Anxiety, Dyspnea Management, and Quality of Life in Palliative Care Patients: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

AIM: This study aimed to determine the influence of nursing care grounded on Watson's Human Care Model on anxiety, dyspnea control, and life quality in palliative care patients. METHOD: A randomized controlled study was designed. It was conducted on 64 participants hospitalized in a training and research hospital and 2 state hospital palliative care services in Turkey. The data were collected face to face using the patient information form, the Beck Anxiety Scale, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, the Medical Research Council Dyspnea Scale, and the Short Form-36 Quality of Life Scale. RESULTS: It was detected that there was no statistically considerable difference in the median points of the Beck Anxiety Scale, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Medical Research Council Dyspnea Scale, and Short Form-36 domains between the two groups in the pretest. However, the posttest median points were remarkably lower and the posttest median points of the Short Form-36 scale were meaningfully higher in the intervention group (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Nursing care grounded on Human Care Model reduced the grade of anxiety and dyspnea in patients and raised their life quality.

Validity and Reliability of the Turkish Version of the Death Literacy Index.

Death literacy is defined as a set of knowledge and skills that make it possible to gain access to, understand, and act upon end-of-life and death care options. This study was conducted to test the validity and reliability of the 29-item original version of the Death Literacy Index (DLI) in Turkish society. The scale was applied on a sample of 436 Turkish adults determined using the snowball sampling method. Explanatory and confirmatory factor analyses were performed. The scale consisted of 6 subscales. The test-retest analysis of this study showed a strong and highly significant positive correlation between overall DLI (.98) and its subscales (.73-.98). The total Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficient of DLI was found to be .90. It was observed that the Turkish version of DLI was a valid and reliable tool and suitable for use in Turkish society.