Influences of self-rated knowledge and attitudes among physicians and nurses regarding hospice palliative care were assessed in a central Taiwan medical center. More than 85% of nurses favored disclosing prognoses to terminally ill patients, compared with 78% of physicians (P＜0.05). More than 95% of nurses favored payment for hospice care by National Health Insurance, compared with 88.5% of physicians (P＜0.05). More than 95% of nurses favored institutionalizing formal hospice palliative care curricula in medical schools (P＜0.05). Only 55.1% of nurses and 56.5% of physicians were willing to volunteer for hospice palliative care, possibly due to their busy life styles or because terminally ill patients and their families require more time and energy than other patients. Only 43.7% of nurses and 45.5% of physicians were willing to care for terminally ill patients, perhaps because Taiwanese are traditionally unwilling to deal with anything concerned with or near death.
Aims and objectives. To assess the effects of respiratory training on lung function, activity tolerance and quality of life in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Background. For patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, pulmonary rehabilitation can increase activity tolerance and improve their psychological state by relieving dyspnoea and promoting their quality of life. Design. A randomised clinical trial was conducted in a local hospital. Methods. Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease were randomly assigned to intervention ( n = 20) and control groups ( n = 20). Spirometry, six‐minute walking distance and quality of life were used to assess the efficacy of respiratory training programme. Results. Significant improvement in lung function, including forced vital capacity ( p = 0·037), forced expiratory volume in one‐second ( p = 0·006) and per cent predicted forced expiratory volume in one‐second ( p = 0·008) in the intervention group. Regarding efficacy of the training programme for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, in forced expiratory volume in one‐second ( p = 0·024) and per cent predicted forced expiratory volume in one‐second ( p = 0·035), six‐minute walking distance significantly increased. In addition, there were significant improvements for symptoms ( p = 0·018), impact ( p < 0·001) and total quality of life scores ( p < 0·001), as well as significantly decreased body mass, airflow obstruction, dyspnoea and exercise capacity index ( p = 0·004) in the intervention group. Conclusions. A respiratory training programme for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease was found to relieve dyspnoea, maintain lung function, increase activity tolerance and improve quality of life. Relevance to clinical practice. Respiratory training programme can be used as a routine rehabilitation protocol for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and can be used by nurses as a reference to monitor chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients’ health status.
Aims. To assess the effects of exercise intervention on nurses’ health‐related physical fitness. Background. Regular exercise that includes gymnastics or aerobics has a positive effect on fitness. In Taiwan, there are not much data which assess the effects of exercise intervention on nurses’ health‐related physical fitness. Many studies have reported the high incidence of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) in nurses However, there has been limited research on intervention programs that are designed to improve the general physical fitness of nurses. Design. A quasi‐experimental study was conducted at a medical centre in central Taiwan. Methods. Ninety nurses from five different units of a hospital volunteered to participate in this study and participated in an experimental group and a control group. The experimental group engaged in a three‐month intervention program consisting of treadmill exercise. Indicators of the health‐related physical fitness of both groups were established and assessed before and after the intervention. Results. Before intervention, the control group had significantly better grasp strength, flexibility and durability of abdominal muscles than the experimental group ( p < 0·05). After the intervention, logistic regression was used to adjust for marital status, work duration, regular exercise and workload and found that the experimental group performed significantly better ( p < 0·05) on body mass index, grasp strength, flexibility, durability of abdominal and back muscles and cardiopulmonary function. Conclusions. This study demonstrates that the development and implementation of an intervention program can promote and improve the health‐related physical fitness of nurses. Relevance to clinical practice. It is suggested that nurses engage in an exercise program while in the workplace to lower the risk of MSDs and to promote working efficiency.
The purpose of this study was to examine the influences of psychological well-being, quality of caregiver-patient relationship, and family support on the health of family caregivers for cancer patients in a Taiwanese hospital.A cross-sectional, correlational design was used. A sample of 91 family caregivers of hospitalized cancer patients completed the Caregiver Reaction Assessment and Psychological Well-Being Scale. Pearson's product moment correlation and regression analyses were used to examine the data.The psychological well-being and the quality of the caregiver-patient relationship of family caregivers were found to be significantly positively correlated with caregivers' health. The lack of family support was found to be significantly negatively correlated with caregivers' health. Psychological well-being, quality of caregiver-patient relationship, and family support accounted for 59% of the variance in caregivers' health.The findings suggest that nurses, while providing care in the hospital and upon discharge need to be aware of the psychological well-being, quality of caregiver-patient relationship, and family support of a family caregiver, as these factors all have an impact on a family caregiver' health.
Taiwan was a hyperendemic area for hepatitis A virus (HAV) infection before the late 1980s. The seroprevalence of HAV infection was higher than 90% with most HAV infection occurring during childhood. This study was to estimate the seroprevalence of HAV infection among preschool children in central Taiwan. A community-based survey was carried out in 54 kindergartens in 10 urban areas, 10 rural areas and 2 aboriginal areas randomly selected through stratified sampling. Serum samples of 2,549 healthy preschool children and 104 teachers in study kindergartens were screened for the HAV antibodies (anti-HAV) by means of a commercially available microparticle enzyme immunoassay (AxSYM HAVAB). Among aboriginal kindergarten children, more than 96% of them were anti-HAV seropositive due to a mass HAV vaccination program. In urban and rural areas, kindergarten children had a very low prevalence of anti-HAV (0.4%) in contrast to a high seroprevalence in their teachers (78%). There was no gender difference in seroprevalence of anti-HAV, while the anti-HAV seroprevalence was significantly higher in urban areas than in rural areas. Crowdedness of living in urban areas might facilitate the person-to-person transmission of infectious agents.
Abstract This study extends the understanding of involution palindrome words. The involution is an antimorphic function concerning the Watson-Crick complementarity. Some algebraic properties of skew involution palindrome words and weak involution palindrome languages are studied. The characteristics of involution palindrome-preserving homomorphisms are also investigated in this paper. Keywords: Antimorphic involutionprimitive wordhomomorphism
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