PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify attributes of the concept of healing. METHODS: Using Walker & Avant's concept analysis framework, medical & nursing text books and, research articles about healing published between 2000 and 2014 were reviewed. RESULTS: There were four aspects of the concept of healing: natural process through spiritual and mental purification; resilience of emotions and feeling in human nature; holistic cure as well as physical and mental treatment of disease; and harmonious balance and overall well-being of mind and body. Antecedents of healing that helped to purify the mind were illness recovery and injury perception. Empirical referents of healing were purifying the mind, quality of life and health-related spirituality. The consequences of healing were effective on the physical, psychosocial, spiritual and overall well-being of the patients. CONCLUSION: This concept analysis of healing help us to understand more clearly overall health and the health of patients in the clinical field. The concept of healing could be useful to promote health and well-being.
Human Characteristics ; Humans ; Mental Healing ; Nursing ; Nursing Theory ; Quality of Life ; Spiritual Therapies ; Spirituality

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to analyze the actual working hours of an oncology advanced practice nurse (APN) at a university hospital according to the duties and tasks outlined in the job description. METHODS: An assessment tool for this study was created based on the job description of APN as defined by the Korean Nurses Association, and was later verified by a specialist party. Twenty-three oncology APNs recorded their nursing activity on the assessment tool. The working hours and distribution were analyzed according to specific duty and task. RESULTS: Average working hours per day for APNs totaled 9.3 hours. Time for duties was allocated as follows in order of priority: 28.0% for therapeutic intervention and 19.8% for clinical decision making. Time allotted for tasks was distributed as follows: 19.5% for special nursing care and 9.8% for planning treatment and nursing interventions. CONCLUSION: This study allowed insight into the actual time spent by oncology APNs on duties and tasks outlined in the job description. These findings should contribute to management of the changing role of oncology APNs. Furthermore, the results may be used as a basic resource for the continued professional development of the work of oncology APNs.
Advanced Practice Nursing ; Decision Making ; Job Description ; Nursing ; Nursing Care ; Oncology Nursing ; Specialization

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to identify the effects of depression on the survival of patients with cancer over a 10 year period. METHODS: A retrospective review was conducted to examine survival of 218 patients with stomach, colorectal and breast cancer, who had been treated for cancer from 2002 to 2011. Depression was assessed by using the Symptom Check List-90 Revision in 2002, and hope, fighting spirit and other potential confounders were also measured to control for their effects on the association between depression and the survival time. Data on survival were collected from the Statistics Korea and also from medical record in 2011. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Cox proportional hazard regression model were used to examine if depression affected survival. RESULTS: The total number of death was 106, and the non-survivors scored higher on depression than survivors. Depression was found to be one of the influencing factors on survival from cancer. CONCLUSION: Depression was significantly associated with the increased risk of death in cancer patients. Further research is needed to identify in details which type of emotional interventions can extend the survival time of cancer patients in depression.
Emotional Adjustment ; Breast Neoplasms ; Depression* ; Hope ; Humans ; Korea ; Medical Records ; Retrospective Studies ; Stomach ; Survivors

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine nurses' sexual health care attitude and practice while caring for cancer patients. METHODS: Data were collected using a structured questionnaire from 236 nurses caring for patients with cancer from June 30, 2014 to July 6, 2014 at a University Hospital in Daegu, Korea. RESULTS: The mean score for sexual health care attitude of nurses caring for patients with cancer was 27.75+/-6.45 of a possible range 17 to 51 and the mean score for a sexual health care practice of nurses was 3.67+/-3.30 of a possible range 0 to 21. The scores of a sexual health care attitude and practice were significantly different by age, education, department, experience in gynecology or urology departments, and position. Sexual health care attitude and practice had a significantly positive correlation (r=.16, p=.015). CONCLUSION: The nurses caring for patients with cancer recognize the importance of sexual health care, but their sexual health care practice rate was very low. Therefore specific and differentiated nurse education programs designed to increase sexual health care practice are required for young nurses and staff nurses that are not practicing sexual health care often.
Daegu ; Education ; Gynecology ; Humans ; Korea ; Reproductive Health* ; Urology ; Surveys and Questionnaires

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify the levels of distress and quality of life in cancer patients receiving chemotherapy and to identify the relationship between distress and quality of life. METHODS: Data were collected during 2013 from 128 cancer patients receiving chemotherapy at a hospital located in Seoul, South Korea. Distress thermometer and problem list were used to measure distress, and the Functional Assessment Cancer Therapy-general questionnaire was used to measure quality of life. Descriptive statistics, t-tests, one-way ANOVA, the post-hoc Scheffe test, and Pearson's correlation coefficients were used to analyze the data. RESULTS: Among the 128 participants, 68 (53.1%) were male and the mean age was 52.55 years. Forty two (32.8%) were diagnosed with stage 4 and 73 (57.0%) were having recurrence or metastasis. The mean score for distress was 4.01 out of 10. Seventy four (57.8%) participants had a score of 4 or higher, indicating clinically significant distress. Emotional problems had the highest item mean among five domains. The mean score for quality of life was 68.51 +/- 14.22 out of 108. Distress and quality of life were negatively correlated (r= -.52, p<.001). CONCLUSION: Distress level with specific problems should be regularly assessed to relieve distress and improve the quality of life of cancer patients receiving chemotherapy.
Drug Therapy* ; Humans ; Korea ; Male ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Quality of Life* ; Recurrence ; Seoul ; Thermometers ; Surveys and Questionnaires

PURPOSE: The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationships among fatigue, pain, anxiety, depression, and quality of life in Korean patients with multiple myeloma and to identify factors influencing their quality of life. METHODS: The study design was a crosssectional descriptive study. The participants were 92 multiple myeloma patients who visited the outpatient department at a university hospital in Seoul, Korea. The data were collected from January to April in 2013 with self-reporting questionnaires. RESULTS: The mean scores of quality of life in all dimensions were relatively low. Fatigue, pain, anxiety and depression were all correlated to the global heath/quality of life, functional quality of life, and symptom quality of life (p<.001). Fatigue, pain and depression accounted for 65.1% (p<.001) in global health/quality of life and 73.6% (p<.001) in functional quality of life, respectively. And fatigue and pain accounted for 66.4% (p<.001) in symptom quality of life. CONCLUSION: The results of the study showed that fatigue, pain and depression were major predictors of quality of life for patients with multiple myeloma. Therefore, psychological symptoms, such as depression, and physical symptoms should be integrated into the nursing intervention to improve their quality of life.
Anxiety ; Depression ; Fatigue ; Humans ; Korea ; Multiple Myeloma* ; Nursing ; Outpatients ; Quality of Life* ; Seoul ; Surveys and Questionnaires

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of stress, spousal support, and resilience on the types of coping among women with breast cancer. METHOD: Using a cross-sectional survey design, a total of 120 participants, diagnosed with breast cancer, had a mass removal surgery, and were fluent in Korean, were recruited at a cancer center in Seoul, Korea. Self-reported questionnaires of stress, spousal support, resilience, and ways of coping were administered upon the permission from the original developers. Data were analyzed using SPSS 22.0 Win program. RESULT: Ways of coping was positively correlated with spousal support, resilience, and stress. Positive correlations were found between problem-focused coping, spousal support, and resilience. Positive correlations were found between emotion-focused coping with stress and resilience. Hierarchical multiple regressions revealed that spousal support had significant moderating effect on the relationship between stress and emotion-focused coping. CONCLUSION: Women perceived their diagnosis and surgery as more stressful, they more like to use emotion-focused coping. Women with more spousal support and resilience were found to use problem-focused coping more. Based on the findings of this study, a tailored intervention for women with breast cancer for improving their coping is expected in future research.
Breast Neoplasms* ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Diagnosis ; Female ; Humans ; Korea ; Seoul

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify factors that influence on medication adherence to oral anticancer drugs. METHODS: 147 cancer patients receiving oral anticancer drugs were surveyed. The survey content included medication adherence, social support, depression, self-efficacy and symptom experience. RESULTS: The mean medication adherence was 6.77 based on 8 points (84.6 based on 100 points). The influencing factors on medication adherence were symptom experience (beta=-.19), decision of oral chemotherapy (beta=.25) and social support (beta=.21), and 17.0% of the variance in medication adherence was explained by these three factors in stepwise multiple regression analysis. CONCLUSION: The level of medication adherence to oral anticancer drugs was relatively high, and increased by decreasing symptom experience, and increasing social support. Considering the medication adherence is related with positive treatment outcome, nursing effort to improve medication adherence by decreasing symptom experience, and increasing social support is needed.
Depression ; Drug Therapy ; Humans ; Medication Adherence* ; Mouth ; Nursing ; Treatment Outcome

PURPOSE: This study was examined to identify the relationship between mood state, interaction anxiety, and quality of life of cancer patients with chemotherapy-induced alopecia. METHODS: The participants were 115 cancer patients. Data were collected from August to December 2012, and analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson's correlation coefficients, t-test, ANOVA and Duncan's multiple test. RESULTS: The mean scores of mood state (119.17+/-35.94), interaction anxiety (45.57+/-11.73), and global health status (38.08+/-22.45), functional scales (45.41+/-20.98), symptom scales (57.96+/-18.28) in quality of life were moderate or below. Negative correlations were found between mood state and quality of life, interaction anxiety and quality of life, but positive correlation were found between mood state and interaction anxiety. CONCLUSION: These findings indicate that mood state and interaction anxiety are important factors to improve quality of life of cancer patients with chemotherapy-induced alopecia, And it is meaningful in that this study prepared basic data for development of nursing intervention programs for effective management of chemotherapy-induced alopecia.
Alopecia* ; Anxiety* ; Drug Therapy ; Humans ; Nursing ; Quality of Life* ; Weights and Measures

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of P6 acupressure and guided imagery on nausea, vomiting, retching, and anorexia of the patient with thyroid cancer who were undergoing high dose radio-active iodine therapy (HD-RAIT). METHODS: Using a randomized control group pretest-posttest study design, the participants were randomly assigned into the control group (C), the experimental group I (E1, P6 acupressure only) and the experimental group II (E2, P6 acupressure and a guided imagery). The patients were recruited from December 2011 to June 2012 in a tertiary hospital in Seoul, South Korea. A total of 82 patients completed the study. The Korean version of the Rhodes INVR and the anorexia scale by Grant (1987) were used. RESULTS: The levels of nausea, vomiting, retching, and anorexia were significantly different among the groups. The levels of nausea and retching especially showed significant group differences over time. Synergic effects of P6 acupressure with guided imagery had significant effects over separate P6 acupressure intervention. CONCLUSION: Non-pharmacological and nurse-provided P6 acupressure and guided imagery appeared to be effective and safe in reducing nausea, vomiting, retching, and anorexia of the patients with thyroid cancer underwent HD-RAIT.
Acupressure* ; Anorexia* ; Financing, Organized ; Humans ; Imagery (Psychotherapy)* ; Clinical Trial ; Iodine* ; Nausea* ; Nursing ; Republic of Korea ; Seoul ; Tertiary Care Centers ; Thyroid Gland* ; Thyroid Neoplasms* ; Vomiting*