• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.224-230
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• 2001

EBM is "the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence in mating decisions about the care of the individual patient. It means integrating individual clinical expertise with the best available external clinical evidence from systematic research." EBM is the integration of clinical expertise, patient values, and the best evidence into the decision making process for patient care. The practice of EBM is usually triggered by patient encounters which generate questions about the effects of therapy, the utility of diagnostic tests, the prognosis of diseases, or the etiology of disorders. The best evidence is usually found in clinically relevant research that has been conducted using sound methodology. Evidence-based medicine requires new skills of the clinician, including efficient literature-searching, and the application of formal rules of evidence in evaluating the clinical literature. Evidence-based medicine converts the abstract exercise of reading and appraising the literature into the pragmatic process of using the literature to benefit individual patients while simultaneously expanding the clinician's knowledge base. This review will briefly discuss about concepts of evidence medicine and method of critical appraisal of literatures.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.275-280
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• 2001

Background : A 18 year-old man presented with dyspnea and a swelling of the neck. On physical examination, maculopapular rashes were noted on the face and the whole body and crepitus was noted at the thorax and upper arms. His chest X -ray showed bilateral interstitial infiltrates of the lung, pneumomediastinum and subcutaneous emphysema. On serologic examination, measles IgM was positive. Under the diagnosis of measles pneumonia, the patient was treated with oral ribavirin, which resulted in a complete resolution of the pneumomediastinum, subcutaneous emphysema, pneumonic infiltrate, and subjective symptoms of dyspnea and swelling of the neck in 7 days. Here we report this case with a brief review of the relevant literature.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.325-331
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• 2022

Postoperative critical care management for lung transplant recipients in the intensive care unit (ICU) has expanded in recent years due to its complexity and impact on clinical outcomes. The practical aspects of post-transplant critical care management, especially regarding ventilation and hemodynamic management during the early postoperative period in the ICU, are discussed in this brief review. Monitoring in the ICU provides information on the patient's clinical status, diagnostic assessment of complications, and future management plans since lung transplantation involves unique pathophysiological conditions and risk factors for complications. After lung transplantation, the grafts should be appropriately ventilated with lung protective strategies to prevent ventilator-induced lung injury, as well as to promote graft function and maintain adequate gas exchange. Hypotension and varying degrees of pulmonary edema are common in the immediate postoperative lung transplantation setting. Ventricular dysfunction in lung transplant recipients should also be considered. Therefore, adequate volume and hemodynamic management with vasoactive agents based on their physiological effects and patient response are critical in the early postoperative lung transplantation period. Integrated management provided by a professional multidisciplinary team is essential for the critical care management of lung transplant recipients in the ICU.

• Annals of Clinical Neurophysiology
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.91-97
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• 2002

The field of critical care medicine has flourished, but an unfortunate result of improved patient survival in the intensive care unit is the occurrence of certain acquired neuromuscular disorders. During the last two decades, various neuromuscular disorders were recognized as common causes of weakness occurring in critically ill patients. The two most common disorders are an acute quadriplegic myopathy predominantly associated with the use of intravenous corticosteroids and neuromuscular junction blocking agents and severe systemic illness termed critical illness myopathy(CIM), and an axonal sensorimotor polyneuropathy termed critical illness polyneuropathy. I will review briefly about general components of the CIM.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.64 no.4
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• pp.293-297
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• 2008

Mycobacterium fortuitum usually causes colonization or transient infection in patients with underlying lung disease, such as prior tuberculosis or bronchiectasis. The majority of these patients may not need to receive antibiotic therapy for M. fortuitum isolates. We report here on a patient with M. fortuitum lung disease and who was successfully treated with combination oral antibiotic therapy. A 53-year-old woman was referred to our institution because of purulent sputum and dyspnea. A chest radiograph and computed tomography scan revealed cavitary consolidation in the left upper lobe and multiple small cavities in the left lower lobe. Numerous acid-fast bacilli (AFB) were seen in multiple sputum specimens and M. fortuitum was identified by culture from the sputum specimens. The patient received antibiotic treatment including clarithromycin, ciprofloxacin and sulfamethoxazole, because her symptoms were worsening despite conservative treatment. Sputum conversion was achieved after one month of antibiotic therapy. Both the patient's symptoms and radiographic findings improved after 10 months of antibiotic therapy.

• Journal of Korean Critical Care Nursing
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.85-96
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• 2019

Purpose : The purpose of this study was to examine the mediating effect of perceptions regarding the importance of patient safety management in the relationship between incident reporting attitudes and patient safety care activities for nurses in small-and medium-sized general hospitals. The objective was to provide a basis for planning tailored training programs aimed at improving patient safety care activities. Methods : This study was conducted with 187 participants in small- and medium-sized general hospitals in K city in South Korea from March 15 to March 31, 2019. The data collected from participants were analyzed using descriptive statistics, a t-test, ANOVA, Pearson's correlation coefficients, and a multiple regression using IBM SPSS/WIN 21.0 software. Results : Patient safety care activities were found to be correlated with incident reporting attitudes (r=.27, p < .001) and perceptions of the importance of patient safety management (r=.59, p < .001). Further, perceptions of the importance of patient safety management had a complete mediating effect (${\beta}=.409$, p < .001) on the relationship between incident reporting attitudes and patient safety care activities. Conclusion : Based on the findings of this study, tailored training programs regarding patient safety care activities focused on boosting perceptions of the importance of patient safety management are highly recommended to improve nurses' patient safety care activities in small- and medium-sized general hospitals.

• The Journal of Korean Academic Society of Nursing Education
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.259-267
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• 2022

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify nursing students' level of critical thinking disposition, communication skills, and self-leadership and to identify factors that affect the patient safety competency of nursing students. Methods: This study employs a descriptive research, method and was conducted from April 20 to May 19, 2022, with students from three nursing colleges in Korea. The collected data were analyzed by frequency and percentage, independent t-test, Pearson's correlation coefficients, and multiple regression. All analyzes were conducted using IBM SPSS 22.0. Results: The results of the multiple regression analysis showed that the regression model was significant (F=17.30, p<.001) and that communication skills (β=.22, p=.001), self-leadership (β=.31, p<.001), patient safety education experience (β=.15, p=.009), and subjects for credit (β=.15, p=.006) explained 28.0% of nursing students' patient safety competency. Conclusion: It is necessary to develop a self-leadership and communication skills improvement program and to organize rgular courses safety education subjects to improve the patient safety competency of nursing students.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.34-51
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• 2002

Background : The purpose for this study is to develop a critical pathway of bullectomy for spontaneous pneumothorax patients. Methods : For this study a conceptual framework of critical pathway was developed through a review of the literature including five critical pathways which are currently being used in USA, and opinions of the critical pathway development team members at Y university hospital. In order to identify the service contents required by these patients and to draw up a preliminary critical pathway, 33 cases of medical records of patients who had received bullectomy for spontaneous pneumothorax between September, 2000 to August, 2001 at the Respiratory Center of Y university hospital in Seoul was analyzed. Results : In order to test the clinical validity of the preliminary critical pathway, it was applied to ten patients who had received bullectomy for spontaneous pneumothorax from October, 2001 to December, 2001. The average discharge day was 4.89th post operation day, six patients discharged on the fourth post operation day which was the expected day, one patients discharged one day earlier than the expected day, one patient discharged three days later than the expected day, and one patient discharged six days later than the expected day. There were variances between the critical pathway and the actual practice. The variances came from tests, medications, and treatments. One item that showed variance in clinical applications was complemented, and three items were decided not to be corrected for the final determination of the critical pathway. Conclusion : This critical pathway is applicable to the care of patients with bullectomy for spontaneous pneumothorax, but it needs more clinical applications to grasp varied variances.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.37-55
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• 2012

Objectives : This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of fixed critical pathway with emr (electronic medical record) on the length of hospital stay, the cost and quality of care provided to gastrectomy patients in a university hospital and to develop flexible critical pathway with emr which can be used excluded or drop-out patients. Methods : Thirty-eight patients with gastrectomy were included as case group and Thirty-four patients included as control group. The comparison between control and case with using fixed critical pathway were done. To develop and to evaluate usefulness of flexible critical pathway with flexible data base, simulation was done for flexible critical pathway with drop-out patients. Result : The major results of this study were as follows: There were no significant differences in patient clinical conditions and no sign of deterioration of quality from critical pathway. The length of hospital stay was 11 days in control group, 8 days in path group(P<0.01). The total costs during the hospital stay were reduced in path group. However the cost per day was significantly increased from reduction of hospital stay(554,352 won in control, 645,669 won in path group). One hundred percentage of drop out patients(60) in the simulation of flexible critical pathway was successful. Conclusion : Computerized critical pathway reduced the length of hospital stay, total hospital costs and resource utilization without harming quality of patient care. The flexible critical pathway program can be used as one of the powerful management tools for reducing the practice variations and increasing the efficiency of care process and decreasing the workload of doctors and nurses in Korean hospital settings.

• Journal of Korean Critical Care Nursing
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.12-23
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• 2021

Purpose : The purposes of this study were to examine the levels of job stress, perceptions of the patient safety culture, and patient safety nursing activities, and to identify factors influencing patient safety nursing activities among intensive care unit (ICU) nurses. Methods : For this cross-sectional study, data were collected from 161 ICU nurses working in two university-affiliated hospitals in Gyeonggi-do between June 30 and July 30, 2020. The data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, an independent t-test, a one-way ANOVA, the Pearson correlation method, and multiple regression using the SPSS program. Results : The average levels of job stress, perception of patient safety culture, and patient safety nursing activities were 3.48, 3.44, and 4.45 out of 5, respectively. Multiple regression showed that perception of patient safety culture and career in current workplace were found to be statistically significant correlates of patient safety nursing activities. Conclusion : In order to promote patient safety nursing activities, patient safety culture needs to be incorporated into the education of ICU nurses. Perception of patient safety should be enhanced to improve patients safety nursing activity.