• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.235-244
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• 2021

Purpose: This study aimed to provide basic data for developing interventions to relieve the end-of-life care stress experienced by pediatric nurses by examining the relationships of end-of-life care stress with compassionate competence and attitudes toward end-of-life care. Methods: Data were collected via a survey that was conducted from September 10 to September 30, 2018 and administered to 113 nurses who had worked for more than 6 months in a pediatric unit at a tertiary hospital in Seoul, South Korea. The data were analyzed for frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation, and the independent t-test, one-way analysis of variance, and Pearson correlation analysis were conducted using SPSS version 25.0. Results: End-of-life care stress among pediatric nurses had a weak positive correlation (r=0.216, P<0.05) with compassionate competence and had no significant correlation with attitudes toward end-of-life care. Among the sub-factors of end-of-life care stress, psychological difficulties had a weak positive correlation with sensitivity (r=0.309, P<0.01) and communication (r=0.230, P<0.05), which are aspects of compassionate competence. Lack of knowledge about end-of-life care had a weak positive correlation with communication (r=0.209, P<0.05) as an aspect of compassionate competence. Conclusion: To improve the quality of end-of-life care provided by pediatric nurses, it is necessary to improve their compassionate competence and reduce their end-of-life care stress by developing education and support programs tailored to the characteristics of children and specific communication methods.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.178-183
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• 2007

Purpose: The prevalence and mortality of gastric lancer is high. We studied clinical characteristics and prognostic factors of the advanced gastric canter patients who had died in the hospice care unit. and our study is the basic report for efficient hospice and palliative care for the terminally ill patients with gastric cancer. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 99 advanced gastric cancer patients who had died in a hospice rare unit from May 2004 to August 2007. The survival days during the hospice and palliative care were analyzed using Kaplan-Meier method of SPSS version 13.0. Results: There were 62 males (63%) and 37 females (37%). Median age of patients was 60.9 years and liver metastasis was as high as 38 patients (38%) of all. The most prevalent symptom of admission was general weakness (97%) and poor or intake (86%). There were also bypoalbuminemia (88%), anemia (73%), and hyponatremia (61%). Palliative procedure was performed on 17 (63%) out of 27 patients with intestinal obstruction. Of these stents were inserted to 11 patients. The stores of ECOGPS and dyspnea were significantly correlated with the length of survival. The duration of median survival and hospitalization in the hospice and palliative care was 22 days and was 20 days respectively. Conclusion: We need to study more about clinical characteristics of advanced gastric rancor patients to predict the length of survival for an effective hospice and palliative care.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.11-16
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• 2020

Purpose: D-dimer levels are known to be associated with poor outcomes in patients with various cancers, but their significance at the end of life remains unclear. This study investigated D-dimer levels as a prognostic indicator for terminal cancer patients in the last hours of life. Methods: The retrospective study was conducted at a palliative care unit of a tertiary cancer center, using a database to analyze the records of patients treated from January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2018. In total, 67 terminal cancer patients with available data on D-dimer levels were included. Patients' demographic data, clinical information, and laboratory values, including D-dimer levels, were collected. Survival was analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier method and the log-rank test. A Cox proportional-hazards model was used to identify prognostic factors of poor survival. Results: The most common site of cancer was the lung (32.8%) and the median survival time was 5 days. Most laboratory results, particularly D-dimer levels, deviated from the normal range. Patients with high D-dimer levels had a significantly shorter survival time than those with low D-dimer levels (4 days vs. 7 days; P=0.012). In the Cox regression analysis, only a high D-dimer level was identified as a predictor of a poor prognosis (hazard ratio, 1.83; 95% confidence interval, 1.09~3.07). Conclusion: Our results suggest that at the very end of life, D-dimer levels may serve as a prognostic factor for survival in cancer patients.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.103-113
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• 2020

A clinical practice guideline for patients in the dying process in general wards and their families, developed through an evidence-based process, is presented herein. The purpose of this guideline is to enable a peaceful death based on an understanding of suitable management of patients' physical and mental symptoms, psychological support, appropriate decision-making, family care, and clearly-defined team roles. Although there are limits to the available evidence regarding medical issues in patients facing death, the final recommendations were determined from expert advice and feedback, considering values and preferences related to medical treatment, benefits and harms, and applicability in the real world. This guideline should be applied in a way that takes into account specific health care environments, including the resources of medical staff and differences in the available resources of each institution. This guideline can be used by all medical institutions in South Korea.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.65-74
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• 2018

Purpose: The aim of this study is to examine the relationships among hospice-palliative care (HPC) nurses' knowledge of delirium, self-efficacy and nursing performance. Methods: This study was participated by 174 nurses working in the HPC unit. The nurses were asked to fill out a questionnaire that was structured to measure their knowledge of delirium, a self-efficacy in clinical performance scale (SECPS) and nursing performance. Results: The mean score for knowledge was 32.83 out of 45, with correction rate of 73%. The mean score for self-efficacy was 7.08 out of 10. The mean score of nursing performance was 2.95 out of 4. Significant correlation was observed among the variables of knowledge (r=0.28, P<0.001), self-efficacy (r=0.51, P<0.001) and nursing performance. Conclusion: Nurses with high level of knowledge of delirium showed high level of self-efficacy, and consequently better HPC nursing performance. It is necessary to develop a training program on delirium considering nurses' needs of knowledge of the condition. The effectiveness of the training program should be also examined in future.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.732-738
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• 2020

This study examined the effects of hospice & palliative care education programs for nursing students, in terms of spiritual well-being and knowledge concerning advance directives. This is a quasi-experimental study of non-equivalent control groups, and includes a pre-test and post-test design. Data was collected between September to December 2018, enrolling third grade nursing college students attending a university in C city: 22 subjects in the experimental group and 27 subjects in the control group. The experimental group was provided the education as a regular subject, 2 hours a week for 7 weeks, for a total of 14 hours. Ed. Notes: I suggest you maintain any one unit for mentioning time. Hence, I changed 120 mins to 2 hours. Data were analyzed by X2 test, Fisher's exact, t-test, independent t-test, and paired t-test, using the SPSS 21.0 program. After attending the program, spiritual well-being showed a significant increase (t=2.80, p=0.009). However, there was no significant difference between groups in knowledge regarding advance directives (t=1.33, p=0.190). Our results indicate that the hospice & palliative care education program helps nursing students improve their score of spiritual well-being. We believe that these results contribute basic data for the future development of hospice-palliative care curriculum.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.29-34
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• 2007

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to show the differences of medical cost between hospice and non-hospice care for terminally ill patients. This information provides basic data to nationally institutionalize hospice care for decreasing costs and enhancing quality of life for terminally ill patients. Methods: Participants of this study were 114 terminally ill cancer patients who were diagnosed and died with stomach cancer and lung cancer at the K hospital of the C university. The study was a retrospective survey design that analyzed the medical costs for two weeks before they died. The cost analysis was done according to 11 items form the medical cost bill. Results: Patients enrolled in hospice care had significantly lower medical costs (53%) than did non-hospice patients especially in use of TPN, narcotic analgesics, nursing care, radiology tests, and blood tests. Among patients enrolled/admitted in the hospice unit, there was a significant cost difference only in use of analgesics whether the hospice specialized doctor was in charge of care or not. The cost was significantly lower when a hospice specialized doctor was in charge of care although the total medical cost was the same. Conclusion: This study identified lower medical costs for patients cared for in the hospice unit. Thus, we urge institutionalizing hospice care without delay to insure cost benefits as well as quality care.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.87-99
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• 2019

Purpose: This study aimed to identify the difficulties with end-of-life care (EOLC) experienced by intensive care unit (ICU) nurses and to investigate their educational needs for EOLC. Methods: Mixed methods were used to survey ICU nurses at a university hospital. Quantitative data (N=106) were collected through a questionnaire and analyzed using an independent samples t-test, ANOVA, Mann-Whitney U test and $Scheff{\acute{e}}$ test. Qualitative data (N=19) were collected through focus group interviews and analyzed through qualitative content analysis. Results: The mean score on the difficulty of EOLC was 3.41 out of 5. The education needs derived from the qualitative analysis was categorized into four themes: 1) guidelines on professional EOLC, 2) spiritual care, 3) a program to take care of feelings of patients, families and nurses, and 4) activities to think about death. Conclusion: This study confirmed that ICU nurses were experiencing an extreme difficulty in providing EOLC. In addition, a qualitative analysis confirmed that they needed an EOL nursing program. To mitigate the difficulties experienced by nurses involved in EOLC, there is an urgent need to develop an education program for EOLC tailored to nurses' needs.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.134-143
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• 2019

Purpose: This methodological study was conducted to test the reliability and validity of an instrument that measures attitudes of advance directives (ADs) among nurses. Methods: 1) Sixteen items related to attitudes in the English version of the Knowledge, Attitudinal, and Experiential Survey on Advance Directives (KAESAD) were forward/backward translated into Korean. 2) The content was validated by an expert panel (three nursing professors and eight hospice nursing specialists). 3) The preliminary 12 items were selected as a tool to assess the Korean version of Nurses' Attitudes towards Advance Directives (NAAD-K). 4) The instrument was validated by a survey (n=216). 5) It was confirmed to use the 12 items for the final version of the instrument. Results: NAAD-K was shown to be valid in terms of factors, items and content. The three factors extracted from the factor analysis were named as follows: Caring for patients with an AD (factor 1), nurses' role in informing patients (factor 2) and patient right (factor 3). The three factors explained total variance 57.796%. Factor loadings of the 12 items ranged from 0.47 to 0.93. For the 12 items, Cronbach's alpha was 0.81, and Guttman split-half coefficient was 0.78. Conclusion: This instrument was identified to be applicable with satisfactory reliability and validity for further use in measuring nurses' attitudes towards ADs in hospice and palliative care.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.94-100
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• 2002

Purpose : The system to refer terminally ill patients to palliative or hospice care which ultimately give them emotional, psychological, and social support hasn't been fully developed and organized yet in Korea. The controversies concerning the current referral system are being analyzed to present the improvements. Methods : The questionnaires were asked to be filled out by family members of the 76 patients by phone interview, who were referred from the Seoul National University Hospital between April, 2001 to March, 2002. They were referred to the 35 palliative and hospice care-giving institutes and hospitals which were given questionnaires by mail. Results : Of the 76 patient's family members, 47 family members accepted to answer the questionnaire. The first thing that influence to family to determine the referral of patient was solicitation of doctors or nurses (44%). And they were influenced by allowance for the other things such as convenience of patients (32%), convenience of caring family members (24%). In the course of determining of referred institutes, responders had considered at first their dwelling area, and then fame of institutes, the place which patent had wanted to spend last hours or which is suitable for patient's funeral service, and their financial condition. Thirty-eight the 47 responders answered that they had experienced difficulties in referral procedure. The worst among difficulties was unwanted discharge, and followings were lack of information about the referred institutes, concern about patient's suffering, resistance of patient and opposition of other family members, etc. Although they expressed dissatisfaction in referral procedure, most of them answered they had been satisfied with hospice care at referred institute after referral. Merits of referral which responders counted were patient's peace, caring family's comfort and reduced cost in order. Of the 35 referred institutes, 24 institutes' staffs responded mail questionnaires and sent to us in return. Except one responder, the rest approved the referral system and thought that referred patients had been satisfied with their hospice care. And they claimed that systemic support of the government is definitely necessary. The most difficult thing which responders experienced in care of referred patients was lack of information about patients. Besides, there were patient's financial problems, lack of understanding about their institutes of patients or family, and inconvenience of terminal cancer patient's pain control. Conclusion : The development and support of the organized referral system is needed to alleviate the troubles which patients, family members, and palliative or hospice institutes and hospitals have to face through the procedure of the referral.