• Journal of Korean Critical Care Nursing
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.58-67
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• 2014

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the nursing work environment and family satisfaction in Korean intensive care units (ICUs). Methods: The study participants were 190 critical care nurses and 133 family members of ICU patients who were randomly chosen from four of the hospitals located in B city. The Korean Nursing Work Environment Scale was used to assess the work environment of critical care nurses. Family satisfaction was measured with the Korean version of the Critical Care Family Needs Inventory. Results: Critical care nurses reported moderate satisfaction with their work environment. The mean score for family satisfaction was 3.59 on a 5-point scale, and satisfaction with information provision received the highest score. Family satisfaction was higher in hospitals where the critical care nurses evaluated their work environment positively. Conclusion: This study revealed that the work environment of nurses affects family satisfaction in ICUs. Therefore, it is necessary to explore various methods of improving the critical care nursing work environment in order to provide the highest possible level of nursing care.

• Journal of Korean Critical Care Nursing
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.95-107
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• 2018

Purpose : This study aimed to investigate the public's perception of reimbursement for the education and counseling services provided to advanced practice nurses in intensive care units. Method : This was a secondary data analysis study. The original data were collected utilizing an online panel. The sample comprised 615 individuals aged between 19 and 49 years nationwide. The study variables included the public's perception of reimbursement for education and counseling services, age, gender, education level, income, and health status. Variables such as past experience of being admitted to an intensive care unit by self, family, or relatives and the recognition of advanced practice nurses were also examined. Results : The mean of the perception score was 3.15 on a 4-point scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree). Among the participants, 89.2% answered "somewhat agreed" or "strongly agreed" to the question about the education and counseling services being covered by the National Health Insurance. Moreover, education level, past experience of being admitted to an intensive care unit by self, family, or relatives, and recognition of advanced practice nurses were significantly associated with the perception score. Conclusion : Efforts should be made to publicize the need for the education and counseling services that are provided to advanced practice nurses in intensive care units.

• Journal of Korean Critical Care Nursing
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.1-11
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• 2022

Purpose : The purpose of this study was to not only examine the importance and performance status of patient safety nursing activities in the intensive care unit but also to understand nurses' educational needs in this respect. Methods : In this descriptive study, 196 nurses working in the intensive care units of university hospitals located at B City and G Province were enrolled. They completed the Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) questionnaire, and the data were statistically analyzed. Results : Mean±standard deviation item scores of importance and performance of patient safety nursing activities were 4.75±0.33 and 4.48±0.38, respectively. In the IPA results, a total of 10 items were included in the second quadrant, including 1 item related to 'transfer,' 1 to 'infection,' and 1 to 'firefighting surveillance.' As the second quadrant contains the high-importance, low-performance items, these 10 items resemble the nurses' educational needs that should be prioritized. Conclusion : The results of this study can be used as a basis for the development of nursing educational programs for patient safety in the intensive care unit.

• Journal of Korean Critical Care Nursing
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.36-44
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• 2020

Purpose : The person-centered care is essential for better patient outcome. This study was conducted to identify the factors affecting to the person-centered care among intensive care unit (ICU) nurses. Method : This study was cross sectional survey, and the participants included 107 ICU nurses who provided a written consent to participate in the study. Using a structured survey, nurse's compassion fatigue, compassion satisfaction, and person-centered care among ICU nurses were assessed. The collected data were analyzed using t-test, ANOVA, and Pearson correlation test with SPSS 23.0 program. The factors affecting patient-centered care were analyzed using multiple regression. Results : According to the multiple regression analysis, education level, perceived caregivers need priority and compassion satisfaction were positive affecting factors to the person-centeredness of ICU nurses. Conclusion : In conclusion, the compassion satisfaction was an affecting factor to the person-centered care, however compassion fatigue didn't affect to the person-centered care among ICU nurses. Therefore, the strategy enhancing compassion satisfaction among ICU nurses will be needed to increase person centeredness.

• Journal of Korean Critical Care Nursing
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.1-10
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• 2018

Purpose : This study aimed to develop an in-depth and comprehensive understanding of the experiences of critical care nurses caring for dying patients. Method : Eleven critical care nurses with experience in caring for dying patients were recruited from four tertiary hospitals. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted between November 2016 and March 2017. The transcribed data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis to identify major themes and sub-themes that represented the experiences of critical care nurses. Results : The following six themes, and twelve sub-themes, were identified: (1) the gap between expectation and reality, (2) a distorted meaning of death, (3) repeated emotional pain and stress, (4) finding a solution alone, (5) sublimation into mission and calling, and (6) integration into one's own life. Conclusion : This study found that critical care nurses experience various psychological difficulties while caring for dying patients, and they made efforts on their own to overcome them. These findings are expected to inform the development of specialized programs to support critical care nurses to tackle these challenges, create guidelines on caring for dying patients, and help promote death education.

• Journal of Korean Critical Care Nursing
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.13-22
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• 2015

Purpose: This study identified the current status and perception of intensive care unit nurses' handover. Methods: A cross sectional descriptive survey was employed. The population included nurse managers and staff nurses who worked in intensive care units in hospitals with more than 500 beds and excluded nursing homes, psychiatric hospitals, and military hospitals. Results: Of the nurses, 61.7% were satisfied with the current handover method, 68.36% had no handover-related guidelines, and 83.2% of them perceived that the handover was important for patients' safety. The most frequent cause for errors related to handover was that the "nursing workload is heavy." The nurses perceived that their handover was informative ($5.62{\pm}0.79$) and efficient ($5.04{\pm}0.98$). The variables associated with their perception of the handover were the level of satisfaction with the current handover method, existence of handover guidelines, and importance of handover for patient safety. Conclusion: The development of standardized handover guidelines, especially for intensive care units, is necessary to reduce handover time and errors and to improve handover quality for patients'safety and high standards of nursing care.

• Journal of Korean Critical Care Nursing
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.11-20
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• 2013

Purpose: This study to describe experiences of nurses who work in intensive care units (ICUs) where they frequently encounter patients with attempted suicide by drug ingestion. Methods: Data were collected by 2 focus group interviews with 9 ICU nurses. The interview were recorded and transcribed, and data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Results: The results of data analysis, five themes were drawn: 'Confusion about for the attempted suicidal patient care', 'Helplessness for dying with attempted suicidal patients', 'Guilty for insufficient care', 'Ambivalence for the attempted suicidal patients', 'Recognition of need for professional approach'. Conclusion: The results of this study help us to understand patients who attempted suicide through the ICU nurses' experience. It would be useful to develop effective education programs for ICU nurses to preventive strategies for patients who are high risk of recurrence of suicidal crisis situation.

• Journal of Korean Critical Care Nursing
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.44-56
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• 2013

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate emergency room nurses' recognition of patient safety culture and their performance of safety management activity. Methods: Data were collected from July 1 to August 31, 2012 on 292 emergency room nurses working at 25 general hospitals located in B city in G province. The Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture was used to measure patient safety culture, and an 82-item questionnaire was developed to measure safety management activity. Results: the performance of safety management activity were significantly associated with the total career years, whether the nurses had undergone safety training, and whether the nurses has been working in the regional emergency care facility. Of 6 subcategories of the patient safety culture, the perception of a directly commanding senior/manager, frequency of accident reports, and hospital environment were associated with the performance of safety management activity. Conclusion: For improving performance of safety management activity among emergency room nurses, it is necessary to develop an educational program of safety management activity by their level of performance.

• Journal of Korean Critical Care Nursing
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.36-47
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• 2016

Purpose: The study examined core job characteristics and job preference to explain work performance among critical care nurses. The theoretical model was constructed based on the job characteristics model with core job characteristics as exogenous variables, and work performance and job preference as endogenous variables. Methods: A total of 228 hospital nurses participated in the study from May to September, 2015. Data were collected through structured questionnaires and analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results: The model showed a good fit to the data with $x^2/df=2.90$, goodness of fit index = .91, root mean square residual = .20, comparative fit index = .93, and incremental fit index = .93. The core job characteristics explained 64% of the variance in job preference. The core job characteristics and job preference explained 52% of the variance in work performance. Conclusions: The core job characteristics can explain the work performance among critical care nurses through job preference. Effective strategies to improve the work performance among critical care nurses should focus on the application of the core job characteristic into a productive work environment. Further studies are warranted to explore the role of job preference of critical care nurses in promoting their work performance.

• Journal of Korean Critical Care Nursing
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.15-26
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• 2016

Purpose: The aim of this study was to identify thinking strategies in the complicated decision-making process based on real patient-based data of triage nurses in the emergency department (ED). Methods: This study used the 'think aloud' method to collect data from 8 triage nurses from one general hospital ED in South Korea. The data were analyzed with protocol analysis using thinking strategies. Results: The triage process was divided into three stages. The first stage consisted of 8 thinking strategies, including searching for information. They used intuition based on directly observed concepts for identifying a crisis. The second stage consisted of 17 thinking strategies related to the decision-making process. They assessed patients and generated a hypothesis to try to understand their health problems through analytic thinking. The third stage consisted of 10 thinking strategies, including qualifying. They considered the situation of the ED and properly triaged the patients. During the triage process, they frequently used judging the value and searching for information on 17 thinking strategies. Conclusions: Triage nurses demonstrated various connected thinking strategies for each stage. Based on our results, further studies should be done to develop a triage education program.