Terminal Care Stress, Job Satisfaction and Terminal Care Performance for Nurses in Internal Medicine Wards

Abstract

This study is aimed to investigate the relationship among terminal care stress, job satisfaction and terminal care performance nurses in internal medicine wards and to provide a basis to improve terminal care performance. Methods: This is a descriptive study performed with 201 nurses who have at least one year of experience and are stationed at the internal medicine department of three general hospitals and three university hospitals in P city of a metropolitan city B. The nurses also had an experience with a dying patient. Data were collected from March 1 through March 31, 2014. The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Kosin University. Results: Job satisfaction was negatively correlated with stress in end-of-life care (r=−212, P=0.003) and positively correlated with terminal care performance (r=0.383, P＜0.001). There was no correlation between terminal care stress and terminal care performance. Conclusion: Appropriate programs are needed to improve job satisfaction for high quality terminal care performance.

Relationship between End-of-Life Care Stress, Death Anxiety, and Self-Efficacy of Clinical Nurses in South Korea

“…Cancer is known to cause death following diagnosis and threaten a person's physical, social, and spiritual well-being. End-of-life is that part of life where a person is living with, and impaired by an eventually fatal condition, even if the prognosis is ambiguous or unknown [3,4]. End-of-life care combines the broad set of health and community services that care for the population at the end of their lives [2,3].…”

“…Thematic analysis of care at the end-of-life identified six main topics of interest, namely, uncertainty of treatment for patients at end-of-life, quality of life issues, costs, ethical and social issues, interaction between medical staff and other services, and strategies for out-of-hospital care [3]. Nurses who provide end-of-life care directly face internal problems and experience higher stress as a result of the excessive expectations of patients or caregivers regarding the progress of cancer treatment, repeated ideals, and disappointments in reality [4][5][6]. If the nurses providing end-of-life care do not have enough time to recharge due to the accumulation of physical and psychological stress, their health and well-being in daily life are impaired [4,7,8].…”

“…Nurses who provide end-of-life care directly face internal problems and experience higher stress as a result of the excessive expectations of patients or caregivers regarding the progress of cancer treatment, repeated ideals, and disappointments in reality [4][5][6]. If the nurses providing end-of-life care do not have enough time to recharge due to the accumulation of physical and psychological stress, their health and well-being in daily life are impaired [4,7,8]. In addition, they experience the burden, frustration, and depression of the patient who is struggling to face the moment of death and the family that has to let them go, as well as experiencing severe fear and anxiety about death to the extent that they avoid the patient's death [7][8][9][10].…”

Difficulties in End-of-Life Care and Educational Needs of Intensive Care Unit Nurses: A Mixed Methods Study

“…, 임종간호 스트레스 (7,(17)(18)(19), 임종간호수행에 미치는 영향 (8,16,19) No knowledge and skills to provide end-of-life care.…”

Validation of the Nurses’ Involvement in Dying Patients and Family Care-Korean Version

“…Since most nurses do not have a clear understanding of death, it has been reported that they feel frustration, sadness, fear, and pressure when they have to care for dying patients [ 7 - 9 ]. Sasahara et al [ 10 ] found that most nurses experienced difficulties in providing care for dying patients and did not have much knowledge about coping with death or dying.…”