PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to compare the perceived importance and the perceived caring of nursing needs among oncology nurses, patients with non-terminal cancer and patients with terminal cancer. METHOD: A total of 83 oncology nurses, 56 patients with non-terminal cancer and 39 patients with terminal cancer served as subjects. Data was collected based on the 4-point Likert scale using a self-administered questionnaire from Mar. to Sept. 2004. Finally, data was analyzed using mean, SD, paired-test, and ANOVA. RESULTS: The score of the perceived importance of nursing needs was higher than that of the perceived performance of nursing needs in all three groups. There was also a difference in the degree of perceived performance of nursing needs among the three groups. In contrast, there was no difference in the total score of the perceived importance of nursing needs among the three groups, unlike the importance of informational and physical needs as a subgroup of perceived importance, where a difference was noted. CONCLUSIONS: Strategies should be developed to narrow down these gaps between nurses and patients. In particular, informational and educational programs should be designed for patients with terminal cancer.
Terminally Ill/*psychology ; *Oncologic Nursing ; Nursing Care/*psychology ; Neoplasms/*nursing/psychology ; Middle Aged ; Male ; Humans ; Female ; Adult

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to describe and to analyze real communication about a patient's discomfort between a patient with cancer and a nurse. METHOD: A dialogue analysis method was utilized. Fifteen patients and 4 nurses who participated in this research gave permission to be videotaped. The data was collected from January, 3 to February 28, 2006. RESULTS: The communication process consisted of 4 functional stages: 'introduction stage', 'assessment stage', 'intervention stage' and 'final stage'. After trying to analyze pattern reconstruction in the 'assessment stage' and 'intervention stage', sequential patterns were identified. In the assessment stage, if the nurse lead the communication, the sequential pattern was 'assessment question-answer' and if the patient lead the communication, it was 'complaint-response'. In the intervention stage, the sequential pattern was 'nursing intervention-acceptance'. CONCLUSION: This research suggests conversation patterns between patients with cancer and nurses. Therefore, this study will provide insight for nurses in cancer units by better understanding communication behaviors.
Adult ; Aged ; *Communication ; Female ; Humans ; Inpatients ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasms/nursing/*psychology ; Nurse's Role/psychology ; Nurse-Patient Relations ; Nursing Methodology Research ; Nursing Staff, Hospital/*psychology ; Tape Recording

PURPOSE: This study was to explore the experiences of perioperative patients with cancer. The purpose of this inquiry was to describe the essence of such experiences, and to understand them from the patients'point of view. METHOD: Participants in this study were 9 cancer patients with ages ranging from 31 to 70 years old, living in B city, who experienced cancer operations. Data collection consisted of in-depth interviews and an observation method done from October to December in 2003. In analysing data, Colaizzi's(1978) phenomenological research method was adopted. RESULTS: Five categories emerged from ten theme clusters. The five categories were: 'shock', 'expectations & wishes', 'despair', 'feelings of burden', 'continual pain'. CONCLUSION: The results of this study showthat oncology nurses need to pay more attention to the psychosocial aspect of nursing to empathize and support the cancer patients who suffer and its treatment, and operations.
Adult ; Aged ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasms/nursing/*psychology/surgery ; Oncologic Nursing

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the influence of hospice care on the life quality and psychological state of aged mortal inpatients. METHODS: Seventy-six aged patients were randomly divided into 2 groups (n=38). The research group was treated with hospice care, while the control group was treated with conventional nursing. Before and after more than one month of the interference, the quality of life, social support, satisfied degree, anxiety, and depression mood were investigated. RESULTS: All the indexes, such as total scale of life quality, appetite, spirit, sleep, family comprehension and coordination, recognition of cancer, attitude to therapy, and facial expression of the mortal inpatients after the interference, were raised and higher than those of the controls (P<0.05 or P<0.01). Life satisfaction index and the total scale of social support and subjective support, utilization ratio of support were raised and higher than those of the controls (P<0.05 or P<0.01). The level of anxiety and depression was decreased and lower than the control (P<0.05 or P<0.01). CONCLUSION Hospice care can raise the life quality, subjective support, utilization ratio of support and life satisfaction of aged mortal inpatients. It could decrease the negative mood, such as anxiety and depression and improve the psychological state.
Aged ; Anxiety ; nursing ; Hospice Care ; psychology ; Humans ; Inpatients ; Neoplasms ; nursing ; psychology ; Personal Satisfaction ; Quality of Life ; Surveys and Questionnaires

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify the factors affecting symptom experiences of breast cancer patients. METHODS: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted with based on the Unpleasant symptom Theory. Sixty breast cancer patients were recruited. We measured their symptom experiences, physiologic factors (immune system function and specific perceived symptoms), psychological factors (depression and anxiety), and situational factors (family support). After obtaining permission from the IRB, data were collected from self-report questionnaires and electronic medical records from a single cancer center. Descriptive statistics, t-test, one-way ANOVA, correlations and multiple regressions were used to analyze the data. RESULTS: The most frequent and severe symptoms were fatigue (4.47+/-2.99), numbness or tingling (3.67+/-3.08) and sadness (3.45+/-3.64). Symptom experiences were significantly positively correlated with psychological factors (r=.603, p<.01) and physical symptoms (r=.384, p<.01). Symptom experiences and situational factors (r=.302, p<.05) were had a significantly negative correlation. The factor that had the most impact on symptom experiences were psychological factors, followed by perceived physical symptoms. The regression model explained 44.8% of the variances. CONCLUSION: Based on the results of this study, the physiological, psychological and situational factors should be considered for caring breast cancer patients.
Breast Neoplasms* ; Electronic Health Records ; Ethics Committees, Research ; Fatigue ; Humans ; Hypesthesia ; Nursing Theory ; Oncology Nursing ; Psychology ; Surveys and Questionnaires

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship among quality of life, family coherence, family hardiness, and family resources of the family care-giver caring for a cancer patient. METHOD: Data was collected by questionnaires from 137 families with a cancer patient at a General Hospital and Government Cancer Hospital. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, pearson correlation coefficients, and stepwise multiple regression. RESULTS: The score of quality of life showed a significant positive correlation with the score of the level of family sense of coherence, family hardiness, and family resources. The most powerful predictor of quality of life was sense of coherence and the variance was 30%. A combination of sense of coherence and family resources account for 34 % of the variance in quality of life of the family care-giver caring for a cancer patient. CONCLUSION: The results showed that family sense of coherence, hardiness, and family resources were significant influencing factors on the quality of life of the family care-giver caring for a cancer patient.
Adult ; Caregivers/*psychology ; *Family ; Family Relations ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasms/*nursing/psychology ; *Quality of Life ; Questionnaires

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify the knowledge structure of cancer survivors. METHODS: For data, 1099 articles were collected, with 365 keywords as a Noun phrase extracted from the articles and standardized for analyzing. Co-occurrence matrix were generated via a cosine similarity measure, and then the network analysis and visualization using PFNet and NodeXL were applied to visualize intellectual interchanges among keywords. RESULTS: According to the result of the content analysis and the cluster analysis of author keywords from cancer survivors articles, keywords such as 'quality of life', 'breast neoplasms', 'cancer survivors', 'neoplasms', 'exercise' had a high degree centrality. The 9 most important research topics concerning cancer survivors were 'cancer-related symptoms and nursing', 'cancer treatment-related issues', 'late effects', 'psychosocial issues', 'healthy living managements', 'social supports', 'palliative cares', 'research methodology', and 'research participants'. CONCLUSION: Through this study, the knowledge structure of cancer survivors was identified. The 9 topics identified in this study can provide useful research direction for the development of nursing in cancer survivor research areas. The Network analysis used in this study will be useful for identifying the knowledge structure and identifying general views and current cancer survivor research trends.
Cluster Analysis ; Databases, Factual ; Humans ; *Models, Nursing ; Neoplasms/pathology/*psychology ; Palliative Care ; Qualitative Research ; Quality of Life ; Social Support ; Survivors/psychology

PURPOSE: This study was to identify the effects of hope intervention on hope and depression of cancer patients staying at home. METHODS: The study design was a randomized control group design. The subjects consisted of forty cancer patients randomly selected who were registered at S-Gu Public Health Center. Hope intervention, which was composed of hope assessment, hope objective setting, positive self identity formation, therapeutic relationships, spiritual & transcendental process improvement, positive environmental formation and hope evaluation, was provided from November 20, 2006 to January 26, 2007. RESULTS: The 1-1 hypothesis, "The experimental group which received hope intervention will have a higher score of hope than the control group", was supported(t=-3.253, p= .003). The 1-2 hypothesis, "The experimental group which received hope intervention will have a higher level of hope index than the control group", was supported (t=-4.001, p= .000). Therefore the 1st hypothesis, "The experimental group which received hope intervention will have a higher level of hope than the control group" was supported. The 2nd hypothesis, "The experimental group which received hope intervention will have a lower level of depression than the control group", was not supported (t=1.872, p= .070). CONCLUSION: Hope intervention is an effective nursing intervention to enhance hope for patient with cancer.
Adaptation, Psychological ; Adult ; Aged ; Chi-Square Distribution ; Demography ; Depression/*psychology ; Female ; Home Care Services ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasms/nursing/*psychology ; Oncologic Nursing/methods ; Quality of Life

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship of uncertainty, hope and quality of life in patients with breast cancer. METHOD: The subjects of the study were 113 breast cancer patients treated at 3 university hospitals in Daegu and Busan from June 1 to September 30, 2003. Uncertainty was measured by the Mishel Uncertainty in Illness Scale (MUIS), Hope was measured by Nowotny's Hope Scale, and quality of life by Ro's Korean Quality of Life(QOL). Data was analyzed with the SPSS program by t-test, ANOVA, Spearman's rank correlation and Multiple Regression Analysis. RESULT: The scores of uncertainty were negatively correlated with hope and QOL(all p's<0.05). Uncertainty revealed that there was a negative correlation among subitems of hope such as confidence, relationship with others, possibility of future, and inner motivation(r=-.333, p=.000; r=-.230, p=.015; r=-.260, p=.006; r=-.291, p=.003). Uncertainty also showed a negative correlation among subitems of QOL such as emotional status, self esteem, and relationship with family(r=-.29, p=.004; r=-.326, p=.000; r=-.197, p=.044), whereas hope revealed a positive correlation among subitems of QOL such as emotional status, self esteem, relationship with neighbor, and relationship with family(r=.243, p=.011; r=.487, p=.000; r=.29, p=.001; r=.29, p=.001). The score of uncertainty was low in graduate school students and subjects using problem solving as a coping method. However, the score of hope was high in college students and subjects using a problem solving method, and the score of QOL was high in professionals. CONCLUSION: Based on the study results, breast cancer patients experienced living with uncertainty and maintaining hope. Thus the study's findings can be useful in directing a comprehensive nursing care plan to improve QOL of breast cancer patients.
Adult ; Aged ; *Attitude to Health ; Breast Neoplasms/nursing/*psychology ; Female ; Humans ; Korea ; Middle Aged ; *Quality of Life ; *Uncertainty

PURPOSE: This study aimed to develop and test a structural model for chemotherapy-related cognitive impairment of breast cancer patients based on a literature review and Hess and Insel's chemotherapy-related cognitive change model. METHODS: The Participants consisted of 250 patients who were ≥19 years of age. The assessment tools included the Menopause Rating Scale, Symptom Experience Scale, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Everyday Cognition, and Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast Cancer. Data were analyzed using the SPSS 21.0 and AMOS 21.0 programs. RESULTS: The modified model was a good fit for the data. The model fit indices were χ2=423.18 (p<.001), χ2/df=3.38, CFI=.91, NFI=.91, TLI=.89, SRMR=.05, RMSEA=.09, and AIC=515.18. Chemotherapy-related cognitive impairment was directly influenced by menopausal symptoms (β=.38, p=.002), depression and anxiety (β=.25, p=.002), and symptom experiences (β=.19, p=.012). These predictors explained 47.7% of the variance in chemotherapy-related cognitive impairment. Depression and anxiety mediated the relations among menopausal symptoms, symptom experiences, and with chemotherapy related cognitive impairment. Depression and anxiety (β=−.51, p=.001), symptom experiences (β=−.27, p=.001), menopausal symptoms (β=−.22, p=.008), and chemotherapy-related cognitive impairment (β=−.15, p=.024) had direct effects on the quality of life and these variables explained 91.3%. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that chemotherapy-related toxicity is highly associated with cognitive decline and quality of life in women with breast cancer. Depression and anxiety increased vulnerability to cognitive impairment after chemotherapy. Nursing intervention is needed to relieve chemotherapy-related toxicity and psychological factor as well as cognitive decline for quality of life in patients undergoing chemotherapy.
Anxiety ; Breast Neoplasms ; Breast ; Cognition ; Cognition Disorders ; Depression ; Drug Therapy ; Female ; Humans ; Menopause ; Models, Structural ; Nursing ; Psychology ; Quality of Life