Nursing interventions to promote dignified dying in South Korea

Purpose: This descriptive study aimed to assess the appropriateness of the International Classification for Nursing Practice (ICNP) catalogue Palliative Care for Dignified Dying for palliative care nursing interventions in South Korea. Methods: The study surveyed 213 South Korean nurses who might regularly care for dying patients. Nurses were recruited to complete a survey that included interventions from the ICNP catalogue listed with Likert response sets. Findings: All of the interventions were scored as being at least `slightly important' on average. The following three nursing interventions were ranked as most important when caring for dying patients: establish trust, establish rapport, and administer pain medication. Conclusions: The study provides new insights into the palliative care provided in South Korea by documenting nurses' views of what are the most important palliative care nursing interventions. It also suggests that the palliative care interventions listed in the ICNP catalogue Palliative Care for Dignified Dying are in congruence with the interventions that nurses in South Korea use.