• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.561-570
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• 2010

Purpose: This was a cross sectional descriptive study to introduce the Infants Coma Scale (ICS), describe mental status of high risk infants using ICS and explore the relationships between ICS and clinical variables in infants hospitalized in a neonatal intensive care unit of a university hospital in Korea. Methods: After ICS was developed and tested by the authors, a research nurse evaluated the mental status of the infants using the English version of ICS and obtained clinical information on the infants from their medical records. Results: Data from 88 infants were analyzed. About 60% were male, 90% were preterm births, and 40% had pathologic abnormalities. Their mean gestational age was 32.4 (${\pm}3.50$) weeks and the mean birth weight was 1,842 (${\pm}728.6$) grams. The Cronbach's alpha for the ICS was .78. There was a statistically significant positive correlation between ICS total score and five clinical variables including gestational age, birth weight, 1 and 5 min Apgar scores and respiration status. Conclusion: Mental status is an important parameter in nursing assessment. ICS is a valid and reliable instrument, which clinicians can easily use to evaluate the mental status of high risk infants.

• Perspectives in Nursing Science
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.43-49
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• 2010

Purpose: Rapid and accurate assessment of impaired consciousness is very important, especially for critically ill patients. Therefore, the Glasgow coma scale (GCS) has been widely adopted in the assessment of adult and pediatric comas. But the GCS should not be used for small children who show various normal responses according to their developmental stage. Therefore, the objectivity of pediatric coma measurements was verified by applying the modified GCS to patients in a pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) at a university hospital in Korea. Methods: The level of consciousness was evaluated for 200 cases who were admitted to a PICU from July 4, 2009 to September 18, 2009 and could show a verbal response, with our modified GCS for children. In addition, and we confirmed the frequency analysis and Kappa statistics with SPSS/WIN 17.0. Results: Kappa statistics which show inter-observer reliability were very good for all components (eye opening, verbal, and motor score) and was good for total GCS scores. Conclusion: It is concluded that our modified GCS is reliable. Therefore, reliable assessment for the level of consciousness is clinically practicable if enough training is supported.