• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.353-366
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• 2014

The purpose was to describe the state of healthcare-associated infection(HAI) control. Data were collected from 134 hospitals. The questionnaire developed by Kang[8] were modified. The mean of hospital beds was 556.4, 26.9% of hospitals were less than 300 beds. 99.3% of hospitals had infection control committee(ICC). ICC met 3.4 times a year. 54.5% of hospitals had one infection control practitioner(ICP). 95.5% of ICPs were nurse, 48.7% of ICPs had more than master's degree. Hospital experience of ICPs was 13.5 years. ICP experience was 3.2 years. 30.8% of ICPs worked for less than 1 year. All hospitals investigated HAI, 75.4% performed improvement activities. There are significant differences in existence of ICD, negative pressure room, computer program, numbers of ICPs according to hospital size. Manpower, organization, and facilities lacked in less than 300 beds. This conclusions will give baseline data to establish infection control system, manpower and practice in small-medium hospitals.

• Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.349-361
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• 2019

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate nursing students' knowledge, awareness and performance and to identify the influencing factors on performance of standard precaution for Healthcare-associated Infection. Methods: Subjects were 334 nursing students who were 3rd and 4th years in the nursing university in Gwangju. Data were collected using questionnaires from April 24 to May 25, 2018. The collected data was analyzed by descriptive statistics, pearson's correlation coefficient and stepwise multiple regression using IBM SPSS 21.0 program. Results: Mean scores of knowledge, awareness and performance about standard precaution for Healthcare-associated Infection were 19.95±2.43, 4.71±0.37, 4.55±0.49, respectively. Statistically significant differences were shown in the performance of standard precaution related to grade(t=-3.627, p=.000) and experience of infection prevention education(t=3.239, p=.001). Significant relationships were found among knowledge(r=.201, p=.000), awareness(r=.522, p=.000) and performance of standard precaution in nursing students. The results of stepwise multiple regression indicates that awareness(β=.507, p=.000) and grade(β=.169, p=.000) and experience of infection prevention education(β=.094, p=.043) predicts 30.8% in performance of standard precaution(F=50.520, p=.000). Conclusions: to enhance performance of standard precaution for nursing students, it is necessary to develop and utilize a program that experience of infection prevention education according to the appropriate grade group and enhances awareness.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.50 no.3
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• pp.359-369
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• 2018

An essential measure to prevent healthcare-associated infections (HAI) is to develop a consistent system of surveillance, thereby promoting a reliable situation diagnosis to perform efficient control for the problem. Patient-to-patient transmission of pathogens within the hospital plays a substantial role in the epidemiology of HAIs. Contamination of healthcare environments commonly occurs, including facilities surfaces (e.g., bed rails, bedside tables), drinking water, cooling tower water, endoscopic instruments, food, airborne, endotoxin test, sterile test and medical equipment, with pathogenic organisms. In addition, epidemiological analysis is performed by multi locus sequence tying, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis for active surveillance. Therefore, an environmental surveillance culture test for prevention improves patient safety and blocks infection agents. Effective infection control and increased safety are possible by controlling the national infection control system. In conclusion, this study contributes to an effective infection control system through the standardization of active surveillance culture laboratory and secure expertise as infection control specialist. The primary objective of the standardization is to improve the safety of the nation's healthcare system by reducing the rates of HAIs.

• Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.95-104
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• 2023

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyze the trends and characteristics of infection-related patient safety incident reporting before and during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in Korea, and to provide basic data for preventing infection-related patient safety incidents and improving their management. Methods: A cross-sectional analysis of secondary national data (Patient Safety Reporting Data) was conducted. In total, 517 infection-related patient safety incidents reported from 2018 to 2021 were analyzed. Changes in the number of reports before and during the COVID-19 pandemic and differences in variables related to infection-related patient safety incidents were analyzed using the chi-square test and independent t-test in SPSS 29.0. Results: This study found that infection-related patient safety incidents decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to before the pandemic. Furthermore, incident-related characteristics, such as the type of healthcare organization, severity of harm, and post-incident actions, changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Conclusion: The many changes in the infection control system and practices during the COVID-19 pandemic may have contributed to a decrease in the reporting of infection-related patient safety incidents. It is hoped that longitudinal studies on patient safety incidents related to the pandemic and analytical studies on factors influencing patient safety incidents will continue to be conducted to prevent and improve patient safety incidents.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.20 no.11
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• pp.425-435
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• 2019

The purpose of this study was to examine the knowledge, awareness, safety-climate and performance of standard precautions for healthcare-associated infection control and to identify the factors that influence the performance of standard precautions among nurses in small- and medium-sized hospitals. The subjects of this study were 151 nurses who worked for more than 1 year in 6 small to medium-sized hospitals (less than 300 beds). The data was collected using self-report questionnaires from January 15 to February 15, 2018. The collected data was analyzed using the SPSS Statistics 22.0 program. The mean score for safety climate and performance of standard precautions showed significant differences according to the working department. There were significant positive correlations among knowledge, awareness, safety climate, and performance of standard precautions. The factors influencing the performance of standard precautions were safety climate and awareness. The explanatory power of the performance of the two variables was 23.3%. Based on the findings, it is necessary to improve the safety-climate and continuous educational program, and administrative support should be provided to improve nurses' performance of standard precautions for healthcare-associated infection control in small- and medium-sized hospitals.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.15-25
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• 2019

The development of reliable and objective definitions as well as automated processes for the detection of health care-associated infections (HAIs) is crucial; however, transformation to an automated surveillance system remains a challenge. Early outbreak identification usually requires clinicians who can recognize abnormal events as well as ongoing disease surveillance to determine the baseline rate of cases. The system screens the laboratory information system (LIS) data daily to detect candidates for health care-associated bloodstream infection (HABSI) according to well-defined detection rules. The system detects and reserves professional autonomy by requiring further confirmation. In addition, web-based HABSI surveillance and classification systems use discrete data elements obtained from the LIS, and the LIS-provided data correlates strongly with the conventional infection-control personnel surveillance system. The system was timely, acceptable, useful, and sensitive according to the prevention guidelines. The surveillance system is useful because it can help health care professionals better understand when and where the transmission of a wide range of potential pathogens may be occurring in a hospital. A national plan is needed to strengthen the main structures in HAI prevention, Healthcare Associated Prevention and Control Committee (HAIPCC), sterilization service (SS), microbiology laboratories, and hand hygiene resources, considering their impact on HAI prevention.

• Journal of Korean Critical Care Nursing
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.101-109
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• 2018

Purpose : The purpose of this study was to identify the knowledge, perception and hand hygiene performance rate of hospital nurses and to identify any correlation between them. Method : Data were collected from 205 nurses working in a university hospital in Chungcheong-do. A self-report survey method was utilized. Participants completed the hand hygiene knowledge questionnaire. Results : The average knowledge of hand hygiene was 11.76 (out of 18 points), and the average perception of hand hygiene was 35.55 (out of 96). The hand hygiene performance rate was 85.62%. Knowledge of hand hygiene showed significant differences according to age (F = 75.821, p < .001), gender (t = 25.049, p < .001) and working period (F = 24.843, p < .001). The most important explanatory factor in hand hygiene performance was hand hygiene perception (${\beta}=.26$), followed by working period (${\beta}=.14$). These variables accounted for 10.0% of subjects' hand hygiene performance. Conclusion : The results of this study suggest that continuous and effective education is needed to strengthen knowledge and perception of the importance of hand hygiene practice for nurses to prevent healthcare-associated infections.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.56 no.6
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• pp.515-522
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• 2023

Objectives: The pandemic caused by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has exerted an unprecedented impact on the health of populations worldwide. However, the adverse health consequences of the pandemic in terms of infection and mortality rates have varied across countries. In this study, we investigate whether COVID-19 mortality rates across a group of developed nations are associated with characteristics of their healthcare systems, beyond the differential policy responses in those countries. Methods: To achieve the study objective, we distinguished healthcare systems based on the extent of healthcare decommodification. Using available daily data from 2020, 2021, and 2022, we applied quantile regression with non-additive fixed effects to estimate mortality rates across quantiles. Our analysis began prior to vaccine development (in 2020) and continued after the vaccines were introduced (throughout 2021 and part of 2022). Results: The findings indicate that higher testing rates, coupled with more stringent containment and public health measures, had a significant negative impact on the death rate in both pre-vaccination and post-vaccination models. The data from the post-vaccination model demonstrate that higher vaccination rates were associated with significant decreases in fatalities. Additionally, our research indicates that countries with healthcare systems characterized by high and medium levels of decommodification experienced lower mortality rates than those with healthcare systems involving low decommodification. Conclusions: The results of this study indicate that stronger public health infrastructure and more inclusive social protections have mitigated the severity of the pandemic's adverse health impacts, more so than emergency containment measures and social restrictions.

• Perspectives in Nursing Science
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.65-76
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• 2013

Purpose: To identify an associations between health care workers' uniforms and health care-associated infection. Methods: Electronic databases, including Ovid-Medline, the Cochrane Library, CINAHL, EMBASE, KMbase, and KoreaMed, were searched. The search terms included doctor, nurse, health care worker/staff/assistant, clothing, (white) gown, uniform, (neck)tie, and attire. Only papers published in English and Korean were included. Results: 16 studies were selected from 1,900 references screened. All of the studies were non-comparative studies except for one. Four were conducted with doctors, six with nurses, one with health care workers including physiotherapists and one for medical staff plus visitors in a neonatal intensive care unit. Doctors more frequently changed their uniforms than neckties; therefore, the degree of contamination was more serious in neckties. The cuff zone was more likely to be heavily contaminated than other areas of long-sleeve gowns. Coats become contaminated quickly once worn, and colony counts reached a similar level within the first few hours after wearing them. Wearing a plastic apron or protective clothing did not prevent the bacterial contamination of nurses' uniforms, and the best way to decrease the contamination was changing to newly laundered uniforms before starting every duty. Conclusion: Healthcare workers' uniforms are a potential source of health care-associated infection although there was no robust evidence. The government must establish standards for laundering of uniforms or a requirement for institutions to provide a laundering service for healthcare workers' uniforms.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.91-98
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• 2014

Primary gastric lymphoma (PGL) is derived from mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) and it differs from nodal lymphoma in histologic features and biologic behavior. Recent studies have showed that Helicobacter pylori (H.pylori ) infection is closely related to the development of low grade gastric lymphoma, and eradication of the infection induces regression of the tumor. H. pylori infection is known to be important to the development of gastric MALT lymphoma. The aim of this study was to elucidate the histopathological behavior of PGL according to the concept of MALT and to compare the predictive value of tests frequently used for diagnosis of H. pylori. The histological features of gastric lymphoma arising from MALT are the replacement of glands by uniform dense infiltration of centrocyte-like cells in the lamina propria and lymphoidepithelial lesion. H. pylori-associated histologic changes of neutrophilic infiltration, lymphoid follicle or aggregates formation and intestinal metaplasia, and H. pylori immunoreactivity were analyzed. Detection of H. pylori in chronic active gastritis and peptic ulcer suggests a possible role of H. pylori in the pathogenesis. Giemsa, Toluidine blue and Long H&E stains were used in H. pylori detection. Histopathological examination of gastric biopsy specimens revealed lymphoepithelial lesions pathognomonic of MALT lymphoma, and immunohistochemical staining for CD20 was diffusely positive. CD3 was positive in reactive T cells. PAX-5 was negative except the follicle. Bcl-2, cytokeratin, Ki-67, and c-myc were positive. The findings may indicate a predictable transition of low grade to high grade, and c-myc may be used as a valuable marker before molecular pathology diagnosis.