This study aimed to identify and compare hospice care research topics between Korean and international nursing studies using text network analysis.

The study was conducted in four steps: 1) collecting abstracts of relevant journal articles, 2) extracting and cleaning keywords (semantic morphemes) from the abstracts, 3) developing co-occurrence matrices and text-networks of keywords, and 4) analyzing network-related measures including degree centrality, closeness centrality, betweenness centrality, and clustering using the NetMiner program. Abstracts from 347 Korean and 1,926 international studies for the period of 1998–2016 were analyzed.

Between Korean and international studies, six of the most important core keywords-“hospice,” “patient,” “death,” “RNs,” “care,” and “family”-were common, whereas “cancer” from Korean studies and “palliative care” from international studies ranked more highly. Keywords such as “attitude,” “spirituality,” “life,” “effect,” and “meaning” for Korean studies and “communication,” “treatment,” “USA,” and “doctor” for international studies uniquely emerged as core keywords in recent studies (2011~2016). Five subtopic groups each were identified from Korean and international studies. Two common subtopics were “hospice palliative care and volunteers” and “cancer patients.”

For a better quality of hospice care in Korea, it is recommended that nursing researchers focus on study topics of patients with non-cancer disease, children and family, communication, and pain and symptom management.

This aim of this phenomenological study was to describe and understand the experience of spiritual conflict in hospice nurses by identifying the meanings and structures of the experience.

Participants were 12 nurses working for one year or more at hospice units of general hospitals in a metropolitan city and experiencing of spiritual conflict as hospice nurses. Over six months data were collected using individual in-depth interviews and analyzed with the method suggested by Colaizzi.

The experience of spiritual conflict in participants was organized into three categories, six theme-clusters, and 13 themes. The participants felt existential anxiety on death and a fear of death which is out of human control and skepticism for real facts of human beings facing death. They also experienced agitation of fundamental beliefs about life with agitation of the philosophy of life guiding themselves and mental distress due to fundamental questions that are difficult to answer. Also they had distress about poor spiritual care with guilty feelings from neglecting patients' spiritual needs and difficulties in spiritual care due to lack of practical competencies.

Findings indicate the experience of spiritual conflict in hospice nurses is mainly associated with frequent experience of death in hospice patients. The experience of spiritual conflict consisted of existential anxiety, agitation of fundamental beliefs and distress over poor spiritual care. So, programs to help relieve anxiety, agitation and distress are necessary to prevent spiritual conflict and then spiritual burnout in hospice nurses.

The purpose of this study was to further understanding of the experience in acceptance of hospice by patients with terminal cancer and to explore the structure of this experience.

A phenomenological methodology was used for the study. Participants were nine patients who were admitted to the hospice unit of a university hospital. In-depth interviews were done for data collection and the data were analyzed using Colaizzi's method.

Four categories, eight theme clusters and 18 themes were identified for the experience in acceptance of hospice by patients with terminal cancer. The three categories were 'Hope for a comfortable death', 'Overcoming barrier of prejudice about hospice', 'Incessant craving for life', 'The last consideration for self and family'.

While accepting the hospice care, participants experienced inner conflict between giving up medical treatments that prolong life and choosing a comfortable death, and also experienced an incessant craving for life. By accepting hospice care, they showed a human dignity that entails careful concerns for both self and family members.

The purpose of this study was to develop and implement the Hospice Smart Patient Program and to evaluate its effectiveness.

It was quasi-experimental non-equivalent pre-post study. Breast cancer patients who underwent surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy, or who needed palliative care, participated in the study. Participants were divided into two groups, experimental and control groups based on their preferences. The program was developed after literature review and discussion among experts on hospice and palliative care. Participants who were in the experimental group received either face-to-face or phone 「Hospice Smart Patient」 Service at least once a week for 5 months.

There was a significant difference in quality of life and communication skill between the two groups after the service was provided. In addition, participants in experimental group showed improved decision making skills, mastery sense, and understanding of hospice and palliative care, which would be beneficial in improving their quality of life.

We have concluded that the 「Hospice Smart Patient」 Program is useful for cancer patients in decision making, improving self-control and choosing hospice care to improve their quality of life.