Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 護理學研究所 === 94 === The purpose of the study was to explore the health care for cancer children at terminal stage. Records of 40 children with cancer who died at a medical center in Taipei. Data were analysed by SPSS 12.0 for Windows software. The results can be summarized as followings:
1. Twenty-five(62.5%)of the forty children had aggressive treatment from the last hospitalization to the death. Seven(17.5%)of them had palliative care only.
2. The 65.0% of all children had been diagnosed as pneumonia while 57.5% of them had been diagnosed as sepsis. In our study, the mean (±SD)days of the last hospitalization was 54.53±48.23. 62.5% of all children had hospitalized over one month.
3. Records showed dyspnea(100.0%), fever(95.0%), bleeding (90.0%), tachycardia(87.5%), poor appetite(85.0%), pain/fatigue(82.5%), weakness/abdominal distension(80.0%), irritability/edema(75.0%) among these children.
4. The mean(±SD)number of signs and symptoms per patient in the last 61-90、29-60、22-28、15-21、8-14、1-7 day of life were 16.38±5.54、16.68±6.76、12.00±3.74、13.14±4.35、13.84±4.14、14.25±4.14 .
5. In this study, the days of last hospitalization and the total number of signs and symptoms per patient are positive correlation. The correlation coefficient is 0.84 .
Children who die of cancer receive aggressive treatment at the terminal stage. The signs and symptoms were suffering at the terminal stage in children with cancer. Greater attention must be paid to palliative care for children who are dying of cancer.
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