This study was performed to identify the effect of the auricular acupressure on pruritus and fatigue in hemodialysis patients. The study design was a randomized control group pre-post test.
Forty-four patients were randomly assigned to suitable inclusion criteria from a hemodialysis unit of university hospital at K province and hemodialysis special hospital at D city yet 3 patients from experimental group were dropped out therefore the total subjects were 19 patients on experimental group and 22 patients on control group. The preliminary study were conducted from September 4th to 25th in 2014 and the period of this study were from December 27th in 2014 to March 28th in 2015.
The tools for pruritus were used which was developed by Mathur, et. al [32] for hemodialysis patients with uremic pruritus through translation and reverse translation process by this study researcher, two nursing professors, and preliminary study. The fatigue was measured by Choi [35] fatigue tool of multidimensional scale which was originally developed by Tack [34] and modified and revised by Choi [35].
The data were collected after pre-test on both group and to apply for auricular acupressure one time a week for 10 weeks and performed the post-test after 5 weeks and 10 weeks on experimental group. There were no treatment on control group and performed the post-test at 5 weeks and 10 weeks.
Data analysis were performed using IBM SPSS Statistics 21.0 program with the number, percentage, mean, standard deviation, Cronbach''s α, χ2-test, Fisher''s exact probability test, independent t-test, and Repeated Measures of ANOVA.

The results of this study are as follows:

1) The first hypothesis: ‘The experimental group with auricular acupressure on pruritus intensity will be lower than control group without auricular acupressure’ There were statistically significant on all of six sub-hypotheses therefore, the first hypothesis was supported.
Namely, there were statistically significant on interaction of both group, time, pruritus intensity before hemodialysis (F=13.93, p<.001), daytime pruritus intensity (F=12.90, p<.001), night time pruritus intensity (F=17.03, p<.001), normal life disturbance due to pruritus (F=22.42, p<.001), sleep quantity during the night time (F=5.08, p=.008), and sleep disturbance due to pruritus (F=16.77, p<.001).
2) The second hypothesis: ‘The experimental group with auricular acupressure on fatigue will be lower than control group without auricular acupressure’ There were statistically significant on time interval for measurement and reciprocal interaction (F=18.33, p<.001) between experimental and control group. The second hypothesis was supported.

According to this results, the auricular acupressure was proven positive effect on pruritus and fatigue in hemodialysis patients. Therefore the auricular acupressure which is non-invasive and simple method can be used for relieving of symptoms in chronic illness patients and expect to use by clinical setting and community nurse for extending independent nursing area.

There are suggestions based on this results.

1) It is suggested to develop tailored auricular acupressure program for applying period, frequency and symptoms with subject and identify for the further research of the effect after applying the program.
2) It is suggested to further research to prove the effect of auricular acupressure to apply various subjects with pruritus and fatigue.
3) It is suggested to repeat study to determine the lasting effects after applying auricular acupressure.