Suffering is a human burden that may not be truly avoidable. In order to put that view in perspective we must examine suffering in a form as isolated from self-inflicted behavior as possible. The suffering of a child is one such example. The purpose of this study is to understand the meaning of suffering in the teenager and is to analyze difference of suffering in children and adult. The subjects of this study were 6 children (12year-17year) including in-patients and out-patients of a general hospital who were diagnosed as having cancer. The data was collected from October 10,1996 to April 15, 1997. Qualitative research methods of in-depth interview and participant observation were used for data collection. Data analysis progressed according to the fieldwork phases suggested by the Hybrid Model. According to the results of the study, the meaning of suffering in the teenager can be described as follows: Suffering is an inevitable experience of all human beings. When each child experiences pain and destroying child-adult relationship, suffering in which threaten one's personal integrity is perceived differently among each child depending on their personal inner factors, one's significant others, exterior circumstances and stimuli. Suffering brings severs and unendurable distress which accompany anguish, depression, anxiety and fear. This findings provide data for new insights of suffering. When caring for teenager who experience suffering, nurse need to consider the influence of suffering. Moreover, appropriate nursing interventions aimed at relieving suffering need to be developed.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Anxiety ; Child ; Data Collection ; Depression ; Hospitals, General ; Humans ; Nursing ; Outpatients ; Qualitative Research ; Statistics as Topic ; Stress, Psychological ; Child Health

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to detect the correlations and the main factors influencing depression, life satisfaction, burden, defenition of suffering, meaning of life, and suffering. METHOD: The samples were composed of 160 cancer patients who were or outpatients of four hospitals in Seoul. The reliability of the 6 instruments was tested with Cronbach's alpha which ranged from .62 to .90. The data was analyzed using a SAS program for descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficients, and stepwise multiple regression. Results: The results were as follows: 1. The scores on the suffering scale ranged from 132 to 40 with a mean of 87.3 (SD 17.5). 2. There were significant correlations between all the predictive variables and even the amounts of suffering (r=.27-.84, p <.05). 3. Stepwise multiple regression analysis showed that depression was the main predictor of suffering, and accounted for 71.6% of the variance. In addition burden accounted for 4.6% of the variance in suffering. The two variables combined to account for 76.2% of the variance in suffering. CONCLUSION: In conclusion and depression, burden were identified as important variables in explaining the suffering of patients with cancer.
Depression ; Humans ; Outpatients ; Seoul

PURPOSE: This study explored and described the living spiritual experience and was attempted to gain an understanding of spirituality. This was done by eliciting participants' verbal descriptions of their experiences. METHOD: Data was obtained from in-depth interviews with one cancer patient, one pastor, and three missionaries after obtaining informed consent from each. Interviews were tape recorded and transcribed verbatim. The transcripts were analyzed using Colaizzi's phenomenological method. Sandelowski's evaluation criteria for qualitative research, such as reliability, suitability and auditability, were also used to establish reliability and validity of this study. RESULT: The five major theme clusters that designated the essence of the spiritual experience, "spiritual awareness," "interconnectedness," "love," "transcendent energy," "purpose and meaning in life," emerged from the analysis. CONCLUSION: This study revealed that spirituality was activated by awareness through introspection and interconnectedness with a Supreme Being. The interconnectedness with a Supreme Being played an important role in harmonious relationships with others and self. It also resulted in revealing the other beneticial attributes of spirituality. Love, the core concept of the interconnectedness, worked as a transcendent energy. Also, the ability to see beyond reality and resulted in finding meaning in life and accomplishing well being.
Humans ; Informed Consent ; Love ; Missions and Missionaries ; Qualitative Research ; Reproducibility of Results ; Spirituality*

Purpose: This study aims to identify the perceived care needs of nurses as care providers and patients as care recipients for managing adverse effects that result from chemotherapy. Methods: This descriptive study used a mixed-methods design employed with convenience sampling. The instrument was a 25-item, 4-point Likert-scale questionnaire that focused on the care needs of patients with advanced cancer, completed by the patients and the nurses who care for them. The study also included an open-ended question.Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, an independent t-test, and content analysis. Results: The total mean value of care needs was not significantly different between the patient and nurse groups (t=-1.67, p=.098). The results of one open-ended question analyzed using content analysis were identified in five categories: physical, psychological, spiritual, policy, and other. Conclusion This study suggested the multifaceted care needs for managing the adverse effects of chemotherapy among patients with advanced cancer at a long-term care hospital in Korea.

PURPOSE: The occurrence of traumatic aneurysm is rare in head injury, but this complication is important as it is a potentially treatable cause delayed onset of intracranial hemorrhage. Authors report one case of traumatic aneurysm involving A1 and A2 junction of anterior cerebral artery. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A-28-year-old man with traffic accident was examined with brain CT & cerebral angiography. RESULTS: l) Brain CT:lnitial scan shows multiple skull fractures involving right frontal bones with subarachnoid hemorrhage and pneumocephalus. Follow-up scan shows intracerebral hemorrhage at bilateral frontal lobes. 2) Cerebral angiography:A traumatic aneurysm which is slowly filling and delayed emptying is noted at the junctional portion of A1 and A2 segment of the anterior cerebral artery. CONCLUSION: This report demonstrates radiologic findings of traumatic aneurysm at anterior cerebral artery with the brief review of the literatures.
Accidents, Traffic ; Aneurysm ; Anterior Cerebral Artery ; Brain ; Cerebral Angiography ; Cerebral Hemorrhage ; Craniocerebral Trauma ; Follow-Up Studies ; Frontal Bone ; Frontal Lobe ; Intracranial Aneurysm* ; Intracranial Hemorrhages ; Pneumocephalus ; Skull Fractures ; Subarachnoid Hemorrhage

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship between self-esteem and meaning of life in higher grade elementary school students. METHODS: Four hundred eighty four elementary school students in their 4 ~ 6th-grade at S, G and C City were recruited by convenient sampling. Data were collected from August to October, 2008 using a self-reported questionnaire. The collected data were analyzed by the SPSS/WIN 12.0 program with mean, standard deviation, t-test, ANOVA, Duncan's test, and Pearson's correlation. RESULTS: The average score of meaning of life was 3.07 +/- 0.38 and that of self-esteem was 3.43 +/- 0.62. There were significant differences in self-esteem according to variables region and religion, and in meaning of life scores according to variables region, grade, sex and religion. There was a significant positive correlation between self-esteem and meaning of life. CONCLUSION: Self-esteem and meaning of life should be considered as important factors for healthy development in the elementary school period. Self-esteem should be considered as a main content in developing programs for finding meaning of life for higher grade elementary school students.
Humans ; Religion and Sex ; Self Concept ; Surveys and Questionnaires

PURPOSE: This study used a nonequivalent control group pre-post test design to analyze how a death preparation education program helps middle-aged adults deal with life and death anxiety. METHODS: We studied 83 adults at the age of 40 to 65 years. An experimental group of 38 people participated in the death preparation education, and a control group of 45 people did not. The death preparation program comprising four sections was given for four hours per week, and the program ran for 11 weeks. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, t-test, chi2 test, Fisher's exact test, and ANCOVA using SPSS version 17.0. RESULTS: The death anxiety score of the experimental group was significantly lower than that of the control group (P<0.000). The quality of life did not show significant difference between the experimental and control groups (P=0.188). CONCLUSION: It was confirmed that the death preparation education program is effective in alleviating death anxiety. Although the program was confirmed as a necessity for the middle-aged adults, repeated observations with a wider range of experimental group is needed to collect objective and solid data. Death preparation education for middle-aged adults is expected to be more widely provided, starting from local health facilities.
Adult ; Anxiety ; Evaluation Studies as Topic ; Health Facilities ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Quality of Life

PURPOSE: The study aimed to determine the impact of post-traumatic stress and ways of stress coping on problem drinking in firefighters. METHODS: Data were collected from May 11 to June 11, 2015, in fire brigades across South Korea. Participants were 183 male firefighters who used self-report questionnaires containing questions from the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R), Ways of Coping Checklist (WCC), and Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT). Data were analyzed using χ2 test, t-test, and logistic regression with the SPSS/WIN 21.0 program. RESULTS: The prevalence of PTSD among firefighters was 36.7% and that of problem drinking was 39.3%. Firefighters with single (OR=0.23, 95% CI=0.038~1.321) and married status (OR=0.46, 95% CI=0.069~3.040) were less likely to have problem drinking than those who were divorced or bereavement. Those with invasion symptoms (OR=1.17, 95% CI=1.031~1.327) and hyperarousal symptoms (OR=0.85, 95% CI=0.722~0.989) were more likely to have problem drinking than those with avoidance symptoms. CONCLUSION: Post-traumatic stress symptom was a major risk factor that increased problem drinking, and married status reduced problem drinking. There is a need to develop post-traumatic stress symptom management program and early education content for symptom management.
Bereavement ; Checklist ; Divorce ; Drinking* ; Education ; Firefighters* ; Fires ; Humans ; Korea ; Logistic Models ; Male ; Prevalence ; Risk Factors ; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to obtain a clearer understanding of spirituality and examine the process of spirituality through defining the meaning and attributes of spirituality. METHOD: Concept analysis was done in the three phases, theoretical phase, fieldwork phase, and analytical phase suggested in the Hybrid Model. Five people participated in the fieldwork phase. RESULTS: Spirituality is activated through self-awareness which occurs as spirit being activated through self-introspection, and through restoration of the relationship with Supreme Being. This interconnectedness with Supreme Being has an absolute impact on one's harmonious interconnectedness with self and neighbors, thus leads all the critical attributes of spirituality to be revealed. The core energy of this harmonious interconnectedness is love. When activated, it has a great impact on an individual as integrative energy, leads one to go beyond everyday experience as well as to have new perspectives, and to live a satisfactory life in every aspect. CONCLUSION: The results of this study suggest that promotion of connectedness is the most important element in spiritual nursing interventions. The results can also be used effectively in developing spirituality assessment scales and theory.
*Spirituality ; *Models, Psychological ; *Mind-Body Relations (Metaphysics) ; Korea ; Humans

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to describe the components and content of nursing intervention studies on mother-infant interactions and to present strategies for future studies. METHODS: Four electronic databases in the Korean language were searched to identify studies done between January 1998 and December 2011. The search yielded 145 articles. From these articles, 19 studies met the inclusion criteria. RESULTS: Mother-infant interactions in these studies were found to include verbal and non-verbal communication basic for optimal growth and development of the child. Six kinds of interventions for mother-infant interactions were identified as follows: sensory stimulation, education program, whole body massage, kangaroo care, visiting support, and music therapy. CONCLUSION: Further studies with well designed clinical trials need to be done in the area of child nursing to provide evidence based data for the development of strategies to promote positive mother-infant interactions.
Child ; Education ; Growth and Development ; Humans ; Clinical Trial* ; Macropodidae ; Massage ; Mother-Child Relations* ; Music Therapy ; Nursing* ; Parent-Child Relations