Physical and Psychospiritual Care Need by End-of-life Stages among Non-cancer Patient at Home: Based on the Importance and Difficulty of Care Need

Abstract

Purpose: This study was conducted to assess needs at each end-of-life care stage and to analyze importance and difficulty of care needs for home care nursing among non-cancer patients. Methods: We used a retrospective design. Total eligible patients were 117 at the ages of 40 and over, who continuously received home care nursing throughout beginning, stable, and near death stages, and finally died at home from January 1, 2006 to December 31, 2006. Descriptive statistics, Cochran's Q test, Friedman's test were used for data analysis. Results: In the area of physical care, the care need for 'assistance for activities in daily life' was significantly highest in the beginning stage. The care need for 'aggravation or adverse changes in physical symptoms' was significantly increased in the near death stage. In the area of psychospiritual care, 'family's psychological burden' was revealed as having the highest rate of care needs in the every stage. Conclusion: Future intervention should consider assessing care needs in end-of-life care for non-cancer patients who are provided with home care nursing.

End‐of‐life care needs for noncancer patients who want to die at home in South Korea

“…These problems could be, however, due to the severity of patient conditions rather than the simple difference between cancer and noncancer patients. This was supported by Lee and Kim (2012), who reported that the basic needs related to "assistance for daily life activities" are high for noncancer patients who are at the beginning of the end-of-life stage, and that the need for nursing due to "deterioration of physical symptoms" increases as the patient approaches death. In this study, however, "supporting fundamental needs" was found to be high for patients as their severity increased.…”