• Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
• /
• v.41 no.3
• /
• pp.218-225
• /
• 2007

Purpose: Postoperative thyroid remnant radioablation therapy is necessary to reduce the recurrence and mortality rates as well as to prepare the patients for a proper long term surveillance of well-differentiated thyroid cancers. The radiation safety rules of the government require the patient to be isolated in a hospital if the expected radiation exposure to the family members would be greater than 5 mSv (500 mRem). The purpose was to measure the radiation received by the family members of patients who received large doses of NaI-131. Material and Methods: We have administered 12 therapy doses ranging from 3.70-5.55 GBq (100 to 150 mCi) to 11 patients, and released them immediately if they met the radiation safety criteria. Informed consent was obtained from the subjects prior to the therapy, and each of them agreed to follow written radiation safety instructions. TLD badges were used to measure the radiation dose received by the family members and the room adjacent to the patient's bed room during the first 72 hours. Results: The average dose received by the family members who spent the most time in the closest distance with the patients was 0.04 mSv with a range of 0.01-0.17 mSv. Even the highest dose was only about 3% of the limit set by the government. The average radiation dose to the outer wall of the patient's room was 0.15 mSv. Conclusion: It is concluded that I-131 ablation therapy can be administered to outpatients safely to thyroid cancer patients who meet the established radiation safety criteria and follow the instructions.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
• /
• v.11 no.2
• /
• pp.423-440
• /
• 2000

This research was conducted to identify the following: the home care needs of patients with dementia and the burden on the primary family care giver: to provide basic data required to develop nursing intervention for the care giver: and to suggest recommendations for medical institutions and social services that could reduce the burden on the families of people suffering from dementia. subjects of this research were 53 patients of the two Public Health Centers of Cheju Province who are suffering from dementia and their families. The instrument used in the research was Kuen. Jung Don (1994)' s assessment tool of burden in the primary family care giver who has parents with senile dementia and Yoo. Young Mi(1998)'s assessment tool of home care need. modified by the researcher in the questionnaire by a Likert rating scale. The period of data collection was from February 8. 2000 to March 10. 2000. Collected data was analyzed by SPSS, using mean, standard deviation. ANOVA, t-test and Pearson correlation coefficient. The result of this research was that there was not a significant correlation between the burden on the care giver and the level of dementia, its duration, the patient's ability to perform daily tasks, the period of care giving. and the use of social services, although the lower the patient's ability to perform daily tasks. and the worse the care giver's own health situation, the higher the burden on the primary family care giver. The following suggestions are made based on the results of this research. 1. More than half of the subjects don't use social facilities and services. More publicity and referral efforts are needed about medical institutions. nursing institutions and other facilities that specialize in services for dementia sufferers and their families. 2. Nursing services should include intensive education for the primary care giver in the most important aspects of home care. 3. Further research should be done, and should include data from all parts of Cheju Province.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
• /
• v.25 no.1
• /
• pp.12-24
• /
• 2022

Purpose: This descriptive study compared the perceptions, determinants, and needs of patients, family members, nurses, and physicians regarding life-sustaining treatment decisions for patients with hematologic malignancies in the hematology-oncology department of a tertiary hospital in Seoul, Korea. Methods: In total, 147 subjects were recruited, gave written consent, and provided data by completing a structured questionnaire. Data were analyzed using analysis of variance, the chi-square test, and the Fisher exact test. Results: Nurses (F=3.35) and physicians (F=3.57) showed significantly greater familiarity with the Act on Decisions on Life-Sustaining Treatment than patients (F=2.69) and family members (F=2.59); (F=19.58, P<0.001). Many respondents, including 19 (51.4%) family members, 16 (43.2%) physicians, and 11 (29.7%) nurses, agreed that the patient's opinion had the greatest effect when making life-sustaining treatment decisions. Twelve (33.3%) patients answered that mental, physical, and financial burdens were the most important factors in life-sustaining treatment decisions, and there was a significant difference among the four groups (P<0.001). Twenty-four patients (66.7%), 27 (73.0%) family members, and 21(56.8%) nurses answered that physicians were the most appropriate people to provide information regarding life-sustaining treatment decisions. Unexpectedly, 19 (51.4%) physicians answered that hospice nurse practitioners were the most appropriate people to talk to about life-sustaining treatment (P<0.001). Conclusion: It is of utmost importance that the patient and physician determine when life-sustaining treatment should be withdrawn, with the patient making the ultimate decision. Doctors and nurses have the responsibility to provide detailed information. The goal of end-of-life planning is to ensure patients' dignity and respect their values.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.18 no.5
• /
• pp.647-656
• /
• 2017

This study examined the associations among the factors related to self-care behavior in patients with liver cirrhosis, focusing on disease knowledge and family support. The subjects were 120 liver cirrhosis patients recruited from the medical out-patient clinic of ageneral hospital in the U metropolitan city during the period of June-August, 2015. The data were analyzed with SPSS(Version 21) program. The results showed that the average scores of disease knowledge was $12.64{\pm}2.16$ out of 18; family support was $23.28{\pm}5.68$ out of 32; and self-care behavior was $35.66{\pm}8.67$ out of 60. The study subjects had moderate levels of disease knowledge and family support, but low levels of self-care behavior. The data showedthat self-care behavior was positively correlated with disease knowledge (r=0.675, p<0.001) and family support (r=0.804, p<0.001) of the subjects. The best predictors for self-care behavior were family support, disease knowledge, frequency of alcohol consumption per week, having liver cirrhosis patients among family or relatives, and educational level, which accounted for 69.7% of the variance. In conclusion, promoting the self-care behavior of liver cirrhosis patients should be planned based on a consideration of the patient's educational level, knowledge of their own disease, and family support.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing
• /
• v.7 no.2
• /
• pp.287-300
• /
• 2000

The purpose of this study was to identify nursing needs for hospice patients and their families in order to establish a foundation for appropriate Korean hospice care. To achieve the purpose of this study, 1 interviewed 50 patients who were going to die within 3 or 6 months and 42 family members of these patients who were registered in Pusan National University Hospital Hospice Program. The interview was done in the patient's room using semi-dialog style questionnaire. Data collection was done from March 1, 1999 to September 30. 1999. The important results of this study are summarized as follows : 1. Nursing needs that patients and their families have experienced were classified into six nursing domains; physical, emotional, economic, educational, spiritual and postmortal care. 2. Nursing needs of hospice patients are; pain control(80%), physical comfort(72%), consideration from medical personnel(68%), provision of information(64%), best treatment(60%), help of volunteers(36%), and continuous hospital treatment(32%). 3. Nursing needs of the families are; pain-control in Patients(97.6%), best treatment(97.6%), physical comfort of patients(95.2%), continuous hospital treatment(92.8%), provision of information(80.9%), consideration from medical personnel(76.1%), expectation of recovery(66.6%), emotional support of family(61.9%), and physical comfort of family(40.4%). It is concluded that there is a real difference between the nursing needs of patients and the nursing needs of their families. Therefore we must examine and intervene for the demands of patients and their families using a holistic approach in order to meet their hospice needs.

• Journal of Korean Academic Society of Home Health Care Nursing
• /
• v.10 no.1
• /
• pp.41-51
• /
• 2003

The purpose of this study was the family caring for the patients under home care nursing in the two college hospitals in Busan and Kyungnam Province. Researchers deep-interviewed the participants and asked using the non-constructed questions. 'What did you experience through home care nursing?'. The results are summarized as follows ; First, there were 196 final meaningful statements in the end and 32 constructed meanings, which were classified into 13 themes. These themes were again divided into four categories such as introduction, development, turn and conclusion. In the 'Introduction' three themes were included as follows ; 'feeling their eyes blinded', 'feeling a burden to have such a patient at home', and so on. In the 'conclusion' consisted of four such as 'finding it worthwhile to take care of them at home despite in the suffocated reality', 'pinning hope on the patient', 'retiring the world at first, but later going outdoors and feeling better', and 'realizing the real meaning of family through the difficult situation'. On the basis of this research results, home care nurses have to include the patients' family among home care clients and gradually change the home care nursing into the positive direction by sensitively responding to their requests.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
• /
• v.30 no.sup2
• /
• pp.352-355
• /
• 2001

The authors report two cases of familial hemifacial spasm according to the clinical and three dimensional shortrange magnetic resonance angiography(3D-SRMRA) findings. In the family of the first case, there were five patient's with acquired hemifacial spasm in successive generations. Three male and two female patients in successive generations of the same family developed acquired hemifacial spasm. Four patients were on the left side and one was on the right side. In the family of the second case, there were three patient's with acquired hemifacial spasm in successive generations. Two brothers developed left-sided hemifacial spasm. 3D-SRMRA finding of the probands demonstrated that both anterior inferior cerebellar artery in first case and anterior inferior cerebellar artery & vertebral artery in second case offend the 7th cranial nerve respectively. The presence of familial clustering of these rare disorders suggest an underlying genetic predisposition. All family pedigrees suggest that a pattern of autosomal-dominant inheritance with partial penetrance.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
• /
• v.44 no.2
• /
• pp.1-9
• /
• 2023

Objectives: To study symptom differentiation for yang deficiency and blood heat based on 117 psoriasis patients. Methods: Obtained frequency analysis (%), mean (%), and OR, CL(P-value) with prospective pre-post intervention design and multiple regression analysis. Results: There were no statistically significant differences as to sex, BMI, smoking and marital status, but there were statistically significant differences in variables of average age, family history, and alcohol consumption (P<0.05). There were no statistically significant differences in psoriasis symptoms as to initial age of onset, morbidity span, area of the initial onset, and the progression of psoriasis during the last three months of each patient. However, the type of psoriasis showed a statistically significant difference (p=0.011). While there were no statistically significant differences as to common cold, condition of psoriasis after recovering from the cold, skin condition, exercise, and seasonality, irregular perspiration showed significant difference (p<0.00). When confounding factors have been controlled the blood heat patient group as the comparison group, multiple regression analysis showed OR, CI(95%) of 1.06(0.31-3.63) for men, 0.28(0.08-1.06) for aged 30 to 49,0 and 0.18(0.04-0.80) for aged 50 and older. it was 0.06(0.01-0.7) for family history, 1.06(0.29-3.88) for drink alcohol, 19.90(2.53-156.7) for seasonality, and 10.28 (3.19-33.11) for perspiration problems. In these variables, Sex, age, smoking, and alcohol consumption showed no statistically significant results, but family history(p=0.049), seasonality(p=0.005), and irregular perspiration (p=0.017) were statistically significant. Conclusion: Family history, seasonality and irregular perspiration are the determining factors for yang deficiency and blood heat in psoriasis.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
• /
• v.29 no.1
• /
• pp.54-64
• /
• 2018

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify factors influencing burnout in primary family caregivers of Home Health Care Patients. Methods: Data were collected from 121 primary family caregivers of home health care patients in three different hospitals in 'D' metropolitan city and the study was conducted from August 10, 2016 to January 17, 2017. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson's Correlation Coefficient, Stepwise Multiple Linear Regression. Results: Mean scores for the nursing needs of the participants were $3.54{\pm}0.79$, the family functions were $1.24{\pm}0.58$, the burnouts were $2.74{\pm}0.49$. The burnouts were positively correlated with the nursing needs but inversely correlated with the family function. The factor that had the greatest influence on the burnouts of primary family caregivers of Home Health Care was family function (${\beta}=-.245$, p=.001), followed by patients' daily activity (${\beta}=-.213$, p=.014), age (${\beta}=.208$, p=.032), monthly nursing services cost (${\beta}=-.196$, p=.044) and nursing needs (${\beta}=.129$, p=.014). The Explanatory Power of Models was 23%. Conclusion: Individually customized home care nursing intervention programs are required to be provided in accordance with patient's family function and daily activity, monthly home care nursing service cost, nursing needs and general characteristics of primary caregivers of Home Health Care Patients such as their age, the number of family members living together, sex and the name of disease.

• Korean Journal of Hospice Care
• /
• v.5 no.1
• /
• pp.1-13
• /
• 2005

Purpose:The purpose of this study was to find the ways to improve a quality of life of cancer patients through the family support by analyzing the correlation between quality of life and family support that cancer patients perceived. Methods: The questionnaires for this study were collected from 43 cancer patients who were admitted in general hospitals at Gyounggido from July 2004 to August 2004. The questionnaire was composed of total 60 items, which were general characteristics of 18 items, family support of 11 items and quality of life of 31 items. Kang's(1984) scale of family support and Tae's(2000) scale of quality of life were used. The data were analyzed with SPSS WIN 10.0 program using frequency, mean±SD, t-test, ANOVA and Pearson's correlation analysis. Results: Forty three cancer patients answered the questionnaire. Twenty three patients was a male and 20 a female. Mean scale of family support according to general characteristics was 3.87±0.71. Mean scale of quality of life according to general characteristics was 5.89±1.08 and relatively high. The better degree of education, the higher quality of life significantly and the less physical discomfort, the higher quality of life significantly. The quality of life when the patient burdens the spouse with treatment cost was significantly higher. A correlation between degree of family support and quality of life was r=0.488 and the higher family support that cancer patients perceived, the higher quality of life significantly(p<0.001). Conclusion: The higher family support that cancer patients perceived, the higer quality of life significantly. We suggest concrete and systemic program for family support.