Background: Recent changes in the medical environment have increased the need for the home health care nursing in Korea. Even though the number of home health care patients is increasing, the major nursing problems have not been identified due to lack of a standardized nursing diagnosis. Aim: An investigative study was conducted to determine the frequency and appropriateness of nursing problems in hospital-based home health care patients in Korea using two internationally standardized nursing diagnosis classification systems. Methods: Nursing records of 249 hospital-based home health care patients were reviewed and nursing problems were identified using the North American Nursing Diagnosis Association Nursing Diagnosis Taxonomy I (NANDA) and the Clinical Care Classification of Nursing Diagnoses (CCC). Findings: Out of 463 nursing problems. 403 nursing problems were described using the NANDA whereas 427 nursing problems were described using the CCC. Nursing diagnoses not captured by the NANDA classification include nausea/vomiting, anorexia, risk for nutrition deficit, decreased blood pressure, dying process, blood sugar impairment. infection unspecified, and disuse syndrome. Nursing diagnoses not captured by the CCC include nausea/vomiting and anorexia. Conclusions: In describing nursing problems of home health care patients, it was found that the CCC was able to represent more diagnoses than the NANDA.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the usability of a prototype personal digital assistant (PDA)-based decision support system for the management of obesity through usability testing with end-users (Advanced Practice Nurses [APNs]) prior to its implementation in clinical settings. Methods: This descriptive study used observational and think aloud techniques to address the research question: what usability problems are perceived by end-users? Five APNs were provided with the scenarios and the list of tasks to evaluate the application. Their verbalizations were recorded through Morae usabil ity software. Data analysis was based on the data captured through Morae, transcriptions, notes, and the end-user survey. Results: End-users completed all the required tasks without encountering a severe usability problem, and agreed that the system was easy to use. clear, concise, and useful. Usability issues that were unrecognized by the developer or usability experts were identified by APNs. The usability problems were categorized according to positive characteristics, negative characteristics, and recommendations. The usability issues were discussed with the project team members, and solutions were suggested to improve the user interface of the PDA-based decision support system before the final implementation. Conclusions: This approach had an important impact on making the system easier to use and more useful from the perspective of design and content. The results of this evaluation provided iterative feedback regarding the design and implementation of the PDA-based decision support system for the management of obesity.

Objective: This study explored the reuse of data captured into an electronic nursing record system using the International Classification for Nursing Practice to support nursing research of inpatient's falls. Methods: Risk factors relevant to inpatients falls ;n an acute setting were identified from the literature review. Four risk assessment tools and two risk identification studies were selected. To examine the availability of coded data in an electronic nursing record system for the identified fall fisk factors, we reviewed 11.319 hospital-day records of 118 patients who were reported by the self-report system. Results: We identified 24 fall risk factors of five categories from the literature review, which were used to identify the standard nursing statements addressing fall risks. One hundred thirty five nursing statements were searched from the hospital's nursing data dictionary of statements and were matched with 14 fall fisk factors. Using the 135 statements. we found that mental status, catheter of drip in situ, abnormal gait, insomnia, surgical procedure. and dizziness/vertigo appeared frequently in the nursing records of inpatients with fall s. Also we found 6 risk factors more through the record review. Conclusion: The electronic records would be a good research source for inpatients' falls. Specifically international classification for nursing practice based nursing record system has the potential for promoting clinical researches.

The nursing informatics has been booming in Taiwan since 2003 when we started to use the end user computing strategy to promote it. We used Excel 2003, which was well known and used by our clinical nurses, as well as the embedded VBA to teach them how simple information applications could and should be built to meet their information management needs in order to support their professional responsibility. Many cost-effective projects were successfully done and the importance and potentials of nursing informatics started to be noticed. Our training strategy and materials are introduced in this paper.

e-Health/u-Health has generally been considered as an expansion of current medical and medical relevant segments. However. as e-Health/u-Health has been known to have typical attributes and characteristics of services supporting a physically and mentally well-balanced life of its users, we can rationally assume that e-Health/u-Health can be not only an expansion of the existing medical field but also a result of the complex and sophisticated convergence among diverse industries such as the ICT industry. traditional care-relevant segments, etc. Thus, in this study, we carefully and cautiously consider e-Health/u-Health in accordance with both possible scenarios: 1) an expansion of a typical industry, and 2) a result of a convergence among various industries. The advent of new technologies, rapid development of current technologies, and convergence trends in various fields are creating dramatic innovations in the next generation health services market. Consumerism as a characteristic of c-Health/u-Health can be expected to find a solution of the existing healthcare service problems. In the initial phase. mainly due to the absence of a vanguard, as well as to various legalistic and regulative limitations, the role of the government would be immensely critical for the successful early settlement of the e-Health/u-Health industry. Both the government and private sector need to practice continuous and effective public education and publicity mainly to increase the overall recognition and usability of e-Health/u-Health services. Nursing as a unique professional discipline should be well aware of the new paradigm shift of the healthcare market, and make maximum use of the possibility of this trend to the advent of the professional nursing's new role.