health care.