• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.158-162
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• 2007

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is one of a major nosocomial pathogen worldwide and the emergence of this strain has become a major clinical problem. This study was performed for 13 hospitals with more than 400 beds in the country by collecting samples including hands and nasal cavities of doctors, nurses, guardians and patients. Also, additional 320 samples of hands and nasal cavities of 160 community resident in different locations and regions were collected. In all of medical environments and community resident, 625 strains of S. aureus were detected. Among 625 strains of S. aureus, 585 strains(93.6%) showed the resistance to at least one kind of antimicrobial and 112 strains (17.9%) showed multi-drug resistance with the resistance to 4 different types of antimicrobial. Total 152 MRSA strains (24.3%) were isolated from medical environment and community resident. In nasal cavity and hand, 49 MRSA (19.4%) and 103 (27.6%) MRSA were isolated, respectively Minimum inhibitory concentration(MIC) test is used to measure for susceptibility of MRSA isolated to oxacillin. At a concentration $16{\mu}g/ml$ of oxacillin, 11 strains were inhibited. 32 strains at $32{\mu}g/ml$, 41 strains at $64{\mu}g/ml$, 3 strains at $128{\mu}g/ml$, 25 stains at $256{\mu}g/ml$ and 40 strains at over $256{\mu}g/ml$ were inhibited. It was considered that medical environment showed higher than livestock and marine environments in MRSA detection rate.

• Korean Journal of Medical Ethics
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.360-376
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• 2018

Nursing students experience ethical conflicts that lead to moral distress and moral sensitivity in clinical practice. Most nursing students have some difficulty in speaking up when faced with morally challenging situations. Hence, increasing moral courage of these students is important to improve the quality of practice, and carry out nursing responsibilities. However, research on the moral distress, moral sensitivity, and moral courage of nursing students has not been reported in South Korea. The purposes of this study were to (a) identify the levels of moral distress, moral sensitivity, and moral courage of nursing students and (b) examine the influence of moral distress and moral sensitivity on moral courage. Data were collected through a survey using self-reported questionnaires sent to senior nursing students at two nursing colleges in Seoul and Gyeonggido. A total of 138 senior nursing students participated in the survey. The data were analyzed using the IBM SPSS Statistics 23 program by Pearson's correlation coefficients and multiple regression analysis. The mean scores of the moral distress thermometer, moral distress, moral sensitivity, and moral courage were $3.53{\pm}2.18$, $57.33{\pm}43.35$, $134.98{\pm}13.98$, and $56.33{\pm}12.75$, respectively. The significant factors influencing moral courage were the moral distress thermometer and patient-centered nursing, which was a subcomponent of moral sensitivity. The explanatory power of the model was 5%. This study confirms that nursing students, like nurses, experience moral distress. It is therefore important to create organizational environments that support the moral courage of nursing students.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.50 no.11
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• pp.1072-1077
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• 2007

Purpose : It has been described that the incidence of breastfeeding jaundice is 13% and that of breast milk jaundice is 2%. The incidence in Korea was believed to be higher, but there were no studies to prove this assumption. The purpose of this study was to investigate the incidence of jaundice of healthy breastfed full-term infants in Korea. Methods : 839 infants were enrolled who were admitted to the Postpartum Care Center of the Cheil General Hospital between January 1 and December 31, 2005, and were followed up for more than 7 days. Those infants were divided into 3 groups; Exclusive breastfeeding group; Partial breastfeeding group; Formula feeding group. If they became icteric, transcutaneous bilirubin (TcB) was measured by research nurses with JM-103 Jaundice meter (Konica Minolta sensing, Inc., Osaka, Japan). Using this method we investigated the incidence of breast milk jaundice of healthy breastfed full-term infants. Results : There were no significant differences in sex, birth weight, Apgar score, or obstetric risk factors among 3 groups but there were higher rates of vaginal delivery in the exclusive breastfeeding group. The incidence of breast milk jaundice was 10.8% in the exclusive breastfeeding group and 4.4% in the partial breastfeeding group. The incidence of breast milk jaundice in the breastfed infants was 6.3%. The incidence was significantly higher in the exclusive breastfeeding group than in the partial breastfeeding group. Conclusion : The incidence of breast milk jaundice of healthy breastfed full-term infants was 6.3%. It was found that the incidence of breast milk jaundice was higher in this study than in other countries. But it was not a population-based study, so further study with the large sample sizes is needed.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.929-939
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• 1999

The purpose of this study was to identify knowledge of universal precautions and its performance in practice. The research was conducted from November 2 to 30, 1998. A total 515 student nurses ; 249 from a baccalaureate nursing college and 266 from second and third year of a 3-year community nursing college were surveyed. The results are as following : 1. The average score for universal precautions knowledge was 270.41$\pm$19.43/300(range 150-300). The results showed that 99.2% of students avoid injury from used needles, 98.6% answered that they always wash their hands if they had contact with the patient's blood and they always dispose of used needles in special collectors (97.7%) for needles. But, 39.2% responsed that they dispose of used needles after recapping them. 2. The average score for universal precautions knowledge of the senior students in the 4-year college was the highest (277.65$\pm$13.99). 3. The average score for the performance of universal precautions knowledge was 53.18 $\pm$5.91(range 14-70). The items : ‘I cautiously avoid injury from the used needles’(4.92$\pm$0.33), ‘I always wash my hands if there has been contact with the patient's blood’(4.91$\pm$0.34), and ‘I always disposed of used needles in the appropriate collector’(4.89$\pm$0.42) showed the highest performance. However ‘I always dispose of used needles after recapping them’(2.19$\pm$1.39) and ‘I always use protection goggles when in danger of contamination’(2.19$\pm$1.20) showed low performance level. 4. The highest average score for universal precautions performance was shown among the second year students in 3-year nursing college (54.19$\pm$6.92) between the groups. It showed that the level of the universal precautions performance was higher for those who had education on university precautions prior to performance of the universal precautions than for those without any prior education. 5. The percentage of students who reported the experience of direct contact with patients' blood and/or body fluids was 42.30%. The experience of direct contact with blood and/or body fluids of the educational group was significantly higher than those were not educated. 6. The most frequent cause of the direct contact was ‘needle pricking and/or skin cut’(63.04%). The most frequent substance with which the students contact was ‘blood’(59.85%). The majority of the sample had answered that the mode of contamination was ‘unknown’(63.54%). The majority of the sample answered that strategies used after contamination included ‘washing with soap’(33.61%). Reviewing the chart of patients or asking other health professionals(28.85%). 7. The number of students who had the experience of a needle stick and/or skin cut was 145(28.16%). The clinical practice places where the incidents occurred were mainly in the internal medicine unit (45.07%) and the surgical unit (31.92%) followed by the intensive care unit and the emergency unit in order. The experience of a needle stick and/or skin cut happened during on intra-muscular injection 47.34% and intravenous injection 21.81%. The causes of the needle stick and/or skin cut were ‘putting the needle cap back on 77(35.81%)’. The number of students who took an appropriate post management blood test and/or vaccination was 27(18.62%). 8. The Pearson Correlation Coefficient between the knowledge of universal precautions and performance of universal precautions in practice showed a positive correlation.

• Korean Journal of Hospice Care
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.55-67
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• 2008

Purpose: This study was to test the effects of wholistic hospice nursing intervention program on pain and anxiety for in-patient of hospice palliative care unit. This study's design was one-group pre-post test quasi- experimental research. Methods: The subjects of study were 27 patients who were over 18 years old and admitted in hospice palliative care unit of S hospital in P city with agreement in hospice palliative care in their terminal disease. The experimental group subjects participated in holistic hospice nursing program took 120 minutes per session, a total of 1,200 minutes altogether for 10 sessions. The period of data collection was from April 6, 2004 to April 20, 2005. The collected data were analyzed by Paired t-test with SPSS/WIN 12.0 program. A Wholistic Hospice Nursing Intervention Program (named ‘Rainbow Program’) was used as a experimental tool in this study. This was developed by the authors. It was provided by interdisciplinary hospice team (nurses, medical doctors, social worker, pastors, art therapists, and volunteers). In addition, Korean Version of Brief Pain Inventory (BPI-K) by Young-Ho Yun(1998) was used to test degree of pain in physical aspect. And State-Anxiety Inventory was developed by Spielberger(1975) and translated by Kim, Jung-Tack & Shin, Dong-Gyun(1978) was used to test the degree of state-anxiety in emotional aspect. Results: (1) Hypothesis No. 1 "The experimental group which received Wholistic Hospice Nursing Program will have a lower degree of pain than before" was supported (t=-10.585, P= .000). (2) Hypothesis No. 2 "The experimental group which received Wholistic Hospice Nursing Program will have a lower degree of state-anxiety than before" was supported (t=-8.234, P= .000). Conclusion: Our results testified that this Wholistic Hospice Nursing Intervention Program was effective to decrease pain and state-anxiety of the in-patients of hospice palliative care unit. Therefore it can be used and applied actively in practice as a useful model of interdisciplinary team approach by hospice professionals in hospice palliative care unit.