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The Effects of South Korean Social Workers' Professional Resources on their Understanding of a Patient's Right to End‐of‐Life Care Decisions in Long‐term Care Facilities
Author(s) -
Han Sooyoun
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
asian social work and policy review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.286
H-Index - 13
eISSN - 1753-1411
pISSN - 1753-1403
DOI - 10.1111/aswp.12090
Subject(s) - license , social work , medicine , long term care , professional development , psychology , nursing , family medicine , medical education , political science , law
The aims of this study were to examine South Korean social workers' understanding of a patient's right to end‐of‐life care decisions ( EOLCD ) in long‐term care facilities and to explore the effectiveness of their professional resources in their understanding of this issue. A survey was conducted of 297 social workers from multiple long‐term care facilities in South Korea using structured questionnaires and face‐to‐face interviews. A multiple regression model was used, controlling for gender and religion. The participants' professional resources were measured by years of work, license type, number of beds, knowledge of advanced directives, experience in the EOLCD process, and training. The results demonstrated that South Korean social workers' understanding of a patient's right to EOLCD was moderate (mean 3.46), and their general ( β = 0.576, P < 0.001) and medical knowledge ( β = 0.117, P < 0.001) of advance directives, experience in the EOLCD process ( β = 0.222, P < 0.001), and training ( β = 0.028, P < 0.001) positively and significantly increased their understanding of patient rights ( R 2 = 0.449, P < 0.001). The findings suggested that the development of academically supported and legally enforced standards and regulations for an EOLCD practice manual for long‐term‐care social workers would be beneficial.