• Korean Journal of Hospice Care
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.13-28
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• 2008

Purpose: This paper aims to examine the subjective structures and types of school age children's perception of death through an investigative study on their perception of death in order to provide a basic material for them to understand death, and develop and carry out an effective death education program. Methods: The study method used the Q Methodology which can investigate the subjective structures and types of school age children's perception of death. For Q-population, 20 school age children were used as subjects for neutral interviews and open surveys, and through documentary research, a total of 132 statements were collected, For Q-samples, 23 statements (Q-samples) were derived through a non-structural method. P-samples were 31 school age children (8-13 year olds), Q-sorting was carried out using Q-cards, and the collected data was analyzed using the PC QUANL program. Results: As a result of the study, children's perception of death was divided into five types. The first type was functional type, characterized by prominent subjective perception regarding the elements of death, such as non-reversibility, universality, non-functionality, and causality. The second was after-life type, characterized by a strong, focus on life after death in one's perception of death, and it included children with Christian background and those who had experienced death in their immediate family. The third was religious type, characterized by a strong belief in being able to still watch over one's family and friends after one's death, resulting in a positive faith in the after-life. The fourth was fearful type, characterized by a deeper fear of death in comparison to other types. The fifth was realistic type, characterized by a strong and positive assent to the perception of good death. Conclusion: The significance of the results of this paper's study to Nursing is as follows. In terms of understanding the subjectivity of school age children's perception of death in nursing practice, and understanding the compositional elements of death presented with strong emphasis in existing literature and studies, the results will expand these understandings and allow us to understand the level of perception in school age children regarding the definition of death, after-life, and good death, be utilized as useful material in developing an effective death education program for them according to their type characteristics, and become the fertilizer for enabling the children to live a proper life and preventing the tendency to make light of death that occur in adolescence and the spread of suicides. In terms of nursing theory, the description and examination of the subjective structures and the characteristics of the different, types of school age children's perception of death can be utilized as useful material for building a model of school age children's perception of death, and be further used for teaching respect for life. In terms of nursing research, the results can contribute to research describing the effects of nursing intervention strategies and developing tools for providing psychosocial nursing in terms of giving school age children a positive perception of death according to their types as well respect for life.

• Korean Journal of Hospice Care
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2008

Perpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the perception of death between Korean and Chinese nursing students. And it will help develop curriculum for preparing death, the quality of hospice care, as well as nursing education and practice. Methods: Data was collected from 492 nursing students participated(248 Korean and 244 Chinese) by questionnaire designed for examining Death Orientation (Thorson & Powell, 1988). They were analyzed using Cronbach's Alpha coefficients, factor analysis, t-test, ANOVA and regression analysis (SPSS; win 12.0 version) Results: More than half of the Korean nursing students followed a religion (58.5%) while the majority of Chinese nursing students did not follow a religion (93.9%). In the view of the afterlife, nursing students in China had two views. 'I really don't know what happens after a person dies (30.3%)' and ‘There is no afterlife and death is the end (29.5%)’. On the other hand the Korean nursing students’ answer were, 'After dying, a person goes to heaven or hell (27.3%)' and 'I really don't know what happens after a person dies. (22.9%)' The study also found that the average of 25 items in Death Orientation is 2.36points of nursing students in Korea and 2.50points of nursing students in China. This means that the concern, anxiety and fear were of the middle level for the Chinese Students and were higher than Korean students (t=3.51, p=.000). In the low factor of death orientation, those in Korea had higher 'anxiety of burden to family' than those in China (t=-3.50, p=.001). The nursing students in China had higher 'anxiety of the unknown (t=4.96, p=.000)', 'fear of suffering (t=6.88, p=.000), 'fear of extinction body and life (t=5.20, p=.000), 'fear of lost self-control(t=2.12, p=.034)', and 'anxiety of future existence and nonexistence (t=2.33, p=.020)' than those in Korea. There was no statistically significant difference for the 'concern of body and fear of identity lost' category. The death orientation of Korean nursing students had statistically significant differences according to age (t=3.20, p=.002), religion (t=2.56, p=.011), and afterlife (F=4.64, p=.000). The contribution of Death Orientation had a statistically significant difference, the afterlife variable (0.735, p=0.001). The death orientation of Chinese nursing students did not have any statistically significant differences. Conclusion: In conclusion, there were differences in death orientation between Korean and Chinese nursing students. In particular, those who believed in afterlife showed acceptance of death. The results of this study suggest that nursing curricula should include education program on death and spiritual nursing. Additional studies are needed to establish death education in China with careful considerations on Chinese policies, cultures and social systems.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.27-33
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• 2017

Epicurus and Lucretius expressed that death is neither evil to the living nor the dead. On the contrary, our everyday perception of death is that death is evil. Such everyday perception might seem in lack of introspection and blind but our living environment and form of life are strongly supporting this perception. This paper argues that there is reasonable cause for believing death is evil. In order to justify this argue, this paper critically supports Thomas Nagel's 'Deprivation Theory', which identifies the cause of death being in evil in the deprivation of life. This paper investigates the main substances of 'Deprivation Theory, suggests the related problems and therefore reconstitutes the main arguments of 'Deprivation Theory, resulting in the investigation of the following facts; that we cannot avoid the fate of death, but that our existence is headed towards the future, and that as independent individuals we have infinite possibilities of life. Death is natural to humanity as species, but as independent individuals death deprives us from possible life and future. Therefore, death we encounter in our living environment and form of life is evil. As species, we can agree with Epicurus and Lecretius' view, but as independent individuals we cannot share them.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.9 no.11
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• pp.433-441
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to understand the effect of psychosocial support, death preparedness, and ego integrity on death anxiety in old people. The participant of this study were the elderly who attended welfare centers, worked in their workplaces, or lived at their home in Seoul regions, from whom this study had collected their data from February to May 2017. A total of 350 questionnaires were distributed and 329 copies of them were used for its final analysis using SPSS 24.0 and AMOS 20.0 statistical programs. According to the results of this study, psychosocial support had no statistically significant effect on death anxiety, whereas death preparedness and ego integrity had statistically significant effects on death anxiety. Based upon these research results, this study suggested that it is necessary to develop death education and counseling programs as policy supports and practical methods for helping old people to accept their death positively, reintegrate their ego, and perform their successful aging.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.20 no.11
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• pp.501-510
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• 2020

The aim of this study was to examine the characteristics of views of life and death and spiritual wellbeing of medical and non-medical university students and to compare their correlation. To this end, 95 medical students from H University and 103 non-medical students from A University were sampled for this research. The research results are as follows: For both medical and non-medical university students, negative meaning of death was found to be most high among sub-factors of views of life and death. Medical and non-medical university students differed in death anxiety and life respect will as medical students showed lower death anxiety and higher life respect will than non-medical students. As a result of analyzing the correlation between view of life and death and the sub-factors of spiritual wellbeing, religious wellbeing showed negative correlation with meaning of death, and both existential and religious wellbeing showed positive correlation with life respect will in medical university students. The results of this study are expected to be helpful in constructing differentiated contents in biomedical ethics education for medical university students who will be exposed to medical deaths.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.11 no.12
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• pp.439-449
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• 2020

This study aimed to identify factors influencing the preferences for end-of-life (EOL) care among undergraduate nursing students. In this cross-sectional study, data were collected from December 2017 to February 2018. This study included 217 undergraduate nursing students. Factors influencing the preference for 'autonomous physiological decision-making' were the following: education level(by grade), having biomedical education, attitude towards death, and attitude towards life-sustaining treatments (LSTs). Preference for 'decision-making by healthcare professionals' was related to having a religion. Factors influencing the preference for 'spirituality' were education level, having a religion, and academic major satisfaction. Preference for 'pain control' was associated with education level, experience with dying patients, bad self-rated health, attitude towards death, and attitude towards LSTs. The study findings suggest that education regarding LSTs, EOL care, and EOL decision-making in nursing curricula is essential.

• Asian Oncology Nursing
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.95-103
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• 2009

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine nursing students' attitude toward death and perception on hospice care. Methods: The survey was performed with 277 nursing students in three universities in Daegu and Busan. The data was collected by questionnaires and were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results: Regarding the attitude on death, 93.9% of the subjects had ever thought about death. They worried about separation and sadness with family (39.7%). About half (48.7%) of the subjects considered death as a final process of the life. With regard to the perception of hospice, 93% of the subjects heard about hospice through books or nursing courses (83.8%). The best hospice management institution was considered the one run by religious groups or non-profit organizations with government support (33.9%). Ideal model of hospice setting in Korea was hospital or institution specialized with hospice care (47.7%). The barriers the subjects thought to effective hospice care in Korea was the lack of the public consensus on the need for hospice program (37.9%). The average perceptions about the purpose of hospice care was 4.38, whereas, the average of the need of hospice care was 4.06. Conclusion: The findings of the study provides the basis for expanding nursing practice and education related to hospice care.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.539-550
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• 2013

Purpose: The objectives of this study were to investigate the level of meaning in life(MIL) among university students as well as identify the effects of death perception, including good death and concerns about dying, and self-esteem on MIL. Methods: A questionnaire survey was developed and carried out using a convenient sampling method (N=301). Data were analyzed by applying descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Duncan test, Pearson's correlation coefficient, and stepwise multiple regression. Results: The average score for MIL was 4.70 on a 7-point scale. The factor of purpose of life received highest score among all factors in MIL. MIL was positively correlated with age, good death, and self-esteem. However, concerns about dying were negatively correlated with MIL. MIL showed a strong association with self-esteem(r=.72). Specifically, self-esteem(${\beta}$=.608), satisfaction of school life(${\beta}$=.190), relationship with parents(${\beta}$=.180), good death(${\beta}$=.080), school grades(${\beta}$=.078), and age(${\beta}$=.074) all significantly influenced MIL. These variables accounted for 61.0% of the total variance. Conclusion: The results show that self-esteem is an important factor for MIL among university students. Therefore, self-esteem should be carefully considered to increase their MIL. These research findings can be utilized to support programs such as counseling and education of university students.

• Journal of East-West Nursing Research
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.88-95
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• 2013

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine nursing students' attitude toward death and perception on hospice care. Methods: The survey was performed on 103 nursing students in one university in Goseong-gun, Gangwon-do. The data were collected by questionnaires and analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results: Regarding the attitude toward death, 90.3% of the students had thought about death. They worried about sense of loss and sadness due to parting with family (31.1%). About half (51.5%) of the students considered death as a final process of the life. With regard to the perception of hospice, 92.2% of the students heard about hospice through books or nursing classes (65.0%). Public institutions running by government was considered to the students as the best hospice management institution (44.7%). The students thought a ideal model of hospice setting in Korea was hospital or institution specialized with hospice care (51.5%). They considered the barriers to effective hospice care in Korea was the lack of the public consensus on the need for hospice program (35.9%). The average perceptions about the purpose of hospice care was 4.33 whereas the average of the need of hospice care was 3.85. Conclusion: The findings of the study provide the basis for expanding nursing practice and education related to hospice care.

• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.38-47
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• 2019

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of perceptions of death, end-of-life (EOL) care stress, and emotional intelligence on attitudes toward EOL care among nurses in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Methods: The participants were 111 nurses working in a NICU who had experienced EOL care at least once. Data were analyzed using the t-test, Pearson correlation coefficient, and stepwise multiple regression analysis in SPSS for Windows. Results: The mean score for perceptions of death was 3.16 out of 5, the mean score for EOL care stress was 3.61 out of 5, the mean emotional intelligence score was 4.66 out of 7, and the average score for EOL care attitudes was 2.77 out of 4. The factors affecting attitudes towards EOL care were academic degree, anxiety regarding death, negativity towards death, experiences of patient death, and emotional intelligence. The explanatory power of these variables for attitudes towards EOL care was 24.7%. Conclusion: The results of this study are expected to serve as a basic reference for the development of nursing education programs and EOL care protocols to improve attitudes toward EOL care among NICU nurses.