Developing competencies for multidisciplinary hospice and palliative care professionals in Korea.

Purpose: Competency-based assessment helps to improve performance and to standardize education programs for hospice and palliative care professionals. This paper aims to report the process and results of developing the hospice and palliative care competencies by multidisciplinary experts in Korea.

Methods: The competency development task force team of Korean hospice and palliative care professionals was comprised of seven physicians, four nurses, two social workers, and two clergy.

Effects of an Internet-based intervention on plasma glucose levels in patients with type 2 diabetes.

This study applied a 12-week educational intervention that used both the cellular phone and the Internet to send short message service. Forty-two diabetic patients were asked to access a Web site by using a cellular phone or wire Internet and input their blood glucose levels every day. Patients were sent the optimal recommendations by both the cellular phone and the Internet.

Stress and coping strategies of patients with cancer. A Korean study.

Cancer is a potential life-threatening illness that engenders considerable psychologic distress, requiring persistent coping for the treatment procedures. In this cross-sectional descriptive study stress levels and coping strategies of 257 cancer patients residing in South Korea are addressed. Lazarus and Folkman's theory of stress and coping was used as the theoretical framework.