End of Life Care Competencies and Terminal Care Stress of Nurses in Long Term Care Hospitals / 한국호스피스완화의료학회지

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between end of life care competencies and terminal care stress of nurses in long term care hospitals. METHODS: For this study, 140 nurses were sampled among those that have over 6-month end of life care experience and were working at long term care hospitals located in A city and C city of Chungcheongnam-do. Using a questionnaire, data were collected from January 2018 through March 2018. Data were analyzed using the SPSS, Windows version 21.0, according to the purpose of the study and analyzed by descriptive statistics, t-test, one way ANOVA, Schéffe's test, and Pearson's correlation coefficient. RESULTS: The mean score on terminal care stress of nurses was above the normal level. The scores on end of life care competencies significantly varied by age, total career at hospitals, death/hospice and palliative care education, and bereavement experience. The mean score of end of life care competencies was negatively correlated with the mean score of lack of knowledge and skills among the sub-items of the terminal care stress category (r=−0.260, P=0.002). CONCLUSION: To decrease the terminal care stress of long term care hospital nurses, it is suggested to carry out end of life care education tailored to nurses' characteristics.

Functional Studies of Acyl-CoA Synthetase 4 in the Rat Liver

Acyl-CoA synthetase 4 (ACS4) is an arachidonate-preferring enzyme abundant in steroidogenic tissues. We examined ACS4 in rat liver, which contains a variety of pathways that use acyl-CoAs, in order to determine subcellular locations. We demonstrate that ACS4 protein was present most abundantly in the mitochondria and to a much lesser extent in the peroxisomes and microsomes. To determined the dietary effects on the level of ACS4 mRNA, northern blotting was carried out using total RNA from the livers of adult male rats fed various diets. Fasting, high fat diet, and fat-free high sucrose diet increased the hepatic level of ACS4 mRNA approximately 2-fold. Furthermore, the levels of ACS4 mRNA were induced by DEHP[Di- (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate]. These data suggest that ACS4 expression in the liver is regulated with a variety of pathways, including beta-oxidation, hormone, and insulin.