• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.543-553
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• 2002

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to compare symptoms, medical therapies, and nursing interventions with terminal cancer patients during the last four weeks of their lives in a hospice unit and general units. Method: For the descriptive survey study, data were collected by reviewing the medical records of 243 patients who died of terminal cancer at K hospital in Seoul. The data was analyzed by using Chi-square test and t-test. Result: The study findings are summarized as follows: There were higher frequencies in physical symptoms of constipation, itching sensation, pain, sleeping disturbance, soreness and dysuria for those patients in the hospice unit than those patient in general units. All emotional symptoms were recorded significantly higher for those patients in the hospice unit than those in general units. Regarding the major medical interventions, pain management was used more significantly for those patients in the hospice unit, but antibiotic therapy and resuscitation were used more significantly for those patients in general units. Conclusion: The hospice unit provided more comprehensive nursing interventions including psychological, spiritual, and family cares as well as physiological care for terminal cancer patients. The facts showed that those patients who would need hospice care in general units should be referred to the hospice unit at an appropriate time.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.223-230
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• 2019

Purpose : Wellness tourism is defined as travel for the purpose of promoting health and well-being through physical, psychological, or spiritual activities. The development and verification of a comprehensive wellness program for health care for workers is needed. The purpose of this study is to investigate the wellness and skin health effects of skin health programs in order to develop high-value health care services. Methods : The subjects were 15 middle-aged women who understood the research and volunteered and participated in the two-day skin health wellness program. Participants were measured to determine their wellness index and skin health twice: before and after participating in the program. Wellness index measures include comprehensive wellness, physical wellness, mental wellness, emotional wellness, social/cultural wellness, financial wellness, and environmental wellness. Skin health measurement items consisted of skin oil, skin water, skin pore, skin elasticity, skin wrinkle, and skin pigment. The skin wellness program included aerobic exercise, endurance exercise, functional food, cosmetics, herbal tea, massages, spa treatments, meditation, and marine leisure sports. The t-test analysis was used to compare the difference between wellness index and skin health measurement items before and after the program. Results : Among the wellness index items, the comprehensive wellness index (p<.05), mental wellness index (p<.05) and environmental wellness index (p<.05) showed statistically significant differences. Among skin health items, skin oil (p<.05), skin elasticity (p<.01) and skin wrinkle (p<.01) all showed statistically significant differences. There was no statistically significant difference in physical wellness, emotional wellness, social/cultural wellness, financial wellness, skin water, skin pore and skin pigment. Conclusion : This study confirmed that the two-day complex wellness program is an effective program for some items of wellness index and skin health.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.88-98
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• 2012

Purpose: This study was designed to assess the relationship between spirituality and state hope of medical social workers in Korea and their correlation was studied to provide data in developing effective spiritual and hope intervention for medial social workers. Methods: The study surveyed 102 medical social workers in Korea from September 1, 2011 to September 30, 2011. The study employed the Korean version of the State Hope Scale (SHS) and Spirituality Scales (SS). For data analysis, descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson's correlation and simple regression were performed using the SPSS WIN ver. 17.0. Results: Spirituality scores showed a significant difference according to religion. The mean score of spirituality was 3.80/5.00 and the mean score of state hope was 6.36/8.00. Spirituality scoresand state hope scoresshowed a significant positive association (P<0.001). Conclusion: This study showed a significant positive association between medical social workers' spirituality and their state hope of. Future studies would be needed to further explorespirituality and state hope.

• 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 Korean Biological Nursing Science
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.22-36
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• 2019

Purpose: Even though advanced heart failure (HF) severely affects the patient's health-related quality of life (HRQoL), there is little information regarding this issue. This review is aimed to describe the relevant clinical characteristics of patient with advanced HF and identify factors influencing HRQoL in these patients. Methods: Empirical articles were searched from electronic databases issued from January 2000 to June 2018 with using the key terms 'heart failure' and 'quality of life'. There were a total of 22 articles that met the inclusion criteria and were analyzed for this study. Results: First, nine studies among 22 studies clearly stated that their participants were samples of patients with advanced HF. Most reviewed studies showed the New York Heart Association (NYHA) class as the criteria for identifying advanced HF. Second, the level of HRQoL varied depending on the measurement tools utilized by the researchers. Third, the NYHA class, gender, and symptoms were mainly associated with HRQoL in patients with advanced HF. Also, nurse- or physician-led intervention, exercise, spiritual-focused intervention, and palliative care improved the HRQoL of the patients with advanced HF. Conclusion: This study found that the clear application of criteria for advanced HF and the development of advanced HF-specific HRQoL measurement was needed. Prospective studies should be considered for identifying differences in the levels and factors influencing HRQoL in patients with early stage or advanced HF to design patient-centered care.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.349-360
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• 2019

Purpose: This study was conducted to derive a substantive theory on lived experiences of elderly cancer patients. Methods: The data were collected from February to March 2018 through in-depth personal interviews with 14 elderly cancer patients. The collected data were analyzed based on Corbin and Strauss's grounded theory. Results: The core category was "the journey to find balance in daily lives as a cancer patient by recovering disturbed ego integrity." The core phenomenon was "shattered by suffering from cancer," and the causal conditions were "physical change" and "limitations in daily life." The contextual conditions were "decreased self-esteem," "feelings of guilt toward the family," and the sense of "economic burden." The participants' action and interaction strategies were "maintaining or avoiding social relations," "seeking meaning of the illness," "falling into despair," and "strengthening the willingness to battle the cancer." The intervening conditions were "support from health care providers and family," "dissatisfaction with health care providers," "spiritual help from religion," and "the improvement or worsening of health conditions." The consequences were "having a new insight for life," "living positively along with cancer illness," and "the loss of willingness to live." A summary of the series of processes includes the "crisis stage," "reorganizing stage," and the "ego integration stage." Conclusion: This study explored the holistic process of ego integrity impairment and the recovery experience of elderly cancer patients. This study is expected to be used as a basis for the development of nursing interventions that can support patients when coping with all stages of their cancer illness trajectory.

• Journal of muscle and joint health
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.100-112
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• 2022

Purpose: This study is a qualitative analysis of Korean-American (K-A) women's cancer prevention in the US. Methods: Qualitative research was conducted. Fifteen K-A women in four states were interviewed. Content theme analysis was used to analyze verbatim transcriptions of interviews. Results: Participants experienced difficulties in utilizing cancer screening programs. Factors include unfamiliarity with the US health care system, high health care costs or lack of health insurance, language barriers, and irregular and sporadic cancer screening participation. Participants also actively pursued non-institutional approaches to cancer prevention. They engaged in word-of-mouth informational exchanges in K-A communities, sought cancer screening in hospitals in Korea, conducted internet searches, autonomously decided on their health issues, and adopted healthy practices including better diets, physical exercise, and spiritual practices. Conclusion: It is necessary to implement measures to increase K-A women's utilization of the US cancer screening services and to encourage their active engagement in hands-on cancer prevention practices. K-A women should be empowered through increased familiarity with US cancer screening services and through the establishment of improved K-A community social services.

• The Korean Nurse
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.51-72
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• 1990

The purpose of this study was to determine whether Severance Hospice Home Care Pro gram was able to meet its objectives. This was done in order to show in detail the effects of hospice home care on the quality of life of terminally ill patients and to provide rationale for setting up more hospice home care programs in korea. The results of the study were as follows: The subjects of the study were 100 terminally ill patients who hnd died 'while in the hospice program and 64 family members who were registered with Severance Hospice Home Care Program between march 1988 and Feb. 1990. The nursing needs of these terminally ill patients were assessed by the nursing records of these patients. The need for pain control(82%) was the highest nursing need so far as the physical aspects were concerned. This was followed by poor appetite(37%), 8 dyspnea(34%), nausea and vomiting(30%) in that order of frequency. In reqard to spiritual needs, the need for religious' support was also high at 72%. Their main psychological symptoms were anxiety and fear(34% ). Burn-out was a major problem for 44% of the family members. The psychological process experiencel by the terminal ill patients was compared to the dying process, described by Kiibler Ross. In comparison of the five stages outlined by kubler Ross with the dying process of the subjects it was found that the subjects not only experienced the five stages but also experienced denial and doubt-fulness or denial with acceptance or acceptance with the expectation of a miracle. But rather than acceptance of the dying process, giving up was a frequent end point of the psychological process, of the subjects. However, when the combination of states was observed, most of the patients reached the state of acceptance in the dying process. It was difficult to identify a definite pattern of change in the psychological process of the subjects. Also it was difficult to identify the factors that influenced the psychological process. The symptoms of the terminally j]] subjects just before dying, that is, 3-4 days before dying included apparent signs of dying. These were a reduction of intake(77%), reduction of the amount of urination(63%), increase in sleeping time (64%) and acceptance of dying by patients and their families who had been unaccepting be before that time(66%). The primary care givers(family member's) degree of satisfaction with the care given to the patient by the hospice was 88.7%. The results of this study show that Severance Hospice Home Care Program had a positie effeet on the quality of life of the terminally ill patients and their family members as they faced the death of the patient. It can be seen from this study that there is an urgent need to extend hospice programs - in order to provide quality of care for terminally ill patient and their families. Based upon the reesults of this study several suggestions are presente as follows: 1) A follow up study should be carried out to identify the dying process as it is unique to Korea. 2) A comparison should be made of other hospice care programs. 3) A comparison study should- be made with subjects who do not receive any hospice care as compared to those who do by use of an experimental and control group methodology. 4) There is a need to determine a scientific method to adequeto measure the interventions carried out to meet the hospice patients nursing care needs. 5) A study should be made using quality research methodology to evaluate effects of hospiec care from the patients, their family members and the nurrse's perspective.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.74-83
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• 2006

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop an evaluation instrument integrated and interdisciplinary death education for the human service areas such as nursing, social welfare, and education and to test the reliability and validity of it. Method: The subjects used to verify the instrument's reliability and validity were 407 students who were enrolled in the departments of nursing, social welfare, and education in universities located in Seoul, Pusan, Daegu, and Daejeon. The data was collected from April to May, 2005, and was analyzed by SPSS/WIN 12. Result: A factor analysis was conducted. Items with over a .40 factor loading and over a 1.0 eigen value were selected. Nine identified factors were learning about death, role of professionals, personal attitudes, hospice care, ethics and legal issues, death and dying, spiritual aspect of' death, transcultural aspect of death, and multidisciplinary theory of death. The instrument consisted of 44 items and the reliability was a cronbach's of .953 Conclusion: Based on the study results, the content scale developed in this study was identified as a tool with a high degree of reliability and validity.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.243-253
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• 2002

The purpose of this study was to develop Nurse's Suffering Experience Scale and to test the reliability and validity of the instrument. Method: The subjects used to verify the scale's reliability and validity were 220 nurses who were taking care of the end stage cancer patients, while working at university and general hospitals in Daegu and Kyungbuk province from April 20. to July 10, 2001. The data was analyzed by the SPSS/WIN 8.0 program. Results: A factor analysis was conducted, and items that had a factor loading more than .40, and an eigen value more than 1.0. were selected. The factor analysis classified a total of seven factors statistically, and it's communality was 44%. The explanation of factors based on the conceptual framework and item content are as follows: The first factor was expanding self consciousness, the second factor was forming empathy with family, the third factor was professional challenge, the fourth factor was change of values, the fifth factor was spiritual sublimation, the sixth factor was helplessness, and finally the seventh factor was rejection to death. Cronbach's coefficient to test reliability of the scale was .8665 for total of 44 items. The Scale for Nurse's Suffering Experience developed in the study was identified as a tool with a high degree of reliability and validity. Therefore this scale can be effectively utilized for the evaluation of the degree of nurse's suffering experience in clinical settings.