• Title/Summary/Keyword: Health decision system

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A study of the Guidelines for Investigation and Management of Uterine Myomas with Korean Medicine Therapies in Korea (자궁근종의 한의학 연구 경향과 임상적 접근에 관한 연구)

  • Kim, Dong-Il
    • The Journal of Korean Obstetrics and Gynecology
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    • v.19 no.2
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    • pp.240-260
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    • 2006
  • Purpose : The objective of this study is to serve guidelines for the investigation and management of uterine myomas with KM therapies. Methods : English-language articles from PubMed and Korean-language articles from the database of the journal of oriental gynecology were reviewed from 2000 to 2005, using the key words 'uterine myoma', 'uterine leiomyoma', 'fibroid', 'uterine artery embolization', 'endometrial ablation', 'myomectomy', and jagungguenjong(子宮筋腫)'. Results and Limits : The areas of clinical practices considered in formulating this guideline are assessment, KM therapies, medical treatments, myolysis, selective artery occlusion, endometrial ablation and surgical therapies including myomectomy and hysterectomy. Implementation of this guideline would optimize the decision-making process of women with uterine myomas and further investigation or therapy of their KM doctors. But we don't have abundant evidences of clinical trials of uterine myoma treated with KM therapy, though we treat or manage that with every-day clinical practices. Moreover cultural gaps between Korea and other western countries make many differences in the attitude to surgical therapies, especially hysterectomy. So it is very difficult to compare W therapies with other therapies. Moreover it is much difficult to estimate cost-effectiveness and benefit of those therapies in QOL. Conclusions : The majority of uterine myoma is asymptomatic and will not require any intervention or further investigation. But unmarried women who wish to marry and get pregnant want to find safe therapy for their asymptomatic uterine myomas. In that case, most of the patients prefer non-surgical therapy to surgical therapy. So KM herbal medicinal therapy is a good alternative method for those patients. For the symptomatic myomas, hysterectomy offers a definitive solution. However, it is not the best solution for women who wish to preserve their uterus. So KM therapy is a good alternative for them. But the predicted benefits of alternative therapies including KM therapy must be carefully weighed against the Possible risks of these therapies. To improve the quality of life of both women with asymptomatic and symptomatic myomas, selecting and treating patients should be done carefully. Moreover, the effect of KM therapy has to evaluated, comparing the possible situation without treatment and the benefit of constant treatment as a health-care system.

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An Emergency Management Architecture Using Personalized Emergency Policy for Smart Healthcare (스마트 헬스케어를 위한 사용자 맞춤형 응급 정책을 활용한 응급 관리 구조)

  • Chun, Seung-Man;Choi, Joo-Yeon;Park, Jong-Tae
    • Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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    • v.50 no.11
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    • pp.3-11
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    • 2013
  • In smart healthcare service, the accurate and prompt emergency detection and notification are very critical to patients' lives. Since these detection and notification of emergency situation are usually performed by the medical staffs, it is difficult to simultaneously support many patients in real-time. This article presents a methodology for emergency bio-data transmission for smart healthcare using personalized emergency policy. It consists of three steps: In step 1, the bio-data is collected by wireless body area network. In step 2, the decision on emergency is made using personalized emergency policy. In step 3, the emergency message including the health condition information is converted between IEEE 11073 PHD message and HL7 CDA. By doing this, the emergency status of the individual bio-data collected from wireless body area network is detected automatically using personalized emergency policy. When the emergency is detected, the quick emergency rescue service can be provided to the patient by delivering to the emergency notification and the emergency bio-data. We have verified the service and functions of the proposed system architecture by realizing it.

Study on family Consciousness of unmarried Man (未婚 남성의 가족의식에 관한 고찰)

  • 고정자
    • Journal of Families and Better Life
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    • v.1 no.2
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    • pp.89-106
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    • 1983
  • After accepting the modernized western culture, we, the Koreans, had traditionally patriarchal valuation on the family life, which has been changed into modernize on in these days. Under these circumstances, we examined into family consciousness of workmen, office workers and student of universities in Pusan with questioning papers by inquiring their general views of family, marriage, family planning , and inheritance. The results obtained can be summarized as follows. 1. General views of family 1)Most of them prefer nuclear family to gross one in structure of family. In decision of family's affairs, the lower educated persons want an unilateral relationship, which means unconditional obdience to their parent's opinion. they are more concerned about the profit of the family than that of individual. on the other hand, they want 2-generations nuclear family system. 2) Concerning children's future affairs, they want compromising method. 2. Views of Marriage 1) Date with the other sex motivated their desire to improve social adaptation and social association. 17-19 year old students regard date as a preparatory stage of marriage. They consider it most desirable date to enjoy free conversation each other. They hope their date partners are high educated. 2) The conditions of mate selection are in order character, health, vitality in living, appearance and education. The less educated placed an emphasis on vitality in living. 3) They are not much interested in marital harmony. If parents are against their marriage an account of bad marital harmony, they will take into consideration about it. 4) They wish to keep purity before marriage, as possible. They want engagement period of 6 months. Any agreeable reasons shall compel them to break off their appointment. 5) they consider it ideal for mate's age to be 26-30 years old, and also think it affirmative to follow their parent's agreement in marriage. It is considerable that they put off their marriage only because they have lots of work to do before marriage. 6)Marriage declaration is to be made on the wedding day. It still exists that they don't want to marry when they are inth same surname and family tree. But it is clear that they don't regard it as the reason of breaking off the betrothal. 3. Family Planning 1) They are willing to agree to the campaign "just two is enough". They want a son and a daughter. Even though they have two daughters, they won's bear child to get son. 2) the lower educated persons are ignorant of the method of birth control. 4. Inheritance 1)Most of them say householder inheritance is to be kept up continuously. It is reasonable that anyone who can afford to perform religious service should bear it responsibility. 2)They don't want the difference in inheritance as the conscious to the conscious of the equality of the sexes spread widely into our society, but it is worthy of notice that some of them still don't mind unequal treatment. 3) When they have no child, the property inheritances are in order his wife and his parents. According to above mentions, we conclude like this: Their consciousness of marital harmony, marriage, family planning and inheritance shows definitely passive rationism in the transitional stage which is mixed with western individualism and traditional feudalism. On account of being lack of steady fast self-conscience, they can not make their positive reaction on anything. Finally, we should make every possible efforts to have our firm self-conscience through the re-education.

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Korean physicians' attitudes toward the prenatal screening for fetal aneuploidy and implementation of non-invasive prenatal testing with cell-free fetal DNA

  • Kim, Soo Hyun;Kim, Kun Woo;Han, You Jung;Lee, Seung Mi;Lee, Mi-Young;Shim, Jae-Yoon;Cho, Geum Joon;Lee, Joon Ho;Oh, Soo-young;Kwon, Han-Sung;Cha, Dong Hyun;Ryu, Hyun Mee
    • Journal of Genetic Medicine
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    • v.15 no.2
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    • pp.72-78
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    • 2018
  • Purpose: Physicians' attitudes may have a strong influence on women's decision regarding prenatal screening options. The aim of this study is to assess the physicians' attitudes toward prenatal screening for fetal aneuploidy including non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) in South Korea. Materials and Methods: Questionnaires were distributed and collected at several obstetrics-gynecological conferences and meetings. The questionnaire included 31 multiple choice and 5 fill-in-the-blank questions. Seven questions requested physicians' demographic information, 17 questions requested information about the NIPT with cell-free fetal DNA, and 12 questions requested information about general prenatal screening practices. Results: Of the 203 obstetricians that completed the survey. In contrast with professional guidelines recommending the universal offering of aneuploidy screening, only 53.7% answered that prenatal aneuploidy testing (screening and/or invasive diagnostic testing) should be offered to all pregnant women. Physicians tended to have positive attitudes toward the clinical application of NIPT as both primary and secondary screening methods for patients at high-risk for fetal trisomy. However, for patients at average-risk for fetal trisomy, physicians tended to have positive attitudes only as a secondary screening method. Physicians with more knowledge about NIPT were found to tend to inform their patients that the detection rate of NIPT is higher. Conclusion: This is the first study to investigate expert opinion on prenatal screening in South Korea. Education of physicians is essential to ensure responsible patient counseling, informed consent, and appropriate management after NIPT.

A Study on Human Rights in North Korea in terms of Haewon-sangsaeng (해원상생 관점에서의 북한인권문제 고찰)

  • Kim Young-jin
    • Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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    • v.43
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    • pp.67-102
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    • 2022
  • The purpose of this study is to analyze the human rights found in the North Korean Constitution and their core problem by focusing on elements of human rights suggested by Daesoon Jinrihoe's doctrine of Haewon-sangsaeng (解冤相生 the Resolution of Grievances for Mutual Beneficence). Haewon-sangsaeng is seemingly the only natural law that could resolve human resentment lingering from the Mutual Contention of the Former World while leading humans work for the betterment of one another. Haewon-sangsaeng, as a natural law, includes the right to life, the right to autonomous decision-making, and duty to act according to human dignity (physical freedom, the freedom of conscience, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of press, etc.), the right to equal treatment in one's social environment, and the right to ensure the highest level of health through treatment. The North Korean Constitution does not have a character as an institutional device to guarantee natural human rights, the fundamental principle of the Constitution, and stipulates the right of revolutionary warriors to defend dictators and dictatorships. The right to life is specified so that an individual's life belongs to the life of the group according to their socio-political theory of life. Rights to freedom are stipulated to prioritize group interests over individual interests in accordance with the principle of collectivism. The right to equality and the right to health justify discrimination through class discrimination. The right to life provided to North Koreans is not guaranteed due to the death penalty system found within the North Korean Criminal Code and the Criminal Code Supplementary Provisions. The North Korean regime deprives North Koreans of their right to die with dignity through public executions. The North Korean regime places due process under the direction of the Korea Worker's Party, recognizes religion as superstition or opium, and the Korea Worker's Party acknowledge the freedoms of bodily autonomy, religion, media, or press. North Koreans are classified according to their status, and their rights to equality are not guaranteed because they are forced to live a pre-modern lifestyle according to the patriarchal order. In addition, health rights are not guaranteed due biased availability selection and accessibility in the medical field as well as the frequent shortages of free treatments.

A Study on the Service Performance and Job Satisfaction of Physical therapists (물리치료사의 근무실태와 직무만족도에 관한 조사연구)

  • Cheon Jae-Kyun
    • The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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    • v.3 no.1
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    • pp.9-37
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    • 1991
  • The purpose of this . study is to examine the unsatisfactory factors of the physical therapists and to obtain the materials necessary to comply with these factors by analysing their service performance and job satisfaction, To accomplish these purposes, this study was carried out by using the questionnaires 206 physical therapists registered in the Korean Physical Therapists Association, for 35 days from January 7 to February 10, 1990. The result of this study is summarized as follows. 1. Of total respondents, the male accounted for 54.4 percent, while the female for 45.6 percent. Their age showed that 20s accounted for 65.0 percent, while the service period less than 3 years accounted for 66.5 percent. In addition, 63.6 percent of them served at the general clinics. 2. The general clinics caused the physical therapists to serve for 10 hours or more per day, where their therapy room located in the underground accounted for 41.3 percent. Their health diagnosis status indicated that nondiagnosis accounted for 63.2 percent. The number of the served patients fer a day showed that 20-30 accounted for 37.4 percent, while 30 persons or more for 25.7 percent. 53.4 percent of total subjects was unsatisfied with their duty quantity. And, the monthly salary indicated that 500,000 or less accounted for 72.3 percent. 3. The average marks by their job satisfaction factors indicated 4.42 for duty importance, 4.02 for recognization of specialized job, 3.98 for ability exercise, 1.99 for promotion possibility, 2.28 for reasonable salary, and 2.41 for welfare system, respectively, based on 5 full marks. 4. The summarized job satisfaction by factors indicated that the relation with the doctor accounted for 57.8 percent, the satisfaction status with the existing job for 53.4 percent, the ability development for 41.8 percent, respectively, and the salary for 10.2 percent. Then, the satisfaction by sex showed that the male was generally satisfied with the ability development (p<0.05), the relation with the doctor (p<0.01), and the satisfaction with the existing job, while the female was satisfied with the duty quantity(p<0.05), salary, and the situation guarantee (p<0.05). On the other hand, the satisfaction by age indicated that the subject of the lower age were satisfied with the ability development (p<0.01), the relation with the doctor(p<0.05), the salary, and the situation guarantee. Also, the satisfaction by the service section showed that the physical therapists serving at the general hospital were satisfied with the ability development (p<0.01), the duty quantity (p<0.01), the salary(p<0.01), the situation guarantee(p<0.01), and the satisfaction with the existing duty (p<0.05), while the physical therapists at the hospital and the rehabilitation center were unsatisfied with the salary (p<0.01). In addition, The satisfaction with the service period at the existing section indicated that the physical therapists less than 3 years were highly satisfied with the ability development, the relation with the doctor, the situation guarantee, and the existing duty(p<0.05), while the physical therapists more than 6 years tended to show the lower satisfaction, And the satisfaction with the monthly salary indicated that the higher the monthly salary, the higher the satisfaction with the relation to the doctor(p<0.05), the duty quantity(p<0.01), the salary(p<0.01), and the situation guarantee (p<0.01). 5. The correlation between general characteristics and job satisfaction factors indicated that the sex was directly correlated to the marital status (r=-0.442), while it was reversely correlated to the age (r=-0.564) , total career (r=-0.229), and the relation with the doctor (r=-0.233). Additionally, the age was directly correlated to the total carreer (r=-0.677), and the service period at the existing section (r=0.491), while the age was reversely correlated to the marital status (r=-0.678). Accordingly, the higher job satisfaction of the physical therapists was related to factors such as their duty importance, recognization of specialized occupation, ability exercise, autonomy, relation to colleagues, decision-making's consideration, and relation with the doctor, while the lower job satisfaction includes the opportunity of promotion, salary, welfare system, service time, duty quantity, and situation guarantee. For this reason, if the factors of the lower job satisfaction are solved, then it will be possible to encourage the motive of these physical therapists, and the acyivate their duties. More over, it is also possible to improve the medical service, Additionally, if the general physical therapy room in the hospital and in the public health center are established, more development should be accomplished in the physical therapy.

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The Method of Participatory Government to Introduce the System of Autonomous Police (참여정부의 자치경찰제 도입방안)

  • Jung, Jin-Hwan
    • Korean Security Journal
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    • no.10
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    • pp.355-385
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    • 2005
  • As the system of autonomous police that has been debated for long time is fixed to be introduced by the program of participatory government, this treatise intends to analyze main contents and review controversial items in order to present supplementary measures. The program of participatory government to introduce autonomous police in Korea focuses on converting the autonomous police of Korea from centralized police administration in order to provide 'customized security service' that is appropriate to the regional environment. Thus, if relevant city, county or district considers that it is required to introduce the system autonomous police, the assembly may enforce the decision by enacting ordinance. For enforcement, organization in the unit of section will be established in the line of mayor, county headman and district office. The main role will be security service that is closely related to the life of inhabitants such as crime prevention, patrol, traffic crackdown, etc. as well as public health, sanitation and environmental control which are being performed by autonomous organization at present. However some expected controversial items may be summarized in the following 3 points on the premise of accepting the program of government. First, the point at issue related to the basic function of police. The basic function of police is generally understood as order keeping function such as anterior and preventive job and law enforcing function such as posterior and suppressing job. By the way, the program of government does not endow the autonomous police with investigation right for general crime, thereby raising the controversy that our autonomous police is nothing but the assistant of police. Furthermore, the present national police also expresses its dissatisfaction to the transfer of authority. Second, the issue of balance of security service between self-governing bodies may be raised. The security environment is different between self-governing bodies and thus demand of security is different. Therefore, the security service of autonomous police will reveal difference in qualitative aspect for each self-governing body. Moreover, it can be easily anticipated that the quality of security service may be different as per the financial independence degree. Third, the point at issue anticipated with the operation funded by the budget of self-governing body. As autonomous police is operated by the budget of self-governing body, the following problems may be raised; (1) since police administration is subordinated to general administration, the concentration may be weakened (2) the cooperation between policy agencies may be impeded (3) owing to the difficult in possessing spare police, the mobility of police may be somewhat reduced.

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The Calculation Method of Cell Count for the Bloom-forming (Green tide) Cyanobacterium using Correlation between Colony Area and Cell Number in Korea (군체 크기와 세포수 상관관계를 이용한 녹조 유발 남조류의 세포수 산정 방법)

  • You, Kyung-A;Song, Mi-Ae;Byeon, Myeong-Seop;Lee, Hae-Jin;Hwang, Soon-Jin
    • Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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    • v.47 no.4
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    • pp.350-357
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    • 2014
  • Harmful Algal Bloom Alert System (HABAS) for drinking water supply is require to fast and accurate count as system monitoring of cyanobacterium occurrence and inducing a response action. We measured correlation between colony size and cell number including genus Anabaena, Aphanizomenon, Microcystis, Oscillatoria which are targeted at HABAS, deducted from standard formula, and suggested calculation method from colony size to the number of cell. We collected cyanobacteria samples at Han River (Paldang reservoir), Nakdong River (Dalseong weir, Changnyeonghaman weir) and Geum River (Gobok reservoir) from August to October, 2013. Also, we studied correlation between colony size and cell number, and calculated regression equation. As a result of correlation of harmful cyanobacteria by genus, Anabaena spp. and Aphanizomenon spp. having trichome showed high correlation coefficients more than 0.93 and Microcystis spp. having colony showed correlation coefficient of 0.76. As a result of correlation of harmful cyanobacteria by species, Anabaena crassa, Aphanizomenon flos-aquae, A. issatschenkoi, Oscillatoria curviceps, O. mougeotii having trichome showed high correlation coefficients from 0.89 to 0.96, and Microcystis aeruginosa, M. wessenbergii, M. viridis having colony showed correlation coefficients from 0.76 to 0.88. Compared with other genus Microcystis relatively showed low correlation because even species and colony size are the same, cell density and cell size are different from Microcystis strains. In this study, using calculated regression might be fast and simple method of cell counting. From now on, we need to secure additional samples, and make a decision to study about other species.

Analysis of News Agenda Using Text mining and Semantic Network Analysis: Focused on COVID-19 Emotions (텍스트 마이닝과 의미 네트워크 분석을 활용한 뉴스 의제 분석: 코로나 19 관련 감정을 중심으로)

  • Yoo, So-yeon;Lim, Gyoo-gun
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.27 no.1
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    • pp.47-64
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    • 2021
  • The global spread of COVID-19 around the world has not only affected many parts of our daily life but also has a huge impact on many areas, including the economy and society. As the number of confirmed cases and deaths increases, medical staff and the public are said to be experiencing psychological problems such as anxiety, depression, and stress. The collective tragedy that accompanies the epidemic raises fear and anxiety, which is known to cause enormous disruptions to the behavior and psychological well-being of many. Long-term negative emotions can reduce people's immunity and destroy their physical balance, so it is essential to understand the psychological state of COVID-19. This study suggests a method of monitoring medial news reflecting current days which requires striving not only for physical but also for psychological quarantine in the prolonged COVID-19 situation. Moreover, it is presented how an easier method of analyzing social media networks applies to those cases. The aim of this study is to assist health policymakers in fast and complex decision-making processes. News plays a major role in setting the policy agenda. Among various major media, news headlines are considered important in the field of communication science as a summary of the core content that the media wants to convey to the audiences who read it. News data used in this study was easily collected using "Bigkinds" that is created by integrating big data technology. With the collected news data, keywords were classified through text mining, and the relationship between words was visualized through semantic network analysis between keywords. Using the KrKwic program, a Korean semantic network analysis tool, text mining was performed and the frequency of words was calculated to easily identify keywords. The frequency of words appearing in keywords of articles related to COVID-19 emotions was checked and visualized in word cloud 'China', 'anxiety', 'situation', 'mind', 'social', and 'health' appeared high in relation to the emotions of COVID-19. In addition, UCINET, a specialized social network analysis program, was used to analyze connection centrality and cluster analysis, and a method of visualizing a graph using Net Draw was performed. As a result of analyzing the connection centrality between each data, it was found that the most central keywords in the keyword-centric network were 'psychology', 'COVID-19', 'blue', and 'anxiety'. The network of frequency of co-occurrence among the keywords appearing in the headlines of the news was visualized as a graph. The thickness of the line on the graph is proportional to the frequency of co-occurrence, and if the frequency of two words appearing at the same time is high, it is indicated by a thick line. It can be seen that the 'COVID-blue' pair is displayed in the boldest, and the 'COVID-emotion' and 'COVID-anxiety' pairs are displayed with a relatively thick line. 'Blue' related to COVID-19 is a word that means depression, and it was confirmed that COVID-19 and depression are keywords that should be of interest now. The research methodology used in this study has the convenience of being able to quickly measure social phenomena and changes while reducing costs. In this study, by analyzing news headlines, we were able to identify people's feelings and perceptions on issues related to COVID-19 depression, and identify the main agendas to be analyzed by deriving important keywords. By presenting and visualizing the subject and important keywords related to the COVID-19 emotion at a time, medical policy managers will be able to be provided a variety of perspectives when identifying and researching the regarding phenomenon. It is expected that it can help to use it as basic data for support, treatment and service development for psychological quarantine issues related to COVID-19.

A Study on Hoslital Nurses' Preferred Duty Shift and Duty Hours (병원 간호사의 선호근무시간대에 관한 연구)

  • Lee, Gyeong-Sik;Jeong, Geum-Hui
    • The Korean Nurse
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    • v.36 no.1
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    • pp.77-96
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    • 1997
  • The duty shifts of hospital nurses not only affect nurses' physical and mental health but also present various personnel management problems which often result in high turnover rates. In this context a study was carried out from October to November 1995 for a period of two months to find out the status of hospital nurses' duty shift patterns, and preferred duty hours and fixed duty shifts. The study population was 867 RNs working in five general hospitals located in Seoul and its vicinity. The questionnaire developed by the writer was used for data collection. The response rate was 85.9 percent or 745 returns. The SAS program was used for data analysis with the computation of frequencies, percentages and Chi square test. The findings of the study are as follows: 1. General characteristics of the study population: 56 percent of respondents was (25 years group and 76.5 percent were "single": the predominant proportion of respondents was junior nursing college graduates(92.2%) and have less than 5 years nursing experience in hospitals(65.5%). For their future working plan in nursing profession, nearly 50% responded as uncertain The reasons given for their career plan was predominantly 'personal growth and development' rather than financial reasons. 2. The interval for rotations of duty stations was found to be mostly irregular(56.4%) while others reported as weekly(16.1%), monthly(12.9%), and fixed terms(4.6%). 3. The main problems related to duty shifts particularly the evening and night duty nurses reported were "not enough time for the family, " "afraid of security problems after the work when returning home late at night." and "lack of leisure time". "problems in physical and physiological adjustment." "problems in family life." "lack of time for interactions with fellow nurses" etc. 4. The forty percent of respondents reported to have '1-2 times' of duty shift rotations while all others reported that '0 time'. '2-3 times'. 'more than 3 times' etc. which suggest the irregularity in duty shift rotations. 5. The majority(62.8%) of study population found to favor the rotating system of duty stations. The reasons for favoring the rotation system were: the opportunity for "learning new things and personal development." "better human relations are possible. "better understanding in various duty stations." "changes in monotonous routine job" etc. The proportion of those disfavor the rotating 'system was 34.7 percent. giving the reasons of"it impedes development of specialization." "poor job performances." "stress factors" etc. Furthermore. respondents made the following comments in relation to the rotation of duty stations: the nurses should be given the opportunity to participate in the. decision making process: personal interest and aptitudes should be considered: regular intervals for the rotations or it should be planned in advance. etc. 6. For the future career plan. the older. married group with longer nursing experiences appeared to think the nursing as their lifetime career more likely than the younger. single group with shorter nursing experiences ($x^2=61.19.{\;}p=.000;{\;}x^2=41.55.{\;}p=.000$). The reason given for their future career plan regardless of length of future service, was predominantly "personal growth and development" rather than financial reasons. For further analysis, the group those with the shorter career plan appeared to claim "financial reasons" for their future career more readily than the group who consider the nursing job as their lifetime career$(x^2$= 11.73, p=.003) did. This finding suggests the need for careful .considerations in personnel management of nursing administration particularly when dealing with the nurses' career development. The majority of respondents preferred the fixed day shift. However, further analysis of those preferred evening shift by age and civil status, "< 25 years group"(15.1%) and "single group"(13.2) were more likely to favor the fixed evening shift than > 25 years(6.4%) and married(4.8%)groups. This differences were statistically significant ($x^2=14.54, {\;}p=.000;{\;}x^2=8.75, {\;}p=.003$). 7. A great majority of respondents(86.9% or n=647) found to prefer the day shifts. When the four different types of duty shifts(Types A. B. C, D) were presented, 55.0 percent of total respondents preferred the A type or the existing one followed by D type(22.7%). B type(12.4%) and C type(8.2%). 8. When the condition of monetary incentives for the evening(20% of salary) and night shifts(40% of. salary) of the existing duty type was presented. again the day shift appeared to be the most preferred one although the rate was slightly lower(66.4% against 86.9%). In the case of evening shift, with the same incentive, the preference rates for evening and night shifts increased from 11.0 to 22.4 percent and from 0.5 to 3.0 percent respectively. When the age variable was controlled. < 25 yrs group showed higher rates(31.6%. 4.8%) than those of > 25 yrs group(15.5%. 1.3%) respectively preferring the evening and night shifts(p=.000). The civil status also seemed to operate on the preferences of the duty shifts as the single group showed lower rate(69.0%) for day duty against 83. 6% of the married group. and higher rates for evening and night duties(27.2%. 15.1%) respectively against those of the married group(3.8%. 1.8%) while a higher proportion of the married group(83. 6%) preferred the day duties than the single group(69.0%). These differences were found to be statistically all significant(p=.001). 9. The findings on preferences of three different types of fixed duty hours namely, B, C. and D(with additional monetary incentives) are as follows in order of preference: B type(12hrs a day, 3days a wk): day shift(64.1%), evening shift(26.1%). night shift(6.5%) C type(12hrs a day. 4days a wk) : evening shift(49.2%). day shift(32.8%), night shift(11.5%) D type(10hrs a day. 4days a wk): showed the similar trend as B type. The findings of higher preferences on the evening and night duties when the incentives are given. as shown above, suggest the need for the introductions of different patterns of duty hours and incentive measures in order to overcome the difficulties in rostering the nursing duties. However, the interpretation of the above data, particularly the C type, needs cautions as the total number of respondents is very small(n=61). It requires further in-depth study. In conclusion. it seemed to suggest that the patterns of nurses duty hours and shifts in the most hospitals in the country have neither been tried for different duty types nor been flexible. The stereotype rostering system of three shifts and insensitiveness for personal life aspect of nurses seemed to be prevailing. This study seems to support that irregular and frequent rotations of duty shifts may be contributing factors for most nurses' maladjustment problems in physical and mental health. personal and family life which eventually may result in high turnover rates. In order to overcome the increasing problems in personnel management of hospital nurses particularly in rostering of evening and night duty shifts, which may related to eventual high turnover rates, the findings of this study strongly suggest the need for an introduction of new rostering systems including fixed duties and appropriate incentive measures for evenings and nights which the most nurses want to avoid, In considering the nursing care of inpatients is the round-the clock business. the practice of the nursing duty shift system is inevitable. In this context, based on the findings of this study. the following are recommended: 1. The further in-depth studies on duty shifts and hours need to be undertaken for the development of appropriate and effective rostering systems for hospital nurses. 2. An introduction of appropriate incentive measures for evening and night duty shifts along with organizational considerations such as the trials for preferred duty time bands, duty hours, and fixed duty shifts should be considered if good quality of care for the patients be maintained for the round the clock. This may require an initiation of systematic research and development activities in the field of hospital nursing administration as a part of permanent system in the hospital. 3. Planned and regular intervals, orientation and training, and professional and personal growth should be considered for the rotation of different duty stations or units. 4. In considering the higher degree of preferences in the duty type of "10hours a day, 4days a week" shown in this study, it would be worthwhile to undertake the R&D type studies in large hospital settings.

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