• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.212-217
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• 2011

Purpose: Since 2005, the Ministry of Health & Welfare has provided financial support to promote palliative care for terminal cancer patients. We analyzed how palliative care facilities used the funding between 2006 and 2010. Methods: Frequency analysis was conducted by the item of expenditure based on fiscal reports of the palliative care facilities. Linear regression analysis was performed to examine a trend over time. Kruskal-Wallis test and Wilcoxon rank-sum test were used to compare expenditure items, the number of provision of financial support and type of palliative care units. Results: About a half of the fund was spent to pay care givers salary, improve facilities and purchase equipment regardless of the year, the number of financial support provided or facility type. By year, the operation cost for palliative care program and the education cost for health care workers have significantly increased in linear regression analysis (P<0.01). However, the amount of financial support for the low income group has decreased over years (P=0.024). This trend was affected by evaluation criteria and weight. Conclusion: The government aid for palliative care units has been used to improve facilities and equipment. Moreover, desirable changes were noted such as a higher portion of expenses for program operation and care giver training to enhance the quality of care. However, the evaluation criteria need to be adjusted to prevent any further decrease in the support provided to the low income group.

• Korean Journal of Hospice Care
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.1-16
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• 2002

Hospice can not only help the dying persons to maintain the high quality of life and facing the death in comfortable and peaceful state, but also the bereaved family to relieve the grief and sufferings. We investigated the work of hospice performed by church base from March 2000 until recently and reported the results dividing them into three parts. 1)The application of resources in church to administration, education, nursing delivery of hospice in the aspects of management. 2)Spiritual and postmortal management relating hospice nursing and funeral in hospice practice. 3)Case report of hospice and the patients situation(5 in average a month). The expected effects of hospice practice using the resources in church are as follows. 1)Hospice practice can provide the highly qualified persons with the opportunities to do voluntary services and find their lives worth living. Consequently hospice contributes to the spreading of the volunteering culture. 2)The volunteers in hospice can grow mature spiritually and get interpersonal relationships among the volunteers. Doyle. D., Geoflrey.W.C., & Macdonald. N.(1988). Oxford Textbook of Palliative Medicine(2nd ed). New York :Oxford University Press. Woodruff. R.(1996). Palliative Medicine(2nd ed). Melburn: Asperula Pty Ltd. 3)Through the hospice activity, church can practice and show the moral. 4)The volunteers in hospice can make a organization with a hope to be a beautiful community in church. 5)The patients and their families can enjoy the high quality of life through the holistic care provided by 33 nursing practical items of hospice. 6)'Hospice newsletter' can be a useful vehicle to provide readers with hope and encouragement through the stories of the patient and the volunteers. The persons unaware of the hospice can be contacted with hospice by this 'Hospice newsletter'. 7)Irrespective of the economic status, all patients are served equally that hospice can contribute to dying with dignity and the equality of human being.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.13-23
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• 2010

Purpose: This study was to identify the role of general hospice palliative nurse through job analysis (duties, task, and task elements). Methods: The sample consisted of 136 nurses or professors who were performing duties related to hospice care areas in Korea. A survey method was used, and the questionnaire included frequencies, criticality, and difficulties of task elements in job description by the DACUM method. Descriptive statistics were performed by using SPSS WIN 17.0. Results: The job description of general hospice palliative nurse was identified 8 duties, 36 tasks, and 137 task elements. As for the 8 duties, the average scores of frequency, criticality, and difficulty were 2.94, 3.66, and 2.80, respectively. The role of ‘pain assessment’ was the most important task element among frequency and criticality. The lowest score at the frequency and criticality were ‘manage public finance’ and ‘collect datum through diagnostic test & lab', respectively. Furthermore, the role of 'identify spiritual needs of patients and family' was the most difficult task, whereas the role of 'manage documents and information' was the least. Conclusion: In this study, we could recognize the reality of general hospice palliative nurse's performances. For general hospice palliative nurse, therefore, concrete practice guide lines of psychosocial and spiritual care, communication skills, and bereavement care with qualifying system are critically needed.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.109-119
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• 2010

Purpose: This study was a part of a drive to develop a community health center-based hospice management model which is concerned with hospice care at a community health care setting and available resources of the local community. Methods: Development of a community health center-based hospice management model involved evaluation of existing hospice-related research, including literature review, and research on hospice facilities at the study site, as well as evaluation of model operation. The latter involved community health center-based hospice test operation, and evaluation of test operation by a research team, including of a nursing professor majoring in hospice care and staffs from a community health center in Busan metropolitan city, regional cancer center, and regional terminal cancer patient medical institute. The study was conducted in the 2008 calendar year. Results: The community health center-based hospice management model provides service linked with local community resources, focusing on the local community health center. Financial and administrative assistance is provided by the regional cancer center, with collaboration from academic health care professionals who guide the operation management. The community health center hospice nurse in consultation with a visiting nurse team registers terminally-ill cancer patients and, after assessment, the hospice team prioritize hospice care during team meeting. Care is delivered by staffs and volunteers. Conclusion: The developed community health center-based hospice operation management model maximally utilizes available community health resources to produce qualitative improvement of regional health and welfare policy through improving the lives of home-based cancer patients and their family who are in medical blind spot.