호스피스자원봉사자의 영적안녕과 죽음에 대한 태도의 관계

Relationship between Spiritual W ell-Being and Attitudes toward Death in Volunteers for Hospice Care

This study has significance in examining in Volunteers for Hospice Care spiritual well-being and attitudes toward death and identifying their relationship to develop an educational program for hospice volunteers and provide basic data to improve the quality of hospice nursing. This is a descriptive correlation design in which 171 hospice volunteers working at eight hospitals in B Metropolitan City and P City participated. The instruments for spiritual well-being measuring tools was Ghang s (1996) revision and complement of the translation by Choe (1990) on the basis of the spiritual well-being scale developed by Paloutzian and Ellison (1983). The instruments for attitudes toward death was researches revision and complement of the translation by Park (1992) on the basis of the attitudes toward death Measuring Tool developed by Thorson and Powell (1988). Data were collected from July 1 through August 30, 2006； the researcher got permission from the chief of the relevant institution through a telephone call and a letter of asking assistance, explained objectives of the research to subjects personally and got their permission, and distributed structured questionnaires to make a response in a self-administered basis. An SPSS WINDOWS 12.0 program was used for data analysis, In conclusion, in Volunteers for Hospice Care spiritual well-being was relatively high and their attitudes toward death was relatively positive. The more higher spiritual well-being hospice volunteers had, the more positive attitudes toward death they showed. To help a hospice volunteer make a positive change in attitudes toward death, a nursing intervention program is necessary to improve spiritual well-being in consideration of relevant variables.