Professional Quality of Life and Clinical Competencies among Korean Nurses

PURPOSE: Clinical competence among nurses is an essential requirement for the provision of safe and effective patient care. This study aims to classify types of professional quality of life experienced by Korean nurses, and examine the relationship between demographic and professional characteristics and clinical competence among nurses experiencing each type. METHODS: A total of 335 nurses completed questionnaires assessing professional quality of life, clinical competence, and demographic and professional characteristics. Following identification of the underlying factors of professional quality of life, we classified participants into three clusters. RESULTS: There were significant differences in age, marital status, religion, educational status, and position between clusters. Results also revealed that nurses with high compassion satisfaction and low compassion fatigue (burnout, secondary traumatic stress) tended to have higher clinical competence. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated that it is possible to directly examine the relationship between professional quality of life level and clinical competence among nurses. Thus, interventions to increase nurses' compassion satisfaction and relieve compassion fatigue are needed, as professional quality of life may affect clinical competence.

Factors affecting the Fatigue of Hospitalized Women Cancer Patients Receiving Chemotherapy

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify factors that influence fatigue in hospitalized women cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. METHODS: The participants were 117 women cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. The instruments used in this study were physical symptoms, mood state, family support, and fatigue scales for patients with cancer. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficients and multiple regression with the IBM SPSS 19.0 program. RESULTS: Fatigue showed significant correlation with physical symptoms such as side effects as well as sub-elements of mood status such as anxiety-depression, vitality, anger and family support. Fatigue-anticipating variables were found to be some sub-elements of mood state such as anxiety-depression (beta=.61, t=10.40, p<.001), digestion organ factor (beta=.78, t=2.54, p=.013) and pain/fatigue factor (beta=.86, t=0.43, p=.045). The total variance explained was 69.7%. CONCLUSION: These results showed that the factors affecting fatigue were physical symptoms, and the mood state of hospitalized women cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. The results of this study provided basic materials for a nursing intervention program to reduce fatigue.

Quality of Life in Colorectal Cancer Patients according to the Severity of Symptom Clusters Classification

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study to verify the symptom clusters of colorectal cancer patients and also identify the influence of the symptom clusters upon colorectal patient symptom clusters identify acording exper. METHODS: 101 colorectal cancer patients were the subjects of this study. As for a research tool, the global health status/QOL was used including the sub-scales of QLQ-C30. In the functional scales and the symptom scales, the sub-scales of QLQ-C30 and QLQ-CR29 were used. Results: The result of this study shows us there are 7 kinds of symptom clusters. RESULTS: The result of this study shows us there are 7 kinds of symptom clusters, bowel movement problems, abdominal-pelvic problems, feces problems, urination problems, dry mouth-taste problems, side effect problems, and elimination problems. CONCLUSION: Based on the result, the symptom clusters in colorectal cancer patients were confirmed to be influencing the subjects' quality of life and functions. The efficient management of symptom clusters that subjects experience leads to promoting colorectal cancer patients' physical and emotional status, thereby contributing to an improvement in their quality of life.