This descriptive study was conducted to ascertain whether the needs of patients with cancer, their caregivers and their nurses changed according to the illness phases and if the perceived needs of the three groups were different for three categories of nursing needs. At two hospitals in Seoul and Choongnam, three groups of subjects, -patients with cancer(79), caregivers(92), and nurses(72)- responded to a questionnaire consisting of items on educational need(11 items), physical need(8 items), emotional need(9 items) using a 4-point Likert scale. The patients and caregivers were selected according to the phase of the cancer(initial, intermediate or recurred, terminal phases). Finding revealed that the level of perception and degree of satisfaction of the needs were low, just around two points in patients and caregivers. Of the three categories of needs, physical needs were received the highest score and the degree of satisfaction of physical needs was also the highest. There was no significant difference between the level of perception and satisfaction of needs in patients and caregivers according to the phases of the illness and the degree of per reception and the satisfaction of the patients were not significantly different and caregivers showed the same result. There was a significant difference in the level of importance of the needs of nurses according to the phases of the cancer. They perceived emotional needs were the most important in first phase and second phase, physical needs in third phase and the educational needs were more important in the first phase than in any other phase. The degree of importance of needs was significantly lower than the degree to which needs were addressed, according to the nurses response. In a comparison of patient and caregiver's perceived degrees of need, and need satisfaction, and nurse's perceived degree of need provision, patient and caregiver scores were lower than the nurses.

Cancer has been considered a life-threatening disease and coping patterns could have a string impact the physical and psychological health of patients and their family. The purpose of this study was to identify the change of coping patterns according to the phases of illness in the patients with cancer and their family caregivers and to compare the coping patterns of patients with those of their caregivers. The phases of illness consisted of 1st(initial) stage, 2nd(metastatic or recurred) stage and 3rd(terminal) stage based on literature. The coping methods were measured using the modified Ways of Coping Questionnaire by Lazarus and Folkman(1984). Seventy-nine patients(35 in stage 1,31 in stage 2, and 13 in stage 3) and ninety-two caregivers(38 in stage 1,30 in stage 2 and 24) agreed to participate from two general hospitals in Seoul and Choongnam. No significant changes were found in the coping patterns according to the phases of illness in both groups. Patients in stage 2 and caregivers in stages 2 and 3 problem-focused coping methods were significantly used more than emotion-focused coping methods. Patients in stage 1 significantly used two coping strategies that were cognitive reconstruction and emotion expression more than caregivers. Patents in stage 2 significantly used emotion-focused coping methods including minimizing threat, blame, and emotion expression excepting wishful thinking more than caregivers. We need more research to identify the relationship between the coping methods and their efficiencies through long-term observation and attempt to develop the nursing interventions that could have an improvement on positive coping methods and provide guidance on the problems the patients experience.