The purpose of this descriptive study was to identify the homecare needs of patients with cancer and to provide a basis of interventions. One hundred and two patients at one general hospital in Gyeongnam responded to a questionnaire developed on the basis of care needs perceived by nurse caring for hospitalized patients with cancer. The questionnaire was a Likert type 5 point scale with 56 items on five need categories ; 1) informational 2) physical care 3) emotional care 4) socioeconomic care and 5) special care needs. Internal consistency of this questionnaire was Cronbach's alpha=.9101 for total items. The data was collected from March 1st to May 31th, 1998, by tow graduate nurses. In the data analysis, mean & standard deviation were calculated to identify the degree of care need of each item, and the t-test & ANOVA were done to determine the effects of patients' demographic background on their care needs. The findings are summarized as follows ; 1) The mean score of total of need items was 3.048. Of the four need categories the highest score was informational at 3.4, followed by emotional care, 3.063, physical care, 2.623, and socioeconomic care, 2.599. 2) In the informational and category there were four subcategories with 19 items. Medication and pain control had the highest score, 3.755 ; second was diet and exercise, 3.613 ; third was disease and treatment process, 3.337 ; and last was personal hygiene and infection prevention at 2.687. 3) In the physical care need category there was nine items, IV infusion for nutrition and management of treatment complication was above 3.2 points and the remaining items were in the 2.847-2.070 score ranges. 4) In the emotional care need category there were seven items. The highest need was in support for relationships with health personnel, 3.673. The need for support of religions beliefs and support fir having a religion were low at about 2 points. 5) In the socioeconomic care need category there were six items. Support for medical insurance expansion and financial support were above 3 points. Legal support and support for caring of children were low in the care needs. 6) In the special care need category the there were 15 items. Informational need about immunization and informational need about effects of disease on growth and development were high, above 4.1 points. Need for decubitus care and prevention, sitz bath and incontinence care were low, below 2 points. 7) There were significant differences in degree of care need according to admission rate, education level, marital status, religion and caregiver's religion. In conclusion, homecare needs perceived by hospitalized patient's with cancer was moderate, but informational need was higher than direct care needs, leading to the conclusion that the provision of sufficient information to patients with cancer at discharge is needed. Nursing interventions should be developed considering the patient's background.

The purpose of this descriptive study was to identify th homecare needs of the discharged patient with cancer as perceived by nurses caring hospitalized cancer patients. At two hospitals in Gyeognam, 74 nurse responded to an open-ended questionnaire consisting of four need categories; 1) educational and information need, 2) physical need, 3) emotional need, 4) social need. Respondents were asked to list above ten needs of cancer patient in each category. Two researchers analyzed the data by content analysis method. The finds are summarized as follows; 1) A total of 1,417 need items were generated by nurses. The largest number of needs were in the educational and information need category(475 items, 36.3%). Physical (414 items, 31.6%), emotional (237 items ,18.1%) need were the second, third largest, and social(184 items, 14.0%) need made up the smallest category. 2) In the educational and informational need category, there were seven subcategories of prognosis, diet and exercise, medication and pain, wound care, folk remedy, personal hygiene, comfort. The need items related to prognosis of cancer accounted for almost a half(48.2%) of the total. 3) In the physical need category, there were ten subcategories of personal hygiene, skin and tissue, nutrition, side effect on treatment, exercise, pain, elimination, equipment, comfort and safety, others. The largest number of needs were in subcategory of the personal hygiene982 items, 19.8%). 4) In the emotional need category, there were four subcategories of emotional support related to disease, emotional support related to routine life, spiritual support, maintenance of relationship with nurse and doctor. The largest number of need were in subcategory of the emotional support related to disease(96 item, 40.5%). 5) In the social need category, there were five subcategories of support for social life, household management, legal support, the use of volunteer service, financial support. The largest number of needs were in support for social life subcategory(58 item, 31.5%).