This study aimed to understand and describe the experiences of patients and their families who have received medical services from advanced practice nurses in tertiary general hospitals in Korea.

Data were collected through four focus group interviews with 20 patients and their families who had received medical services from advanced practice nurses for more than six months at four tertiary hospitals from November 29 to December 28, 2023. Verbatim transcripts were analyzed using qualitative content analysis.

The four themes extracted from the experiences of patients and their families were as follows: unfamiliar medical personnel encountered during the treatment process, healthcare professionals who exhibited excellence, companions to light my way through the tunnel of illness, and an advanced practice nurse system that must be activated urgently.

The study’s findings indicate that patients and their families view the care provided by advanced practice nurses as excellent, reliable, and holistic. Research suggests that advanced practice nurses are valuable healthcare professionals in team-based care. The findings suggest that hospitals should utilize an advanced practice nurse system to improve patient outcomes and ensure the quality of care.

The purpose of this study was to construct and test a structural equation model of self-management of liver transplant recipients based on self-determination theory.

Participants were 275 outpatients who received liver transplantation. A structured self-report questionnaire was used to assess health care providers’ autonomy support, transplant-related characteristics, illness consequence perception, autonomy, competence, family relatedness, depression and self-management. Collected data were analyzed using SPSS/WIN 24.0 and AMOS 24.0 program.

The modified model showed a good fitness with the data: GFI=.96, RMSEA=.06, CFI=.96, NFI=.93, TLI=.93, PGFI=.43, PNFI=.49. The health care providers’ autonomy support, competence, family relatedness and depression were factors with a direct influence on the self-management of liver transplant recipients. The health care providers’ autonomy support and illness consequence perception had an indirect influence through competence, family relatedness and depression. However, the transplant-related characteristics and autonomy did not have a significant effect on self-management. This model explained 59.4% of the variance in self-management.

The result suggests that continuous education must be done to promote the competence of liver transplant recipients and to encourage the patient to positively perceive their current health condition with a view that enhances one's self-management. Additionally, the liver transplant recipients should be screened for depression, which would affect self-management. Most of all, health care providers, who have the most influence on self-management, should improve therapeutic communication and try to form a therapeutic relationship with the liver transplant recipients.