• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.80-89
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• 2013

Purpose: We investigated how intensive care unit (ICU) nurses understand the meaning of death, death anxiety, death concern and respect for life. Methods: From November 2009 through February 2010, a survey was conducted on 230 nurses working at the ICU of 10 general hospitals located in Seoul and Gyeonggi province. Participants were asked to answer a questionnaire consisted of 67 questions under four categories of the meaning of death, death anxiety, death concern and respect for life. Results: Participants scored 4.27 points on their understanding of the meaning of death, 4.43 on death anxiety, 4.12 on death concern and 4.18 on respect for life. Participants' meaning of death was negatively correlated with death anxiety and death concern and positively with respect for life. Participants' positive meaning of death was negatively correlated with death anxiety and death concern and positively with respect for life. Participants' negative meaning of death was negatively correlated with death anxiety and death concern and positively with respect for life. Participants' death anxiety was positively correlated with death concern and negatively with respect for life. Participants' death concern was negatively correlated with respect for life. Conclusion: Compared with nurses who served at ICU for a long time, nurses with less ICU experience scored lower on the meaning of death and respect for life, while they presented high anxiety and concern about death. A training course may help nurses develop their view on the meaning of death, which in turn would enhance their performance in caring dying patients.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.262-270
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• 2015

Purpose: This study was conducted in order to examine the effects of death anxiety and meaning of life on somatization of grandparents raising grandchildren. Methods: A convenience sample of 92 elderly grandparents raising grandchildren was recruited. The study instrument for death anxiety was the 5-point 15 items scale designed by Templer and translated by Ko, Choi, & Lee and for meaning of life, the 7-point 10-items scale by Steger, Frazier, Oishi & Kaler and translated by Won, Kim & Kwon. For somatization, the 5-point 12 items scale designed by Derogatis and translated by Kim, Kim & Won was used. Collected data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, independent t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson Correlation and regression using the SPSS 21.0 program. Results: Average scores were 3.55 for death anxiety, 3.43 for meaning of life, and 2.74 for somatization. Death anxiety had the highest positive correlation with somatization. Meaning of life was negatively correlated with death anxiety and somatization. Death anxiety and health status were shown to influence somatization but meaning of life was not shown to influence somatization. Conclusion: The research results indicate that death anxiety and health status influence somatization in grandparents raising grandchildren. These results also provide basic information on the importance of nursing interventions in which the variables influencing somatization in grandparents raising grandchildren are considered.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.141-153
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• 2005

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a death education program on attitude to death and meaning in life for university students. Methods: The design of this study was quasi-experimental and non-synchronized with a non-equivalent control group. The study subjects were 28 students at a college in Busan. The experimental group (n=14) participated in a death education program. While the control group (n=14) didn't. The program consisted of lectures and discussions for 6 hours a day over 5 days. The 30-hr course examined the meaning of death, modern society and death, hospice movements and desirable life and death. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire consisting of general characteristics, attitude to death and meaning in life. Collected data were analyzed as frequency, percentage, $x^2$-test, t-test using SPSS 11.0 WIN Program. Results: The attitude to death scores in the experimental group were significantly lower than in the control group (p=.000). The meaning in life scores in the experimental group were significantly higher than in the control group (p=.039). Conclusions: These findings showed that the death education program was effective to enhance the attitude to death and meaning in life among in college students. Therefore, a continuing death education program can be applied as an effective nursing intervention for other subjects.

• The Journal of Korean Academic Society of Nursing Education
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.329-339
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• 2003

The purpose of this study is to consider of meaning in life based on Frankl's theory and to propose of hospice nursing according to conceptual framework of meaning in life. The conceptual framework of meaning in life is composed of 4 phases. According to the first phase, acceptance & awareness of self and life, hospice nurse should helps dying patient to accept limitedness of human existence and death. and according to the second phase, actualization of creative value, hospice nurse can helps dying patient to discover meaning in life through doing a deed for last time before his death. According to the third phase, actualization of experiential value, hospice nurse can helps them to discovery of meaning by experiencing of love through meetings with other people, nature, and god. According to the forth phase, actualization of attitudinal value, hospice nurse can helps them to discovery of meaning by realizing meaning in suffering and death through exercising of the inner freedom to choose bravery and acceptance in the face of death and misfortune. As mentioned above, the Frankl's theory accords with the core of hospice nursing that helps people to accomplish human essence in suffering and death. therefore we accepted Frankl's point of view, asserted that one of the most important roles of a hospice nurse as a supporter and sustainer for dying patients is to help patients to find meaning in life even in the course of death. To achieve the goal, hospice nurses should try to have a firm faith through philosophical introspection about life, death, human existence and meaning in life what the most important goal of life is to discover meaning in life and human have the duty and responsibility of recognizing and pursuing meaning up to the last moment of life.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.513-521
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• 2009

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analysis the effect of death preparing education on death anxiety, spiritual well-being and meaning of life in adults. Methods: This study adapted the one group pre-posttest design. Data collection and intervention were performed from January 19 to 25, 2009. The participants were 30 adults (aged 20 or older) from Jeonju City. The death preparing education program consisted of five steps. Data were analyzed through paired t-test with SPSS/WIN 12.0 program. Results: There were significant differences in death anxiety, spiritual well-being and meaning of life between before and after the death preparing education program. Conclusion: The death preparing education program for adults was confirmed to be an effective intervention to lower death anxiety and to improve spiritual well-being and the meaning of life. Therefore, I look forward to broad application of this program to adults.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.639-648
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• 2008

This study is to examine the meaning of death, the level of death anxiety, and the aspect of death anxiety that the aged have. For this, a quantitative research subjecting 532 of the aged living in local area, Jeollabuk-do was carried out. And among those 532 questionnaires, 10 were subjected for depth interview. The following is a summary of the result from this study. First, the meaning of death for the aged is classified into three classes as positive, neutral and negative meaning. Among these, there were far greater numbers of the aged who put neutral or negative meanings on their death than the positive one. Second, death anxiety of the aged are divided into three factors: 'annihilation anxiety', 'process anxiety', and 'afterdeath anxiety'. The factor that involves death anxiety the most was process anxiety, then afterdeath anxiety, and annihilation anxiety, in the order. Third, as a result of classifying the feature of death anxiety in the aged into the symptoms of death anxiety and the motive of recognizing death anxiety. Death anxiety is classified into the people with symptoms and those without symptoms, and those with certain symptoms are classified into the physical symptoms and the mental symptoms. The motive of recognizing death anxiety appeared when the individual is aged, experiences the death of other people, suffers physical pains, and when there is a mental loneliness.

• Journal of Oriental Neuropsychiatry
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.65-74
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• 2011

Objectives : This study aims to examine the effects of death education program on meaning in life, death anxiety and attitude toward nursing care of the dying patients among nursing students. Methods : Subjects were 155 nursing students of the K college. Before and after the intervention, students responded a questionnaire developed to measure meaning in life, death anxiety and attitude toward nursing care of the dying patients. To analyse the data, Cronbach's ${\alpha}$, t-test, and paired t-test were used with an SPSS 12.0 program. Results : 1. Meaning in life and attitude toward nursing care of the dying patients levels significantly increased, death anxiety levels significantly decreased. 2. Meaning in life levels increased significantly in the 20-24 age group, female, first grade, no religion, no death experience of relatives. 3. Death anxiety levels decreased significantly in the 20-24 age group, female, no religion, no death experience of relatives, but increased significantly in a buddhist group. 4. Attitude toward nursing care of the dying patients levels increased significantly in the 20-24 age group, female, first grade, won buddhist, no death experience of relatives. Conclusions : This study, through the above result, shows that the death education program can be an effective nursing education to improve meaning in life and attitude toward nursing care of the dying patients and to decrease death anxiety. These results suggest that the death education program will be helpful for recognizing the values of themselves and their current lives and improving their nursing intervention care of the dying patients.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.381-388
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• 2013

Purpose: This study was done to investigate nurses' awareness of death and the meaning of life and identify factors influencing the meaning of life. Methods: Participants were 198 women nurses who had experienced the death of patients. They answered a self-administered questionnaire including demographics, awareness of death scale and meaning in life II scale. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Scheff$\acute{e}$ test, and multiple regression (enter method). Results: The average score for awareness of death was $127.3{\pm}10.14$. This score is moderate not biased toward positive or negative. The average score for meaning of life was $130.3{\pm}9.42$ with 51% for loss steps, 45.5% for pursuit steps and 3.5% for discovery steps to the meaning of life. Factors affecting the meaning of life were religion, Buddhism (${\beta}=6.25$, p=.015) or Atheist (${\beta}=5.91$, p=.017), educational level, Master's or higher (${\beta}=16.22$, p=.003), work department, special department (${\beta}=3.49$, p=.017). Conclusions: Results of the study indicate a need to provide nursing programs that will promote nurses' spiritual and inner maturity.

• Journal of the Korean Society of School Health
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.310-317
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• 2016

Purpose: This descriptive research was carried out to identify how high school students' attitude to death and their meaning of life were affected by hospice volunteering and death education. Methods: This study is based on a structured questionnaire designed for 180 high school students who were given death education while doing volunteer work at non-profit hospice hospitals and another 288 high school students not doing any hospice volunteer work. The collected data was processed by the SPSS 20.0 program and then analyzed by $x^2$ test, t-test and ANOVA test. Results: High school students' attitude to death and their meaning of life showed significant differences depending on whether or not they had volunteered at hospice hospitals. The group with hospice volunteering experience tended to be more negative about death and have a higher meaning of life compared to those without hospice volunteering experience. Students with proper hospice recognition made up 52.4%, those who expressed hopes to receive hospice-care themselves if necessary accounted for 70.5%, and those who said they would like to take care of their family members either at home or at a hospice center if any of them got incurably sick comprised 59.0%. Those who thought dignified death is to be with one's family or any other meaningful person were 47.6% and 18.5% of the students thought that 'thinking they had led a meaningful life' was the core of a dignified death. Conclusion: Given the above results, it became clear that hospice volunteering and death education can affect high school students' meaning of life and their attitudes toward death.

• Asian Oncology Nursing
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.156-162
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• 2010

Purpose: The purposes of this study was to compare the meaning in life and death attitude between the participants and nonparticipants of the well-dying education program. Methods: This study adopted the descriptive comparative design. Data were collected by interviewing 85 participants and 94 non-participants of well-dying education. The instruments used for this study were a self-report questionnaire. Results: There were significant differences in age, gender, marital status, health status, and volunteer experience. The program participants showed higher scores in the death attitude than non-participants. There were significant correlations between meaning in life and death attitude in participant group. Death attitude was significantly associated with meaning in life in participant group with 6.0% variance. Conclusion: Based on the results, well-dying education program was effective to prepare good death with more comprehensive vision. Therefore, this program should be served for patient with life-threatening illness by nurse and this is the expended role of oncology and hospice palliative nurses.