Hospice care compliance of nurses working at a hospice ward in Korea

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the hospice care compliance of nurses working at a hospice ward and provide meaningful data to improve the hospice care compliances. Methods: Participants included 104 nurses working at the hospice ward of the hospital located at P and D cities. Data was collected from February to March 2012. The level of hospice care compliance was measured using Bae (2000)’s questionnaires. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, t-test, one-way ANOVA and Scheffè test using SPSS/WIN 18.0 program. Results: The level of hospice care compliance in hospice nurses working at a hospice ward was high (3.25 out of 4). In hospice care compliance, the physical area was highest, followed by the emotional, spiritual, and social areas. Hospice care compliance was significantly different according to age, marital status, education, religion, importance of religion, job position, job satisfaction and life satisfaction. Hospice care compliance was also significantly different according to the nurses’ experience of death, having license or certification related to hospice care and experiences related to clients’ death. Conclusions: The findings of this study showed that the level of hospice care compliance was high and the hospice care compliance in South Korea was primarily focused on physical care. Considering that spiritual needs are important needs in hospice clients, hospice nurses need to focus on those aspects more. To improve the quality of hospice care compliance in the hospice nurses, programs to increase hospice nurses’ job and life satisfaction are needed. KEYWORDS Hospice Care; Compliance; Nurses