Abstract

This study was conducted to test the validity of characteristics of family nursing phenomena in Korea identified in a previous study by Yoon, S. Y, et al.(1999). Data for this study were collected from 355 (first measurement 186, second measurement 169) nurses whose family nursing careers were more than one year using a cross sectional survey method. The distribution per one characteristic ranged between 0 to 5. The phenomena that had two or more characteristics and had a score of 3.0 points or more included 'disturbance in marital role', 'disturbance in family communication', 'inappropriate family coping', 'lack of family intimacy', 'unhealthy life style', 'deficit of financial management skill and support', 'inadequate care management sick member', and 'inadequate home-making'. The essential characteristics of the 8 phenomena presented above included 27 items. Further studies on family nursing phenomena in Korea are needed to support the evidence through surveys of families in the field. A reconfirmation study, as well as qualitative research on the low validity of the characteristics, needs to be more performed in the future.