PURPOSE: The purpose of this descriptive study was to identify the nursing needs of patients with chronic illness. METHOD: The subjects of this study were 636 patients with chronic illness, 323 general nurses, and 106 public health nurses. The instruments used for this study were questionnaires including perceived functions of nursing from the center for chronic illness, preference to placement, intention to use, needs to receive services from the center for chronic illness, strategies management for nursing, and nursing needs of chronically ill patients. RESULTS: The mean of perceived functions for nursing from the center were 3.1(0.5) in public health nurses, 2.9 (0.59) in general nurses, and 2.4(1.33) in chronically ill patients. Regards of needs to receive on services of the nursing centers were, the regularly physical examination, for health educational services which was perceived highest request amongst chronically ill patients. We found the means of each specific need as 2.2(0.6), for physical health, 2.1(0.7), for psychosocial health, and 1.8(0.6) for spiritual health. CONCLUSION: From the results of this study, it is suggested that establishing a nursing center for chronically ill patients consider physical, psychosocial, for spiritual health needs of chronically ill patients. It is also a consideration that direct care for symptom management and health education in the nursing center be implemented.
Chronic Disease* ; Health Education ; Humans ; Intention ; Nurses, Public Health ; Nursing* ; Physical Examination ; Surveys and Questionnaires

PURPOSE: The needs of stem cell transplantation are increasing in Korea under the circumstance of medical insurance coverage since 1996. But allogeneic bone marrow transplants have the limitation in acquisition of matched donor because of small number of siblings in modern society. Although unrelated stem cell transplantations were made possible in Korea with the establishment of Korean Marrow Donor Program, less than one third of patients who need stem cell transplantation are seeking the matched donors through this program and it still takes too much time and efforts. In this clinical setting, cord blood offers an exciting alternative to traditional sources of stem cells. To implement the widespread clinical use of cord blood stem cells, it is necessary to establish the cord blood bank from which stem cell specimens are obtained. METHODS: To establish the cord blood bank in Korea, we started to develop the proper methods to obtain the cord bloods. Various ways of collecting the cord bloods, separation of red blood cells and storage methods were tried and the standard recommendations were made. RESULTS: Mean volume of collected umbilical cord blood was above 70mL by open or closed method in vaginal delivery and cesarean section. Among the RBC depletion methods by using 3% gelatin, Ficoll-Hypaque, or modified Ficoll-Hypaque method, 3% gelatin sedimentation showed the best result in viability and number of mononuclear cells(MNC), CD34+ cell, and day 14 CFU-GM. The recovery rate after freezing-thawing MNC was higher in the group of using 10% DMSO and programmed freezer starting from 4degrees C than in the group of using mixed with DMSO and hydroxyethyl starch and without programmed freezer. Nine patients underwent cord blood transplantation until December 1998. Among them, 6 patients showed the long-term successful engraftment. CONCLUSION: We have developed simple, efficient, and reproducible methods for collection, processing, and storage of cord blood to establish the cord blood bank. There are some administrative issues including the legal and financial problems that possibly will be resolved by the support of the government and the medical team.
Bone Marrow ; Cesarean Section ; Dimethyl Sulfoxide ; Erythrocytes ; Female ; Fetal Blood* ; Gelatin ; Granulocyte-Macrophage Progenitor Cells ; Humans ; Insurance Coverage ; Korea* ; Pregnancy ; Siblings ; Starch ; Stem Cell Transplantation ; Stem Cells* ; Tissue Donors