• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
• /
• v.27 no.2
• /
• pp.170-179
• /
• 2015

Purpose: To examine the relationships between self-care, social support, and biological markers in liver transplant recipients. Methods: The participants included 118 liver transplant recipients who visited outpatient clinic at Y University Hospital in Seoul from April to May, 2013. Questionnaires consisted of self-care and social support scales. The biological markers were collected by reviewing electronic medical records. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA with Scheff$\acute{e}$ post-hoc test, and Pearson's correlation. Results: The self-care score was significantly higher in a patient group within 6 months post-transplant when compared to a patient group post-transplant 3 to 5 years (F=3.10, p=.018). The self-care showed positive correlation with social support with statistical significance (r=.36, p<.001). Conclusion: As the self-care in liver transplant recipients had a positive correlation with social support from family and healthcare providers, the development of comprehensive long-term nursing intervention systems including counseling, education, and support in consideration of progress of time period after transplantation is necessary to enhance self-care behaviors among this population.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Rural Health Nursing
• /
• v.15 no.1
• /
• pp.30-40
• /
• 2020

Purpose: This study was done to describe a community health practitioner's nursing case management for a terminal cancer patient registered in the public health post. Methods: For this purpose, data were collected through the patient and family through home visits, health clinic offices, and phone calls. The nursing process was carried out from August to November 2019. Results: The patient suffered the most from anorexia and lack of energy. Also he expressed psychologically uncertainty about disease and death anxiety caused by long-term treatment. In order to reduce the death anxiety, Community Health Practitioner (CHP) asked him to express his life stories and listened to him. CHP provided information of appropriate medications and alternative foods for symptoms such as gastrointestinal disorders and anorexia to the patient and family. Observing the situation of the patient and family, CHP guided the patient and family to prepare for death and has confirmed to them that the process was not with the patient alone. Conclusion: CHP's this experience has shown the possibility for CHP to help the terminal cancer patient and family to prepare peaceful death in their communities.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
• /
• v.40 no.1
• /
• pp.12-22
• /
• 2023

Graves disease (GD) is the most common cause of hyperthyroidism, accounting for more than 90% of cases in Korea. Patients with GD are treated with any of the following: antithyroid drugs (ATDs), radioactive iodine (RAI) therapy, or thyroidectomy. Most patients begin treatment with ATDs, and clinical guidelines suggest that the appropriate treatment period is 12 to 18 months. While RAI treatment and surgery manage thyrotoxicosis by destroying or removing thyroid tissue, ATDs control thyrotoxicosis by inhibiting thyroid hormone synthesis and preserving the thyroid gland. Although ATDs efficiently control thyrotoxicosis symptoms, they do not correct the main etiology of GD; therefore, frequent relapses can follow. Recently, a large amount of data has been collected on long-term ATDs for GD, and low-dose methimazole (MMZ) is expected to be a good option for remission. For the long-term management of recurrent GD, it is important to induce remission by evaluating the patient's drug response, stopping ATDs at an appropriate time, and actively switching to surgery or RAI therapy, if indicated. Continuing drug treatment for an extended time is now encouraged in patients with a high possibility of remission with low-dose MMZ. It is also important to pay attention to the quality of life of the patients. This review aimed to summarize the appropriate treatment methods and timing of treatment transition in patients who relapsed several times while receiving treatment for GD.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
• /
• v.33 no.6
• /
• pp.705-712
• /
• 2003

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore factors that influence care dependency of institutionalized patients with dementia. Method: This study utilized descriptive correlational design. The convenience sample was composed of 110 residents with dementia of two long-term care facilities in Korea. Stepwise multiple regression was used to identify significant factors influencing care dependency in patients with dementia. Care dependency was measured using the Care Dependency Scale, Korean version(CDS-K). Cognition was measured by the MMSE-K. Functional disability was measured by the PULSES Profile. Behavioral dysfunction was measured by the modified E-BEHAVE AD. Result: Care dependency was significantly influenced by cognition, functional disability, behavioral dysfunction, and duration of dementia. This regression model explained 61 % of the variances in care dependency. Cognition explained 37% of the variances, and functional disability explained 21% of the variances. Conclusion: Results of this study suggest that professional caregivers intervene more effectively in caring for their patients with dementia by recognizing the patients cognitive, functional, behavioral disability, and its periodic change. Individually, remaining abilities-focused intervention should be applied to enhance patient to be dependent and to prevent unnecessary independency.

• Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
• /
• v.11 no.7
• /
• pp.288-297
• /
• 2021

The purpose of this study was to provide basic data for the development of end-of-life care program by analyzing the importance and performance of end-of-life care. Data were collected from 127 hospice team members currently working in hospice and palliative care units from six different university hospitals, general hospitals and hospice clinics. The data was collected throughout the time span of Dec. 1, 2020 to Feb. 15, 2021. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-tests, ANOVA, & IPA matrix. As a result of this study, 'physical care' and 'psychological care' were part of the first quadrant that requires maintenance and continuous enhancement. The 'spiritual care' appeared to be in the third quadrant area which entails long-term improvement. Based on the outcome of the study, it is evident that strategies are needed to continuously maintain and enhance physical and psychological care as well establish long-term plans for spiritual care when organizing the hospice team's end-of-life care performance training program.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
• /
• v.39 no.1
• /
• pp.95-106
• /
• 2009

Purpose: The purposes of this study were to explore the functional status of elderly residents and to analyze time use, and finally identify factors to predict nursing care needs in relation to functional status and health related variables. Methods: In this study a descriptive-correlational design was used. Functional status of participants was obtained through interviews, and nursing care time was examined using a 1 min time-motion study with a standardized instrument developed by Korea Long-Term Care Planning Committee (2005). Results: The mean total functional score was 65 (range 28-125) and mean total nursing care time was 144.15 min per day. There were significant positive relationships between total nursing care time, marital status, back pain, dementia, and vision impairment. Multiple regression analyses showed that a liner combination of number of illnesses, types of primary disease, ADL, IADL, cognitive function, nursing demand, and rehabilitation demand explained 42.8% of variance of total nursing time. ADL (${\beta}$=-.533) was the most significant predictor of nursing service need. Conclusion: Identifying factors that result in variations of service need has implications for adequate nursing service, estimation of optimum nurse to patient ratio, quality of care and patient safety.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
• /
• v.19 no.11
• /
• pp.603-618
• /
• 2019

This study aims to explore the meaning and nature of the nursing experience of visiting nurses of home-based long-term care service centers by using van Manen's hermeneutic phenomenological approach. A total of 10 home-visiting nurses working in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do Province were recruited through purposive, convenience, and snowball sampling and participated in the study. Data were collected from January 7, 2017 to October 12, 2018 through in-depth individual interviews with the participants. The analysis resulted in 6 essential themes regarding the lived experience of visiting nurses: 'establising a good rapport with the patient and his or her family caregiver', 'building the foundation of visiting nursing by performing autonomously nursing procedures for the patient', 'facing the reality not to be able to work as much as I want due to the limitations of the support system in performing work as a visiting nurse', 'upset when sincerity could not be delivered', 'following the calling of medical personnel by taking responsibility for 'my patient', and 'pledging oneself to career-long work, feeling reward as a visiting nurse.' The findings of the study help understand the role and importance of visiting nurses and contribute to the preparation of practical measures to improve the quality of home-visiting nursing.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
• /
• v.26 no.4
• /
• pp.768-781
• /
• 1996

The problem of care of patients and families with Alzheimer's disease has become a conscious raising social policy issue in Korea. The government of the Republic of Korea has become cognizant of the situation and has begun searching for ways to remedy it. Thus, there is a need for a comprehensive under-standing of the situation in which patients and their families are struggling and the enormous problems of care. With a realization of the urgent need, this study was done to investigate the situation and the care needs of families with patients with Alzheimer's Disease, and to compare the effectiveness of services utilized by the families in terms of cost and effects on patient's conditions and on family live. The Subjects for the study were 29 families with hospitalized patients, 25 families utilizing hospital outpatient clinics, 14 families utilizing day care facilities, and 16 families with homebound patients. A total of 84 families were interviewed by four trained interviewers using structured and semistructured questionnaires. The data produced from these interviews included : the patient's stage of Alzheimer's disease, patient's bizarre behavior, hours spent on patient care per day, family burden and quality of life, direct and indirect costs encountered in the care of patients, and the families' evaluation of the effectiveness of the services received. The data were analyzed to determine the relationships between family charactersistics, patient's conditions and services utilization. The effectiveness of each of the service entities was assessed through families evaluation and hoped for service and comparisons were made between services in terms of the cost-effectiveness ratios. After initial comparison of cost-effectiveness ratios, further analysis was done to compare between groups for incremental effectiveness for each incremental unit of cost to determine the most cost-effective service entities. The findings of the study are as fellows : 1. The choice of living arrangement and the types of services are a function of the stage of Alzheimer's condition and the economic status of the family. 2. Comparision of the cost of care showed that most expenses were encountered in by families with hospitalization, families using outpatient services, and families using day care services in that order. The least expense was involved in the care of homebound patients. The economic burden felt by families was in the same order as expenses. 3. The average number of hours spent on daily patient care was 9.9 hours for the outpatient clinic users, 9.7 hours for homebound patients, and 5.4 hours for day care users. 4. There were significant differences in the patient's conditions (CDRL), bizarre behaviors and the families's burden by living arrangement and /or types of service. However, no significant difference was found between groups in the family's quality of life. 5. The families rated the services of day care center as most effective for the care of the patients and families, except for a few families who had experienced some improvement in the patient's conditions. The outpatient clinic users expressed psychological comforts mainly in that the patient was being taken care of. For those hospitalized patients, families expressed the comfort of being relieved of the burden of care and that the patient is being professionally cared for. Form the analysis of the costs, hours of patient care, patient's bizarre behaviors, family's quality of life and burdens, and family's evaluation of services, it is concluded that up to the mid stage of Alzheimer's condition, the utilization of day care center services is found to be the most cost-effective, and toward the end stage of the Alzheimer's disease, it is hoped that there will be a establishment of long term or short term in-patient facilities for the protection of patients and preservation of the integrity of families for less cost. Thus. it was concluded that the family centered system of care is the most effective for Korea with systematic support systems developed for the care of patients and their families according to the needs of families as the patient's condition deteriorates.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.14 no.7
• /
• pp.3390-3399
• /
• 2013

The purpose of this study was to examine the incidence rates of pressure ulcers depending on the types of healthcare organizations and to determine whether the characteristics of patients and facilities influence on the incidence of pressure ulcers in long term facilities. We analyzed data on 796,857 patients of the 2009 National Patient Sample which was extracted from to claims for medical fees to Health Insurance Review & Assesment Service(HIRA). A total of 3.2% of patients(n=25,339) had at least 1 pressure ulcer during their hospitalization. The pressure ulcer rates were highest in long term care facilities(8.2%, n=11,895) following general hospital(2.7%, n=8,052), hospital(1.7%, n= 5,059). According to logistic regression analysis, urinary incontinence (Odds ratio(OR)=2.462, 95% confidence interval(CI)=2.038-2.974), hypertension(OR=1.456, CI=1.400-1.515), peripheral vessel diseases (OR=1.357, CI=1.200-1.534) were significant predictors of pressure ulcers. As the number of diagnoses, age, and the number of doctors per 100 beds increased, the incidence of pressure ulcers increased. In addition, more number of beds was associated with fewer pressure ulcers.

• Journal of the Korean Data and Information Science Society
• /
• v.27 no.3
• /
• pp.773-789
• /
• 2016

This study was conducted to identify the sleep patterns and influencing factors of hospitalized elderly in a long-term care hospital. The sleep patterns of 142 subjects were recorded using Sleep Charts. The average sleep time of subjects was 10.7 hours a day (3.9 hours in daytime and 6.8 hours in nighttime). Sleep regularity among participants were 71.7% in all day (58.1% in day time and 80.5% in night time). The presence of dementia patients in the room (PDPR) has been identified to be a statistically significant predictor of all day sleep, and pain, PDPR, and physical function have been found to be a significant predictors of sleep regularity in all day among subjects. It suggested that elderly patients in a long-term care hospital do not slept well during night, which leads to increase in daytime sleep and decrease the quality of their sleep. Therefore, an intervention program should be developed to promote the quality of sleep among hospitalized elderly.