PURPOSE The purpose of the study was to compare symptoms, medical therapies, and nursing interventions with terminal cancer patients during the last four weeks of their lives in a hospice unit and general units. METHOD For the descriptive survey study, data were collected by reviewing the medical records of 243 patients who died of terminal cancer at K hospital in Seoul. The data was analyzed by using Chi-square test and t-test. RESULT The study findings are summarized as follows: There were higher frequencies in physical symptoms of constipation, itching sensation, pain, sleeping disturbance, soreness and dysuria for those patients in the hospice unit than those patient in general units. All emotional symptoms were recorded significantly higher for those patients in the hospice unit than those in general units. Regarding the major medical interventions, pain management was used more significantly for those patients in the hospice unit, but antibiotic therapy and resuscitation were used more significantly for those patients in general units. CONCLUSION The hospice unit provided more comprehensive nursing interventions including psychological, spiritual, and family cares as well as physiological care for terminal cancer patients. The facts showed that those patients who would need hospice care in general units should be referred to the hospice unit at an appropriate time.
PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to evaluate the selected nursing interventions and to describe the most common nursing interventions used by neurosurgery unit nurses. METHOD The data was collected from 65 nurses of 5 general hospitals from Jan. 8, 2001 to Feb. 28, 2001. The instrument for this study was the Korean translation of 486 nursing intervention classifications, developed by MacClosky and Bluecheck in 2000. In the 486 nursing interventions 310 nursing interventions were selected, 8 from among the 10 professional nurses group in the neurosurgery care unit. The 310 nursing interventions were used in a secondary questionnaire. In the secondary questionnaire, all 310 intervention lables and definitions were listed. The data was analysed with SPSS program. RESULT The results of this study are as follows. 1.The most frequently used nursing intervention domains were "physiological: complex", "physiological: basic", "Health system", "Behavior", "Safety", "Family". 2.Neurosurgery care unit core nursing interventions were performed several times a day by 50% or more of the Neurosurgery care unit. Neurosurgery core nursing intervention, 5 domain ("physiological: complex", "physiological: basic", "Health system", "Safety", "Behavior"), 16 class, 48 core nursing intervention. The most frequently used Neurosurgery core nursing interventions were Intravenous Therapy, Pressure ulcer prevention, Documentation, Airway suctioning, Medication: intravenous, Pain management, Medication: intramuscular, Shift report, Intravenous insertion, Positioning, Aspiration precaution, Pressure management, Physician support, Pressure ulcer care. 3.Compared with carrier and age of nurses, the more effective nursing interventions were "Family", Compared with the nursing place and the use of nursing interventions of nurses the most effective nursing interventions were "Health system" performed by nurse in university hospital. CONCLUSION The purpose of this study was to analysis the nursing intervention performed by neurosurgery unit nurses. This study analyses nursing intervention and core nursing interventions performed by neurosurgery unit nurses. Basis on this study result, neurosurgery nursing interventions will be systematized, and progression of qualitative nursing, data of computerized nusing information system will be utilized.
The purpose of the study was to investigate the characteristics of the clients registered in the department of home health care nursing in a hospital and to analyze nursing intervention activities recorded in charts by application of Nursing Intervention Classification (NIC) system. For the descriptive survey study, data were collected by reviewing charts of 572 home health care clients between May, 1997 and July, 2000 at K hospital in Seoul. The average age of the clients was 66 years and the number of clients in their 70s ranked first with 28.2 percent(158 people). The mean length of home care service was 47 days with the highest frequency of less than four weeks (56 %). With regard to medical diagnosis, cancer showed the highest frequency (48%, 271 people), followed by cerebrovascular disease (19%), and pulmonary disease (6.9%). According to analysis of nursing interventions by the NIC system, the most frequently used nursing interventions in level 1 were interventions in the Physiological: Complex domain which were used 3,663 times (33%) among 11,107 total interventions. The Safety domain was the second most frequently used intervention, followed by the Physiological: Basic, and the Behavioral domains. In level 2, the Risk Management class was the most frequently used interventions with 3,108 interventions (27.9%), followed by Drug Management, and Tissue Perfusion Management classes. In level 3 interventions, Vital Sign Monitoring was the most frequently used intervention, 569 times (5.1%), followed by Health Screening, and Neurological Monitoring interventions. In sum, half of the clients in the study had cancer and were in their 70s. The most frequent reason for ending home care was death (40%), followed by readmission (28%). These findings represent clients with severe conditions referred to the home care nursing department as it was a University teaching hospital. Further research on analyzing nursing interventions performed in each institution needs to be conducted to develop a standardized list of nursing interventions to use in home health care settings.