Abstract Predictors of End-of-Life Care Intention among Long Term Care Service Care Workers As the elderly population increases, personal and social interests in and demands on the mature end-of-life culture are increasing globally. While the elde... Abstract Predictors of End-of-Life Care Intention among Long Term Care Service Care Workers As the elderly population increases, personal and social interests in and demands on the mature end-of-life culture are increasing globally. While the elderly who spend their end-of-life in the long term care facilities have been the subject of popular research, the care workers who profoundly affect the quality of death for those in long term care service (LTC) have not been the proportional or rather insignificant subject in research. This study was to provide the basic data in order to prepare for the hospice palliative care policy and practical method for the LTC care workers clarifying the level and predictors of care worker's end-of-life care intention. This study was conducted with 206 care workers self- in the structured questionnaire tailored to the research objective prepared through the literature review. The 206 subjects who enrolled in the elderly LTC facilities located in 'C' City 'C' Province and provided the care service were selected by nonprobability convenience sampling. The collected data was analyzed with the frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation, ANOVA or t-test, Pearson's correlation analysis, and hierarchical multiple regression analysis using SPSS/WIN 22.0. The results are as follows. First, as for the socio-demographical characteristics of the 206 subjects, 50~59 years old took as 128 persons(62.1%) most by age distribution, the high school diploma took as 99 persons(48.1%) most by academic degree, 'exist' took 79.1% by existence of religion, and 'exist' took 83.5% by existence of spouse. As for the characteristics of general factors in the end-of-life care, 5 years or more of service career took 74 persons(35.9%) most, and 'not exist' took 53.4% by existence of participating end-of-life care training. The 'yes' took 86.4% by existence of recognition for the care worker's right of self determination, 'moderate intensity' took 45.6% most by cognitive degree of necessity for the end-of-life care, 'moderate intensity' took 36.9% most by cognitive degree of accountability for the end-of-life care, and 'no idea' took 53.4% by existence of cognition in the care worker's advance directives. The 'not exist' took 59.7% by existence of experiencing end-of-life care. Second, as a result of examining the level of major variables of the subjects, the grade point average of recognizing end-of-life care was average 3.0±0.28 out of full 4 scores, and the affective·philosophical domain among the subdomains corresponded to the highest value, and followed by necessity of promotion and education, contents of service, object, ethical and psychological domain in order. In addition, the perceived health status was 3.80±0.52 out of full 5 scores, and the physical health status among the subdomains corresponded to the highest value as 3.90±0.59, and followed by spiritual health status domain, mental health status domain, and social health status domain in order. The cognitive degree of necessity grade point average for the end-of-life care was 3.78±1.05 out of full 5 scores, and the cognitive degree of accountability grade point average for the end-of-life care was 3.46±1.11 out of full 5 scores. Third, as a result of analyzing the degree of socio-demographical factors, end-of-life care general factors, and degree of end-of-life care intention for the expertise factors of end-of-life care of the subjects, this study has found out that the existence of recognizing the right of self determination, end-of-life care cognitive degree of necessity, end-of-life care cognitive degree of accountability, and experience of end-of-life care showed statistically significant difference, and that the existence of religion had statistically significant trend. Fourth, as a result of analyzing the correlation among the recognition of end-of-life care, perceived health status, and end-of-life care intention, this study has shown that there was positive relationship in the recognition of end-of-life care, but there was no significant relationship in the perceived health status. However, the only physical health status among the subdomains of perceived health status showed the negative relationship. Fifth, as a result of conducting the hierarchical multiple regression analysis in order to investigate the factors which affected the end-of-life care intention, this study has shown that the recognition of end-of-life care, existence of experiencing end-of-life care, physical health status, end-of-life care cognitive degree of necessity, and end-of-life care cognitive degree of accountability had statistically significant effect. Based on these research findings, to improve the recognition of end-of-life care which affected the LTC care worker's end-of-life care intention, this researcher suggests that it needs to prepare for the systematic educational program related to the end-of-life care and include it in the compulsory continuous education. In addition, this researcher suggest that it needs to create an opportunity of motivation in order to become good quality of end-of-life care by presenting the careg worker's necessity of end-of-life care and cognition of responsibility for end-of-life care.
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