PURPOSE: This study to identify the current status of cancer centers in Korea in terms of organization ofhospital. METHODS: 21 cancer centers, from regional cancer centers to the largest hospitals, were surveyed from October to November 2014. The questionnaire was developed by the board members of the Oncology Nursing Society. RESULTS: Centers specializing in cancer treatment were either cancer hospitals or centers affiliated with larger hospitals. 81% operated wards solely for cancer patients. The average number of beds was 354.2, and each center had independent laboratories, chemotherapy infusion rooms and pharmacies. Degree of nursing staff varied from grades 1 to 3. The nursing department and ward were jointly responsible for educating new nurses. In cancer nursing, the policy varied according to institution. For patient education, the oncology Advanced Practice Nurse (APN) mainly informed patients of the adverse effects of chemotherapy and central line care. 90.5% appointed oncology APNs, who were variously designated (47.6%). 10.5% of APNs held concurrent positions. CONCLUSION: As cancer has increased medical professional organizations have shown a variety of forms of organization and human resources management. A political approach seems to be required for institutions for nursing care, patient education, the role and qualifications of APN.
Cancer Care Facilities ; Drug Therapy ; Humans ; Korea* ; Nursing ; Nursing Care ; Nursing Staff ; Oncology Nursing ; Patient Education as Topic ; Pharmacies ; Societies

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify the knowledge and compliance of guidelines for safe handling of antineoplastic agents among the oncology nurses. METHODS: The participants were 186 nurses from oncology-hematology unit, and outpatient's infusion room in a tertiary hospital. The levels of knowledge of safety guidelines and compliance with safe handling of antineoplastic agents of oncology nurses were measured using structured questionnaires from October 1 to November 30, 2014. RESULTS: Oncology nurses' knowledge of guideline for safe handling of antineoplastic agents presented an average 79.7 out of 100 points. Compliance with safe handling of antineoplastic agents presented an average 4.28 (range: 2.9~5) out of 5 points. The knowledge of guidelines for safe handling of antineoplastic agents was related with oncology experience (F=3.78, p=.012). There were positive relationships of knowledge and compliance with safe handling of antineoplastic agents (r=0.23, p=.002). CONCLUSION: The findings showed that there was a need to establish efficient guidelines for the safe handling of antineoplastic agents and develop our structured, continuous educational program for the improvement of safe practices related to the handling of antineoplastic agents. The developed and enhanced that guideline and educational program would contribute to improvement of staff and patient safety related to the handling of antineoplastic agents.
Antineoplastic Agents* ; Compliance* ; Patient Safety ; Tertiary Care Centers*

PURPOSE: The purpose of the present study was to assess factors associated with quality of life (QOL) and to determine whether anxiety and depression are predictive of QOL in patients with advanced gastrointestinal cancer at initial diagnosis and during the treatment process. METHODS: One hundred and twenty patients with gastrointestinal cancer requiring palliative chemotherapy were enrolled. RESULTS: At baseline, depression, performance status, and anxiety accounted for 55.0% (p<.001) of the variance in global health status score, depression accounted for 22.0% (p<.001) of the variance in functional scales score, and anxiety accounted for 19.0% (p<.001) of the variance in symptom scales score. At 3 months, depression, pain, and performance status accounted for 72.0% (p<.001) of the variance in global health status score, 76.0% (p<.001) of the variance in functional scales score, and 74.0% (p<.001) of the variance in symptom scales score. CONCLUSION: Anxiety and depression were significant predictive factors of QOL in patients with advanced gastrointestinal cancer. Depression and performance status were significant predictive factors of QOL at both baseline and 3 months, and anxiety and pain were significant predictive factors of QOL at baseline and 3 months, respectively.
Anxiety* ; Depression* ; Diagnosis ; Drug Therapy ; Gastrointestinal Neoplasms* ; Global Health ; Humans ; Quality of Life* ; Weights and Measures

PURPOSE: Cancer continues to be a life-threatening disease and is a preventable disease. To improve cancer preventive behaviors is important to control cancer among older rural adults who are isolated from major health care services. The purpose of this study was to identify the degrees of health literacy, cancer knowledge, and cancer preventive behaviors and to explore the impact of health literacy and cancer knowledge on cancer preventive behaviors among older rural adults. METHODS: A cross-sectional correlational study was used to examine a total of 95 older community-dwelling adults. Data were collected between June and October, 2016 with a convenience sample in rural areas located in U city. RESULTS: Multiple regression analysis revealed that 33.7% of the variance in cancer preventive behaviors was explained by health literacy and cancer knowledge. Health literacy and cancer knowledge were significant predictors of cancer preventive behaviors. CONCLUSION: Among older rural adults, inadequate health literacy and low cancer knowledge predicted lower cancer preventive behaviors. A better understanding about older rural adults with poor health literacy and cancer knowledge could facilitate the development of intervention strategies to reduce health inequalities.
Adult* ; Delivery of Health Care ; Health Behavior ; Health Literacy* ; Humans ; Socioeconomic Factors

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to assess pain, sleep disturbance, fatigue, and the quality of life and to identify the impact of pain, sleep disturbance and fatigue on the quality of life in patients with pancreatic cancer undergoing chemotherapy. METHODS: Data were collected from June to July, 2010. Participants were recruited from Y university hospital in Seoul. Research instruments included numeric rating scale for pain, Functional Assessment Chronic Illness Therapy-Functional Well-Being (FACIT-FWB): General Factor 5 (GF5) for sleep disturbance, Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General (FACT-G) for quality of life, and FACT-Fatigue for fatigue. RESULTS: The quality of life for cancer patients had a significant relationship with pain, sleep disturbance, and fatigue. The significant factors influencing quality of life were pain, sleep disturbance, and fatigue that explained 52.6% of the variance. CONCLUSION: Patients with pancreatic cancer undergoing chemotherapy experienced pain, fatigue, and sleep disturbance which led to a negative effect on quality of life. The results suggest that intervention program to improve quality of life could reduce pain, fatigue, and sleep disturbance of pancreatic cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.
Chronic Disease ; Fatigue ; Humans ; Pancreatic Neoplasms ; Quality of Life ; Sleep Wake Disorders

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*

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of music therapy on anxiety, depression and fatigue in cancer patient undergoing intensity modulated radiotherapy. METHODS: This study was a nonequivalent control pretest-posttest design. The participants were 65 cancer patients (33 experimental and 32 control group) receiving intensity modulated radiotherapy. Music therapy for the experimental group took 20-30 minutes per session for five days while they were receiving radiotherapy. RESULTS: State anxiety, VAS anxiety and depression of the experimental group after treatment were reduced but there was no statistical significance between the experimental group and control group before and after having treatment. There was no statistical significance on the difference of fatigue between the two groups. CONCLUSION: Music therapy is an adjuvant therapy and using other nursing intervention with music therapy could be more effective than using only music therapy to reduce the anxiety, depression and fatigue for cancer patients undergoing intensity modulated radiotherapy.
Anxiety* ; Depression* ; Fatigue* ; Humans ; Music Therapy* ; Music* ; Nursing ; Radiotherapy*

PURPOSE: In 2008, the Korean Oncology Nursing Society (KONS) published standards for the safe use of chemotherapy in clinical settings, including extravastion management. Although the medical environment has rapidly changed, KONS standards have not been revised since then. In 2017, the KONS planned to revise the practice guidelines on oral chemotherapy METHODS: A clinical expert group developed recommended guidelines, using officially accepted standards based on all relevant publications. The draft was discussed and accepted in a consensus conference. The final recommendations were reviewed and approved by the KONS Boards of Directors. RESULTS: There were 4 chapters and 50 recommendations in the final version of the guidelines. Recommendations include those associated with general practice, patient consent and education, order assessment and administration, and side effects and complication management. CONCLUSION: The revised KONS guidelines on oral chemotherapy will contribute to the improvement of staff and patient safety related to oral chemotherapy. KONS guidelines revisions should be carried out at regular intervals.
Consensus ; Drug Therapy* ; Education ; General Practice ; Humans ; Oncology Nursing* ; Patient Safety ; Personal Protective Equipment ; Safety Management