The purpose of this study was to examine influential factors for the transition to college life and career identity of nursing students and what changes social support from parents brought about to them by academic year. The subjects in this study were 542 selected students who majored in nursing in four-year universities located in Seoul and the provinces. A self-administered survey was conducted to find out their general characteristics, social support from fathers and mothers, college adjustment and career identity. A hierarchical regression analysis was made to determine how social support from parents affected the college adjustment and career identity of the nursing students. Social support from parents had an impact on their college adjustment and career identity. The factors that affected college adjustment were academic year, satisfaction level with major and emotional support from mothers, and the factors that impacted on career identity were academic year, satisfaction level with major and informative support from fathers. In order to facilitate the college adjustment of nursing students, professors should try to develop efficient learning methods, meet with parents to inform them of the necessity of social support, share information on the major field of study and learning methods, and provide an opportunity for students to communicate with graduates or students who are years ahead of them in college so that they could have a better understanding of majoring in nursing.

Few studies of death preparation in South Korea are available. This article describes South Koreans’ experiences of death and a funeral in a hospital setting to improve health care providers’ ability to care for dying patients and their family. Using Colaizzi’s phenomenological method, we conducted semistructured interviews with 40 South Koreans who had lost a family member in a hospital setting. Participants’ statements were classified into 12 themes, 5 theme clusters, and 3 categories: (a) vagueness of funeral culture, (b) distortion of meaning in funeral culture, and (c) the need to prepare for death and process grief. Our findings are relevant to hospital-based health care providers who care for dying patients and their family. Targeted educational information could help health care providers better serve patients and family. Policy changes could improve quality of care by allowing health care providers to transition with the family from hospital units to a hospital-based funeral setting.