Journal of Community & Public Health Nursing
Open Access

Abstract

Patients with severe burns are often accompanied with physical, psychological, social, and occupational long-term impact and affect their quality of life. The study aimed to investigate the burn patients’ care needs and the quality of life after one year of the accident. 104 Taiwanese patients participated in structurally formulated questionnaires and cross-sectional study were used. Data were collected at a burn foundation from February 1 to December 31, 2016. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse and inferences using analysis of variance, Pearson correlation and multiple regression analyses. The research reveals that the patients are female (56.7%), unemployed or suspended from school (75%), and lived together with family members (79.8%). The patients’ average age was 23.6 years. 58.7% of them still had burn wounds. Overall, the average of satisfaction degree in one’s living quality before the accident occurred was 79.90±15.53, but one year after the accident, it decreased to 56.41±18.83. Furthermore, between the "important" and "satisfaction" aspects of items in the living quality scale also showed significant correlations. Besides, body symptoms were the main stresses of the patients. There was a moderate relationship between the patients stress and their quality of life, r=-.56, p < .01. Consequently, the social support needs of the patients was slightly related to the quality of life, r=.28, p < .01, but the patients especially needed “informative social support”. In order to help patients to develop better overall health, it is advisable for professionals to early detection barriers and to provide more rehabilitation services information.

Biography

Ting-Yuan Shiue is a Lecture and a clinical preceptor in psychiatric and mental health nursing under the Department of Nursing at Technology of Tzu Chi University, Taiwan. Ting-Yuan is currently pursuing Doctor of Philosophy at the Department of Nursing, College of Medicine, and National Taiwan University, Taiwan. Her research interest is public mental health. Especially is mental health care with a special emphasis on the patients and their main caregivers' well-being.

E-mail: tyshiue@gmail.com