Palliative Care Competencies Required of Undergraduate Nursing Students in Korea / 한국호스피스완화의료학회지

A resolution adopted by the World Health Assembly in 2014 stated that all nurses should be equipped with palliative care skills in order to integrate palliative care into a day-to-day healthcare system. This article introduces the palliative nursing competency that was developed for the Korean environment by the Korean Hospice Palliative Nursing Research Network based on its study of overseas cases where this competency and competency-based training were developed. This is the first step towards the development of competency-based palliative nursing education, and active efforts should be made to integrate this competency into the undergraduate nursing curriculum.

Reliability and Validity of an Instrument Assessing Spiritual Needs of Families of Terminal Cancer Patients / 한국호스피스완화의료학회지

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to test the reliability and validity of an instrument that measures spiritual needs of families of terminal cancer patients. METHODS: This methodological study was processed as follows: 1) The preliminary 26 items were developed based a conceptual framework of spiritual needs of families of patients with cancer. 2) The content was validated by an expert panel (Three nursing professors and five hospice nursing specialists). 3) The instrument was validated by a survey (n=111). 4) Twenty-six items were selected and used for the final version of the scale. RESULTS: Three factors were extracted through factor analysis: ‘relationship with God/Acceptance of dying’, ‘recovery of relationship/hope and peace’, and ‘meaning and purpose of life’. These factors explained 61.088% of the total variance. Cronbach's alpha and Guttman split-half coefficient of the 26 items were 0.944 and 0.826 respectively. CONCLUSION: This scale was identified as a valid and reliable tool. Therefore, the scale is useful in assessing spiritual needs of families of terminal cancer patients in the field of hospice and palliative care.