PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of music therapy on pain, depression, and anxiety in terminally ill patients. METHODS: Twenty patients in the experimental group were provided with music via headphones for 30- 40 min at a time as they requested for 2 weeks, whereas no music was provided for the nineteen patients in the control group. Data were collected using a questionnaire. The research instruments included Visual Analog Scale (VAS) and Depression & Anxiety Inventory Scale. Data were analyzed using chi-square-test, t-test, and Fisher's exact test, using SPSS 15.0. RESULTS: There were significant decreases in the scores of pain at present (t=-2.54, p<.05), depression (t=-2.187, p<.05) and anxiety (Z=-2.114, p<.05) in the experimental group compared to those in the control group. CONCLUSION: Music therapy is considered non-invasive and inexpensive intervention and can be easily applied to alleviate pain, depression and anxiety for terminally ill patients.
Anxiety ; Depression ; Humans ; Music ; Music Therapy ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Terminally Ill

PURPOSE: This study was undertaken to establish the framework for development of the curriculum of genetics in Nursing Education. METHODS: The Internet search, literature review of the US system of genetic nurses, genetic graduate nursing education programs and curricula for nurse in Korea were reviewed and analyzed. RESULTS: American Nurses genetic system consists of APNG and the GCS and all the APNG credential provided by the GNCC of ISONG. The curriculums of genetic nursing education in the US are mainly conducted in of master's program and genetically related subjects consists of basic genetics subjects, basic applied genetics subjects, genetics in nursing subjects and practical training subjects. Lastly a genetic nursing education program in Korea 44 hr of lectures and practical training of 4 hr is composed of basic genetics, genetic cancer, genetics in nursing and practicum in the computer lab and online include family history assessment, pedigree construction, breast and colorectal cancer risk calculations, and ELSI discussions. CONCLUSION: This study suggested that genetic nursing education course needs in master's program as detailed subjects. Also the establishment of the genetic nurse system is an urgent needed.
Breast ; Colorectal Neoplasms ; Curriculum ; Education, Nursing ; Education, Nursing, Graduate ; Humans ; Internet ; Korea ; Lectures ; Pedigree ; Pyridines ; Thiazoles

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of a breathing exercise intervention by measuring pulmonary function test (PFT) three times; preoperative, 3rd and 5th day after operation. METHODS: This study was designed as a non-equivalent control group pretest-posttest design. A total of 55 patients with lung cancer were recruited from a Chonnam university hospital in Hawsun-gun, Korea from January to December 2008. RESULTS: 'Forced Vital Capacity (FVC)' and 'Forced Expiratory Volume in 1 second (FEV1)' were significantly improved in the experimental group than those in the control group (p<.05). CONCLUSION: Breathing exercise intervention was found to be effective in improving pulmonary function among lung cancer patients underwent lung lobectomy. Thus, the breathing exercise can be applied in hospitals and communities for patients with lung cancer as one of the nursing intervention modalities for their better postoperative rehabilitation.
Breathing Exercises ; Humans ; Korea ; Lung ; Lung Neoplasms ; Respiration ; Respiratory Function Tests ; Vital Capacity

PURPOSE: This study was to identify the effect of hand massage on comfort in women with gynecologic cancer undergoing chemotherapy. METHODS: A nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design was used for this study. Hand massage was provided to the experimental group for 5 min (2.5 min for each side) once on admission day, twice from the second day until the day before discharge, and once in the morning on discharge day. RESULTS: Findings showed no significant differences in pre and post levels of general, physical, psycho-spiritual, social and environmental comfort. However, women's comfort levels in all domains were increased after the chemotherapy in the experimental group. CONCLUSION: Although there were some increases in women's comfort levels on all domains after the treatment, hand massage was not proved as a statistically useful nursing intervention in comforting women with gynecologic cancer. The results suggest that hand massage could be effective if it is applied longer than it was in this study. The future implications of hand massage in patients with various cancers are discussed.
Female ; Hand ; Humans ; Massage

PURPOSE: This study was aimed to analyze the contents and trend of published research in oncology nursing during the past five years in Korea and to suggest the direction for future research. METHODS: Using the key words "cancer", "cancer patients", and "tumor", 391 nursing research published from 2003 to 2008 were selected for the analysis. RESULTS: 1) Three hundred fifty-five (90.8%) of the studies used quantitative research approach, whereas most studies were descriptive in nature. 2) The main subjects of the study were cancer patients with mixed diagnosis (36.4%) and breast cancer patients (20.0%). 3) Complementary alternative therapy (28.9%), educational program (25.6%), and psycho-social and spiritual program (16.7%) were the most frequently used nursing interventions. Most frequently measured outcome variables were psycho, socio, and spiritual factors (38.8%), symptoms (28.2%) and physiological factors (14.6%). 4) Most frequently used key words were identified as quality of life, fatigue, coping, pain, anxiety, anorexia, and depression. CONCLUSION: The number of published research in oncology nursing in Korea has been increased. It is suggested to conduct international studies to develop, compare, and replicate nursing interventions for patients with cancer in future. Increasing funding, establishing research infrastructure, and removing methodological challenges are warranted for better research environment.
Anorexia ; Anxiety ; Breast Neoplasms ; Depression ; Fatigue ; Financial Management ; Humans ; Korea ; Nursing Research ; Quality of Life

PURPOSE: The purposes of this study were to identify job definition, duties and tasks of Korean oncology Advanced Practice Nurses (APNs) and assess frequency, importance, and difficulty for each of duty and task using the DACUM method. METHODS: The DACUM committee was organized with nine oncology APNs. The committee documented the job definition, duties and tasks based on their daily job descriptions. Validity of the elicited duties and tasks was tested by a study team and 6 oncology APNs. Data were collected using a questionnaire survey from 53 oncology APNs. RESULTS: The job description of oncology APNs was identified 12 duties and 66 tasks. Among the twelve duties, 'education for patients/ families' was the most frequently performed and was the most important duty. 'Case management' was the most difficult duty. Among 66 tasks, 'providing education for patients/families' was most frequently performed. 'Providing education for patients/families' and 'assessing patient condition comprehensively' were the most important tasks. 'Implementation research' as the principal investigator was perceived as the most difficult task. CONCLUSION: In this study, Korean oncology APNs' job performances were identified and analyzed. It is recommended that job description for oncology APNs needs to be standardized and reshaped in advanced way in future.
Humans ; Job Description ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Research Personnel

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was the development and validation of knowledge scale for patients with breast cancer (KS-Br) in Korea. METHODS: The process included the construction of a conceptual framework, generation of preliminary items, and the test of validity and reliability of the scale. Thirty-seven items were developed through an evaluation process by 10 experts and 24 items were finally confirmed through item analysis. Psychometric testing was performed with a convenient sample of 303 women with breast cancer. The data was analyzed using independent t-test, Pearson's correlation, and calculation of KR-20. RESULTS: Participants averaged 70.8% correct on the test. The KS-Br has 24 items consisting of 5 categories: incidence of breast cancer, diagnosis and treatment, symptom management, sexuality, and maintenance of daily life. Validity was supported by the use of content validity, known-group technique, and criterion-related validity. Women who had undergone education intervention scored significantly higher than women who had not (p<.001). KS-Br scores were significantly correlated with those of Mishel's Illness Uncertainty Scale (r=-.214, p<.001). Internal consistency of the KS-Br was appropriate (KR20=.805). CONCLUSION: This study reveals that the KS-Br is reliable and valid scale to measure the knowledge of breast cancer. Therefore, this scale can be effectively utilized to assess the knowledge of patients with breast cancer regarding their disease.
Breast ; Breast Neoplasms ; Female ; Humans ; Incidence ; Korea ; Psychometrics ; Reproducibility of Results ; Sexuality ; Uncertainty

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to analyze cancer symptoms, perceived health status, and nursing services for community dwelling cancer patients who are registered in a public health center. METHODS: The subject of the study were 561 community dwelling, and home-based cancer patients who were registered in 8 different public health centers in Daegu, Korea. The data collection was performed from September 28 to October 10, 2009. Analysis of data was done by using descriptive statistics, t-test and ANOVA with SPSS program. RESULTS: The mean score of cancer symptom index was 1.63. The level of fatigue was the highest in cancer symptom index. The mean score of perceived health status was 6.92. The exercise guidance was identified as the most frequently practiced nursing service. The scores of cancer symptom index were significantly different by economic status, marital status, living condition, the status of cancer, and metastasis. The scores of perceived health status was significantly different by education, economic status, type of social insurance, time of cancer diagnosis, status of cancer, and metastasis. CONCLUSION: The above findings indicate that it is necessary to develop a special nursing intervention differentiated according to the time points of cancer diagnosis, status of cancer. In addition, nurses should apply it in their practice to ameliorate fatigue for community dwelling cancer patients who are registered in public health center.
Data Collection ; Fatigue ; Humans ; Korea ; Marital Status ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Nursing Services ; Public Health ; Social Conditions ; Social Security

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify the effects of nutritional education program (NEP) on nausea and vomiting, anorexia, food intake, and nutritional status among GI cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. METHODS: A nonequivalent, non-synchronized posttest design was used. Study subjects were conveniently selected 30 patients (15 subjects for each group) who were undergoing chemotherapy. The subjects of the experimental group received NEP which consisted of 2 educations and 1 counselling while they were hospitalized, and telephone counselling with nutritional supports after discharge for four times. RESULTS: The score of anorexia was lower and the amount of food intake was higher in the experimental group than those of the control group. However, there were no significant differences in levels of nausea and vomiting, weight, hemoglobin, albumin, and total protein level between the experimental and the control group. CONCLUSION: The findings demonstrate that the NEP was effective in alleviating anorexia and improving subjective food intake of GI cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. These findings suggest that NEP can be a useful nursing intervention for preventing nutritional disorders for patients with GI cancer after chemotherapy.
Anorexia ; Child ; Eating ; Hemoglobins ; Humans ; Nausea ; Nutrition Disorders ; Nutritional Status ; Nutritional Support ; Telephone ; Vomiting

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship between physical activity and fatigue in patients with cancer. METHODS: The participants of the study were 118 patients who had been diagnosed with cancer at least more than three months before at a university hospital. Physical activity was measured by IPAQ Korean version (2006), and fatigue by the Revised Piper Fatigue Scale. The collected data were analyzed using frequency, percentage, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient. RESULTS: Continuous physical activity overall in this study was on average 2,154.03+/-2,845.86 MET, and the overall degree of fatigue of the participants was 4.47+/-1.80. There were significant negative correlations between fatigue and moderate physical activity. CONCLUSION: The findings of the study suggested that moderate physical activity is effective for improving fatigue in cancer patients.
Fatigue ; Humans ; Motor Activity ; Piper