• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.177-193
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• 2009

The assessment of patient status in palliative medicine is essential for determining treatments and for clinical outcomes. The objective of assessment tools is to raise the quality of care for individual patients and their families. There are a number of tools available to assess pain, non-pain symptoms and quality of life. The tools are either uni-dimensional or multi-dimensional measures. Unfortunately, however, no single tool is recommended to be a superior to others in symptoms or quality of life assessment. Therefore, to select an appropriate assessment tool, one should consider the time frame and unique characteristics of tools depending on purpose and setting. The combination of prognostic index is highly recommended in prognostication, and web-based prognostic tools are available. Recently, a new objective prognostic score has been constructed through multicenter study in Korea. It does not include clinicalestimates of survival, but includes new objective prognostic factors, therefore, anyone can easily use it. For beginners in palliative medicine, relatively easy-to-use tools would be convenient. We recommend Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status to assess functional status, numeric rating scale for pain assessment and the Korean version of brief pain inventory for initial pain assessment. Asking directly with numeric rating scale or the Korean version of MD Anderson Symptom Inventory would be desirable to assess various symptoms together. We think that European Organization Research and Treatment Quality of Life Questionnaire Core 15 for Palliative Care is good to assess the quality of life, while Objective Prognostic Score is convenient as prognostic index for beginners.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.229-242
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• 2024

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to explore and analyze experiences with home-visiting oral health education in vulnerable populations and to provide foundational data necessary for the development of preventive strategies for oral health promotion among these patients. Methods: Using a phenomenological research, in-depth interviews were conducted between August 29 and October 31, 2023 with 20 vulnerable individuals participating in the Home Visit Oral Health Education Program under the Gwangju+ Gwangsan Integrated Care Service project spearheaded by the Gwangju Medical Welfare Cooperative. Results: After analyzing the contents of the participants' experiences, 130 meaningful words and 14 subcategories were identified and categorized into five major themes. Participants expressed discomfort when chewing or swallowing food and felt burdened by visits to the dentist. Although they experienced considerable loneliness because they spent a significant amount of time alone, they enjoyed communicating through visitation care and expressed gratitude for receiving oral health education. Conclusions: Oral health education through home visits cam increase awareness of oral health management among vulnerable populations and serve as an important means of improving their quality of life.

• Journal of Wellbeing Management and Applied Psychology
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.63-68
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• 2023

Purpose: This study aims to investigate the national obligation of public health support for residents in medically vulnerable areas in Korea, and to propose a suitable model for public health institutions in this region. Research design, data, and methodology: A survey targeting residents was conducted from August 10 to August 17, 2021, with a sample size of 177 general citizens. The survey utilized a structured questionnaire administered online through Google, employing convenience random sampling. After an editing process to ensure data accuracy, the final dataset of 174 valid samples underwent encoding, coding, and cleaning using the IBM SPSS Statistics 22.0 program for analysis. Results: Health status revealed a moderate level, and 63.8% reported having chronic diseases, particularly prevalent among the elderly. External healthcare institutions were commonly utilized, with proximity and competence of doctors being primary reasons. Respondents expressed a need for improving the public health and medical system, emphasizing the establishment of a County Health Centre and expanding medical departments. Conclusions: In this region, the region's unique challenges, including education, employment, population decline, aging, and transportation, require multidimensional efforts and urgent intervention by public entities. Long-term strategies involve considering the establishment of a health and medical institute, adjusting health centre resources to local realities, and fostering a cooperative system for collaboration among residents and institutions.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.61-68
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• 2017

This study investigates the differences in medical practices and medical cost according to auto insurance companies based on 8,589,602 cases that were treated by auto insurance corporation for the year of 2015, from the beginning of January to the end of December. The results of this study can be summarized following. First, in terms of the general characteristic in medical treatment, especially the age, the highest figure in both non-life insurance and mutual aid cooperative was shown in the age of 50 to 59 at 22.8 per cent(p<0.001). Second, in terms of a medical cost per a hospital care, classified by clinic, the costs in the department of internal medicine were much higher than those in the surgical department, and the thoracic surgery among parts of the surgical department showed the highest figures in both non-life insurance and mutual aid cooperative. According to the above summarized results of this study, it can be concluded that Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service has to address the problem on the increase of unnecessary costs and the occurrence of social expenses caused by the delay of patients' rehabilitation and return to their daily lives, by carrying out the evaluation for the appropriateness to organizations that ask for payments of auto insurance.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.17-25
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• 2012

Objectives: This study was conducted to explore the contemporary perception of traditional Korean medical doctors (TKMDs) on traditional Korean medicine (TKM) policies and issues. Methods: A questionnaire that included traditional medicine policy- and treatment-related issues was sent to 130 TKM medical centers and 4,300 TKM local clinical offices in Korea, and received responses from total 648 TKMDs in 122 TKM medical centers and 465 TKM local clinical offices. Results: Of the responding TKMDs, 40% believed that unification of Western and traditional medicines would benefit both modes of medical treatment, 67.6% were against allowing Chinese doctor certification to be effective in Korea through the Korea-China FTA (Free Trade Agreement), and 57.8% believed that the number of TKMDs should be reduced. We also found that 46.1% of TKMDs believed that more lectures on Western medicine would be needed in schools of TKM. Moreover, 87.5% of respondents regarded medical knowledge as necessary for treatment, and 49.4% believed National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Traditional Medicine (NCCAOM) would be not necessary. TKMDs regarded governmental efforts as more vital than education in schools or individual efforts for enhancement of the traditional medical care market in Korea. To efficiently provide the advantages of complementary CAM, such as cost and safety, detailed research is required when policy is made. Conclusions: The TKM industry must implement policies how the relationship with Western medicine can be better defined under the current dual medical system. On the issue of human resources, more research will be needed on the current policy, which serves to maintain the status quo by blocking the importation of Chinese practitioners and by reducing the number of new practitioners.

• Journal of Korean Critical Care Nursing
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.13-23
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• 2019

Purpose : The purpose of this study was to determine whether appreciative inquiry (AI) is an effective intervention for increasing the positive psychological capital and organizational commitment of new nurses. Method : The study used a nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design. The participants were 60 new nurses in a tertiary hospital in Seoul. The experimental group received 2 classes of AI education and in-unit AI activities. The control group received the existing education program. Results : There was no statistically significant difference in the positive psychological capital and organizational commitment between the experimental group and the control group over time. Satisfaction with the AI education scored 3.69, which was higher than the average. The reason why the experimental group members were satisfied with the program was that AI education helped them to adapt and the in-unit AI activities made staff more cooperative and the atmosphere of the unit more positive. Conclusion : When applying AI activities to new nurses to promote positive psychological capital and organizational commitment, it is necessary to provide a workshop in which the participants can fully concentrate on education and to extend the period of use to one year in order to maintain the effect of AI activities.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.373-384
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• 2006

Purpose: This is a pilot study to identify patient safety risk factors and strategies for patient safety management perceived by nurses. Methods: Data were collected and analyzed with an open questionnaire from April to May 2005, targeted on 100 nurses working in two hospitals. The issues were 'what are risk factors for patients, nurses, and other medical practitioners? How do they prevent with the aftermath of risk factors, causes of incidents?' For data analysis, types and frequency of risk factors were worked out, using the Australian Incident Monitoring System Taxonomy. Results: The types of patient safety risk factor perceived by nurses were as follows ; therapeutic devices or equipment, infrastructure and services (29.5%), nosocomial infections (16.3%), clinical processes or procedures (15.4%), behavior, human performance, violence, aggression, security and safety (12.2%), therapeutic agents (9.7%), injuries and pressure ulcers (8.7%), logistics, organization, documentation, and infrastructure technology (5.6%). Strategies for patient safety included training of prevention of infection, education about safety management for patients and medical professionals, establishment of reporting system, culture of care, pre-elimination of risk factors, cooperative system among employees, and sharing information. Conclusion: These results will be used to provide evidences for patient safety management and educational program.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.265-291
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• 2013

Because of the increased interest in health, medical care, and wellness, the utilization of health-related information resources, especially those found on the Internet, has been rapidly increasing. In addition, despite encountering an increasing number of health and medical-related reference questions in public libraries, public librarians feel limitations in their ability to perform these types of reference services. Therefore, this study proposed the cooperative network system model for vitalizing CHI Services, meaning that all the related agencies, including public libraries, medical libraries, medical institutions, and the health and medical community collaboratively provide consumer health information service. This study presented in detail the key elements of the cooperation model, the subject of cooperation, target sources for cooperation, the content of cooperation, operations of CHI-providing sites, operations and roles of Cooperation Centers, and directions for cooperating with commercial institutions.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.278-294
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• 1998

This study was planned to provide basic data for activating quality improvement by genera hospital with more than 400 beds across the country, of which 65 coordinators answered. Main results of the study are as follows.. 1. Job satisfaction and organizational commitment by individual characteristics were compared. It was revealed that the sense of self-efficacy was related to job satisfaction positively. But job satisfaction and organizational commitment by locus of control showed no significant difference. 2. In terms of the characteristics of QI activities, the active participation of QI coordinators in QI planning process and smooth communication among hospital staffs were showed positive relationship to job satisfaction significantly. 3. Also support system was proposed as most significant variable related to the job satisfaction and the organizational commitment of QI coordinators. Especially support to QI activities by CEO's, seniors, and other hospital staff was a factor to enhance the job satisfaction and organizational commitment of QI coordinators. 4. In the aspect of organizational culture, culture which were tendency to be recognized high autonomy in their work and organizational identity strongly and to operate reasonable compensation system were related to job satisfaction and organizational commitment positively. The more formalized climate, supportive communication, cooperative teamwork and promoting creative/risk take behavior, it showed the higher organizational commitment. 5. For the aspect of QI job characteristics, QI coordinators' job satisfaction was high when QI office was arranged for independent department which was exclusively in charge of QI activities and their role is exclusively in charge of QI. It can be concluded that organizational support in the aspect of relation and finance and efforts of encouraging their motivation and providing on the job training program are need.

• Journal of the Korean housing association
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.9-16
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• 2013

The purpose of this study is to analyze local-based social welfare facilities to respond to secular change of the UR rental housing estates in Japan. The selected case studies for the analysis are Hibarigaoka, Hamakousien, Turumai UR rental housing estates constructed around 1960's. The analysis was done through UR website, MLIT (Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism) and MHLW (Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare) policy report, and related literature. These case studies are connected with housing policy as well as welfare policy and performed to Stable Living Creation Project by Business Entry System for Stable Living. The types of local-based social welfare facilities are classified by welfare corporation and medical corporation. The results are as follows: 1) The implementation of cooperative and participative system not only the private sector (welfare and medical Corporation, etc.) but also the public (MLIT, MHLW, UR Renaissance Agency, Local government, etc.). 2) Repurposed of land through rent and transfer of land for local-based social welfare facilities in the process of housing stock renewal utilization. 3) The pursue of regional revitalization through attached to multi-generation facility or local community space for elderly in local-based social welfare facilities.