• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.194-206
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• 2019

Purpose: Maternal Fetal Intensive Care Unit (MFICU), which provides intensive care to high-risk mothers with increasing maternal age and high-risk newborns, has become a new field of nursing work in South Korea. The present study was conducted to identify the educational needs and self-assessing clinical competence of nurses in MFICU. Methods: The education needs and competencies of MFICU nurses were measured through prepared questionnaires by researchers based on the previous studies on job analysis of nurses in MFICU. Data were collected from January 2019 to March 2019. The study involved 168 nurses working in MFICUs at 12 hospitals nationwide as study subjects. The data were analyzed using the SPSS WIN 23.0 program. Results: The education needs of nurses in MFICU had an average of 4.21 points (${\pm}0.50$) and their nursing competence was average 3.38 points (${\pm}0.60$). The items reported as high education needs but low competency by nurses in MFICU were as following: 'postpartum hemorrhage and shock,' 'cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) for neonate,' 'CPR during pregnancy,' 'disseminated intravascular coagulation,' 'sepsis,' and 'mechanical ventilation during pregnancy.' Conclusion: Based on these results, it is proposed that a comprehensive education program for nurses in MFICU should be developed by considering low capabilities among MFICU nurses as a priority factor.

• The Journal of Korean Academic Society of Nursing Education
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.5-14
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• 2022

Purpose: Neonatal nurses are expected to have clinical competency to provide qualified and safe care for high-risk infants. An educational intervention to enhance nurses' clinical competence is often a priority in the nursing field. This study was conducted to explore nurses' perceived importance and performance confidence of nursing care activities in neonatal intensive care units. Methods: One hundred forty-one neonatal nurses from seven hospitals across South Korea participated in the online survey study. The scale of neonatal nursing care activity consisted of 8 subdomains including professional practice (assessment, diagnosis, planning, intervention, evaluation, education, research, and leadership). The Importance-Performance Matrix was used to analyze the importance of and confident performance in each of the nursing subdomains. Results: Both importance and performance confidence increased as nurses' age (p=.042 and p<.001) and clinical experience (p=.004 and p<.001). Participants scored relatively higher in importance and performance confidence in the professional practice subdomains (assessment, intervention, evaluation), but scored lower in the education and research subdomains. Conclusion: To provide evidence-based nursing care for high-risk infants in neonatal intensive care units, educational interventions should be developed to support nurses based on the findings of the research.

• Neonatal Medicine
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.44-53
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• 2008

Purpose : Epidemic keratoconjunctivitis (EKC) caused by adenovirus is a highly contagious disease, which has been reported as outbreaks involving adults in the community. However, there has been no report on EKC outbreak by adenovirus in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) in Korea. Aims of this study were to investigate the EKC outbreak by adenovirus type 8 in NICU and to confirm an effectiveness of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for diagnosis. Methods : Conjunctival swab or nasopharyngeal aspirate specimens were taken from all patients and tested by viral culture and PCR. Adenovirus serotype was determined by sequencing of PCR product of selected region of hexon gene using the virus isolates or specimens. Results : An outbreak of EKC occurred which was involving 12 preterm infants in the NICU of the Seoul National University Children's Hospital between July 12th and August 1st, 2005. Three hospital staffs and one family member of the neonate were also affected. Adenovirus was detected in 12/12 (100%), 6/11 (54.5%) by PCR and virus culture, respectively. Eleven PCR-positive neonates were identified as serotype 8 by sequencing. The first affected 4 babies have had routine ROP (retinopathy of prematurity) examinations one week ago. While previous outbreaks were sustained for a few months, the event in our unit was controlled without complications in 3 weeks. Conclusion : We analyzed the EKC outbreak by adenovirus type 8 in NICU. Adenovirus serotype was identified by PCR and sequencing with high sensitivity for the first time in Korea, so we suggest this method can be very useful for rapid diagnosis and infection control.

• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.131-139
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• 2020

Purpose: This study was conducted to identify factors related to developmental care performance among neonatal intensive care units (NICU) nurses. Methods: The participants were 139 nurses who had provided care to premature infants for more than 6 months and were recruited from the NICU of 8 hospitals. Data were collected from September 1 to December 1, 2017 through questionnaires that encompassed developmental care performance, developmental care perceptions, and the nursing work environment. Results: More than half (51.8%) of the participants responded that they had never received developmental care education, and for 89.6% of those who had received developmental care education, it was a one-time event. The average developmental care performance of NICU nurses was 0.81, with a range of 0.5~1 point. Multiple regression analysis, demonstrated that the nursing work environment (β=.27, p=.001) and developmental care perceptions (β=.23, p=.004) influenced developmental care performance, with a total explanatory power of 14%. Conclusion: Based on these results, developmental care education for the NICU nurses must be provided systematically. In addition, strategies to improve nurses' perceptions of developmental care and to provide appropriate support for the nursing work environment can promote developmental care performance.

• Journal of Korean Clinical Nursing Research
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.64-72
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• 2017

Purpose: This study aimed to explore the distributions of nurse staffing grades and to report changes in staffing grades in general wards and adult and neonatal intensive care units(ICUs) by hospital type and location. Methods: Data collected from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service were analyzed. Nurse staffing was categorized from grades 1 to 6 or 7 for general wards, 1 to 9 for adult ICUs, and 1 to 4 for neonatal ICUs based on the nurse-to-bed ratio. Results: The staffing grade for the general wards improved during 2008-2016 in 69.8% of the tertiary hospitals, 58.5% of the general hospitals, and 31.7% of the non-general hospitals. The adult ICUs at tertiary hospitals exhibited a greater improvement in staffing grades (48.8%) than did those of general hospitals (44.2%) during 2008-2015. Tertiary hospitals in non-capital regions showed a greater improvement than those in the capital region. The majority of neonatal ICUs (67.1%) had no change in the staffing grade during 2008-2015. Conclusion: Improvements in nurse staffing differed by hospital type and location. Government policies to improve nurse staffing in non-tertiary hospitals and those in non-capital regions are required to reduce variations in nurse staffing.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.115-126
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• 2011

Purpose: This study was done to identify differences in work environment, work stress, turnover intention and burnout and investigate the relationship among these variables in nurses in Korean Neonatal Intensive Care Units. Method: Participants were 242 nurses working in 13 general hospitals. Burnout was measured by the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), work stress with the instrument by Gu & Kim (1994), and turnover intention with the scale by Kim & Lee (2001). Size of the NICU, nurse to patient ratio, and communication satisfaction were included in work environment. Data were analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficients and multiple regression analysis with SPSS WIN program. Results: The mean score for work stress in NICU nurses was 3.43 points, for burnout, 2.72 points, and for turnover intention, 4.64 points. Burnout and turnover intention level of participants were moderate-high. Work stress, communication dissatisfaction with physician, and clinical career accounted for 33% of variance in burnout. Significant differences were found between size of NICU and staffing related to environmental characteristics in turnover intention and burnout. Conclusions: Results indicate that effective communication with coworkers and institutional support for appropriate staffing according to number of beds will help to prevent work stress, burnout, and ultimately, nurses' resignations.

• Journal of Korean Clinical Nursing Research
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.211-221
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• 2017

Purpose: A National survey was conducted to assess neonatal intensive care nurses' practice, barriers, knowledge, and belief regarding Kangaroo Care (KC). Methods: A descriptive survey was conducted. Kangaroo care questionares were sent to nurses in all hospitals in Korea whose were identified as providing neonatal intensive care services(N=263). Descriptive statistics were used to summarized the data. Results: Among 67 neonatal care units, 61.1% adapted KC in their practice. About 60% of nurses in the KC providing hospital actually practiced KC. Major barrier of practicing KC were infant safety concerns, as well as work load of nurses. Respondants who had practiced KC were more knowledgable and were more positive in their belief regarding KC. Conclusion: The findings suggest that in order to overcome barriers of practicing KC, educational programs are recommended designed for nurses. In addition, development of KC practice guideline is necessary to facilicate successful and safe KC.

• Journal of Korean Clinical Nursing Research
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.207-214
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• 2015

Purpose: This study was aimed to investigate the effect of an education program on inter-rater agreement of Neonatal/Infant Braden Q Scale for clinical nurses working at a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Methods: This was single-arm pre and post experimental study. The participants were 12 nurses and 128 hospitalized neonates at a NICU from December, 2012 to March, 2013. Twelve nurses were divided into four different groups; for two groups were assigned nurses with 3 to 5 years of clinical experiences, and for the others with less than 1 year of clinical experience. The interventions were given by one wound ostomy specialist and two NICU nurses with over 5 years of clinical experiences for 1 hour twice. The inter-rater agreement was measured by intraclass-correlation coefficient. Results: Overall inter-rater agreement was improved from .87(95% CI: .80~.92) at the pre-test to .94(.91~.96) at post-test. Each inter-rater agreement except moisture and nutrition was also improved. Conclusion: The developed education program on scoring for Neonatal/Infant Braden Q scale was effective to improve the inter-rater agreement among clinical nurses. We suggest to privide an education for NICU nurse before using the Neonatal/Infant Braden Q scale in clinical settings.

• The Journal of Korean Academic Society of Nursing Education
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.261-273
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• 2021

Purpose: This study used a descriptive investigative design to identify educational needs for developmental supportive care for the purpose of establishing a developmental supportive care education program for nurses in neonatal intensive care units. Methods: A survey was conducted on 93 nurses working in neonatal intensive care units located in a metropolitan area, and the collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and a paired t-test with the SPSS 25.0 program. For the purpose of analyzing educational needs, we further analyzed data through an importance-performance analysis (IPA) and the Borich needs assessment and the locus for focus models. Results: The average importance of the developmental supportive care of nurses in neonatal intensive care units was 3.74±0.78 out of 5, and the average performance was 3.46±0.81 out of 5. A t-test on the difference between the IPA and Borich needs assessment showed the highest educational need in the categories of 'individualized care', and 'I serve on the Developmental Care Committee at my institution'. In addition, according to the results of deriving the priorities of educational needs using the Borich needs assessment and the locus for focus model, the highest priority was 'I provide appropriate pain management when noxious procedures are necessary'. Conclusion: These findings can be used as basic data to design a developmental supportive care program suitable for nurses in neonatal intensive care units to meet the educational needs for developmental supportive care.

• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.257-264
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• 2016

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship among knowledge and attitude toward palliative care and perception of death for Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) nurses. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted with 110 nurses who work in NICUs in South Korea. The participants filled out a questionnaire regarding their knowledge, attitude towards palliative care and perception of death. The attitude scale was divided into 3 subscales: comfort level, nurses' role and nurses' involvement with family. Results: Comfort level regarding attitude towards palliative care was positively correlated with knowledge (r=.220, p=.016) and the perception of death (r=.194, p=.042). Nurses' role showed a positive correlation with perception of death (r=.395, p=.001). Conclusion: NICU nurses' knowledge of palliative care was below standard across the board, implying that there is a definite need for palliative care education for nurses. The education program for palliative care should include a section that focuses on fostering a positive perception of death as well as defining and delineating the role of nurses.