Abstract
Background: Renal transplant patients are lower chances of receiving transplants, thus the dream of a relatively normal, healthy life is often dependent upon good fortune. In order to avoid organ rejection patients are required to adhere to a comprehensive regime of immunosuppressant medication. This raises worries about the side effects of the medication and the possibility that their bodies will reject the transplanted organ. Aim: The purpose of this study is to delineate the quality of life and physical symptom distress for renal transplant patients. Methods: This is a cross-sectional descriptive research study. Convenience sampling was used to recruit renal transplant from one medical center hospital in northern Taiwan. The study instruments employed were WHO QOL-BREF and ”Physical Symptom Distress Scale” Results: Statistically significant differences appeared for the following variables: employment status and financial status. The total scores for quality of life was 98.5±12.86. The major physical symptom was fatigue. Physical symptom distress was negatively correlated with quality of life (r=-0.516, P＜.05), which means the more distress patients feel the bad quality of life they were. Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that nurses should establish a support group of peers undergoing renal transplantation as a means of sharing feelings concerning the treatments is an important way to improve patients' quality of life.
| Original language | Chinese (Traditional) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 23-31 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | 領導護理 |
| Volume | 7 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Publication status | Published - 2006 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- renal transplantation
- quality of life
- physical symptom distress