• Journal of Home Health Care Nursing
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.5-15
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• 2024

Purpose: The study aim was to examine the home healthcare system and relevant education, as well as the special certification examination, and propose a plan to increase the supply of home health nurses. Methods: A narrative literature review was conducted using data from research articles, Korean and U.S. educational institutes and organizations, Korean national statistical data, government press releases, and related medical legislation. Results: Between 2005 and 2006, 763 home health nurses were certified through the special qualification examination; however, in the 16 years from 2007 to 2023 (after the graduate-level program was established), a total of 555 home health nurses were certified, with an average of approximately 35 per year. Currently, 790 home health nurses are working at 194 medical institutions nationwide. Relatively few institutions exist in rural areas, and the supply of home health nurses is low. Only seven educational institutions offer home health nurse certification programs, with a total of 77 designated students. In contrast to Korea, post-master's certification courses are offered in the U.S.. Conclusion: To expand the supply of home health nurses, we recommend revising the rules for the special qualification examination and introducing a post-master's certification program for home health nurses. Future studies should provide additional education for applicants from other specialties in post-master's certification programs.

• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.185-190
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• 2020

The rapid aging is increasing as the shortage of medical facilities and the resulting of decline in the quality of public health. In order to ease the burden of rising medical expenses, advanced medical institutions are expanding their remote medical care to lower the cost of services. U-healthcare detects the changes in physical and chemical phenomena occurring in the human body and converts them into electrical signals that can be processed and feeds back to the results through analytical and visualization processes to select only the desired information from the measured signals. The service is provided through a process of providing an alarm to a user. However, traditional biometric methods of attaching sensors directly to the body can be annoying and rejected in daily life. Therefore, there is a need for a method of continuously measuring biometric information without causing inconvenience to daily life. In this paper, we propose an IR-UWB-based non-contact and non-responsive respiratory measurement system that can continuously monitor biological information without any inconveniences to daily life.

• The Journal of Bigdata
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.195-205
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• 2019

Linked Open Data (LOD) is rated as the best of any kind of data disclosure, and allows you to search related data by linking them in a standard format across the Internet. There is an increasing number of cases in which relevant data are constructed in the LOD form in the global environment, but in the domestic healthcare sector, the disclosure of data in the form of LOD is still at the beginning stage. In this paper, we introduce a case of LOD platform construction that provides services by linking domestic and international related data by LOD method, based on the data of Korean medical research paper data and health care big data linkage platform. Linking all data from each DB into an LOD requires a lot of time and effort, and is basically an infrastructure task that government or public institutions should be in charge of rather than the private sector. In this study, ten domestic and foreign LOD sites were linked with only a portion of each DB, enabling users to link data from various domestic and foreign organizations in a convenient manner.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.225-231
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• 2008

Objectives: Bioterrorism (BT) preparedness and response plans are particularly important among healthcare workers who will be among the first involved in the outbreak situations. This study was conducted to evaluate the current status of education for BT preparedness and response in health care-related colleges/junior colleges and to develop learning objectives for use in their regular curricula. Methods: We surveyed all medical colleges/schools, colleges/junior colleges that train nurses, emergency medical technicians or clinical pathologists, and 10% (randomly selected) of them that train general hygienists in Korea. The survey was conducted via mail from March to July of 2007. We surveyed 35 experts to determine if there was a consensus of learning objectives among healthcare workers. Results: Only 31.3% of medical colleges/schools and 13.3% of nursing colleges/junior colleges had education programs that included BT preparedness and responses in their curricula. The most common reason given for the lack of BT educational programs was 'There is not much need for education regarding BT preparedness and response in Korea'. None of the colleges/junior colleges that train clinical pathologists, or general hygienists had an education program for BT response. After evaluating the expert opinions, we developed individual learning objectives designed specifically for educational institutions. Conclusions: There were only a few colleges/junior colleges that enforce the requirement to provide education for BT preparedness and response in curricula. It is necessary to raise the perception of BT preparedness and response to induce the schools to provide such programs.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.12-23
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• 2016

Background: Many studies have explained regional disparities in health by socioeconomic status and healthcare resources, focusing on differences between urban and rural area. However some cities in Korea have the highest cardiovascular mortality, even though they have sufficient healthcare resources. So this study aims to confirm three hypotheses. (1) There are also regional health disparities between cities not only between urban and rural area. (2) It has different regional risk factors affecting cardiovascular mortality whether it is urban or rural area. (3) Besides socioeconomic and healthcare resources factors, there are remnant factors that affect regional cardiovascular mortality such as health behavior and physical environment. Methods: The subject of this study is 227 local authorities (si, gun, and gu). They were categorized into city (gu and si consisting of urban area) and non-city (gun consisting of rural area), and the city group was subdivided into 3 parts to reflect relative different city status: city 1 (Seoul, Gyeonggi cities), city 2 (Gwangyeoksi cities), and city 3 (other cities). We compared their mortalities among four groups by using analysis of variance analysis. And we explored what had contributed to it in whole authorities, city and non-city group by using multiple regression analysis. Results: Cardiovascular mortality is highest in city 2 group, lowest in city 1 group and middle in non-city group. Socioeconomic status and current smoking significantly increase mortality regardless of group. Other than those things, in city, there are some factors associated with cardiovascular mortality: walking practice(-), weight control attempt(-), deficiency of sports facilities(+), and high rate of factory lot(+). In non-city, there are other factors different from those of city: obesity prevalence(+), self-perceiving obesity(-), number of public health institutions(-), and road ratio(-). Conclusion: To reduce cardiovascular mortality and it's regional disparities, we need to consider differentiated approach, respecting regional character and different risk factors. Also, it is crucial to strengthen local government's capacity for practicing community health policy.

• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.49-57
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• 2018

Purpose: The increase in patients requiring hemodialysis has resulted in an increase dialysis-associated infections risk. but there are no Renal Dialysis unit design standard meet specified safety and quality standards. Therefore, appropriate Establish standards and legal regulation is important for the provision of initial certification and maintenance of facility, equipment, and human resource quality. Methods: Literature survey on the design guideline and standards of Renal Dialysis unit design in Korea, U.S, Germany, Singapore, Hongkong, Dubai. Results: There are no established standards for facilities in dialysis units in Korea. To prevent infections in dialysis patients, necessary establish standards. Considering the domestic and overseas Health-care facilities standards, the major factors to be considered in the medical environment for Renal Dialysis Unit are as follows. First, planning to separate Clean areas(treatment area) from contaminated areas(medical waste storage area). Second, ensure sufficient space and minimum separation distance. Although there may be differences depending on the circumstances of individual institutions, renal dialysis unit consider the space to prevent droplet transmission. Third, secure infrastructure of infection prevention such as sufficient amount of hand hygiene sinks. Hand washing facilities for staff within the Unit should be readily available. Hand hygiene sinks should be located to prevent water from splashing into the treatment area. Fourth, Heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system for Renal Dialysis Unit is all about providing a safer environment for patients and staff. Implications: The results of this paper can be the basic data for the design of the Renal Dialysis Units and relevant regulations.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.126-134
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• 2020

Objectives: Cancer diagnoses have a tremendous impact on individuals and communities, drawing intense public concern. The objective of the current research was to examine news coverage and content related to cancer-related issues in Korean newspapers. Methods: Primarily using the database system of the Korea Press Foundation, we conducted a content analysis of 2806 articles from 9 Korean daily newspapers during a recent 3-year period from 2015 to 2017. Thematic categories, the types of articles, attitudes and tone, and the number of sources in each article were coded and classified. Results: Many news articles dealt with a diverse range of themes related to cancer, including general healthcare information, the latest research and development, specific medical institutions and personnel, and technology and products, which jointly accounted for 74.8% of all articles. Those thematic categories differed markedly in terms of article type, tone, and the number of cited sources. News articles provided extensive information about healthcare resources, and many articles seemed to contain advertising content. However, the content related to complex social issues such as National Health Insurance did not include enough information for the reader to contextualize the issues properly or present the issues systematically. Conclusions: It can be assumed that the media exert differential influence on individuals through news coverage. Within the present reporting framework, the availability and usefulness of information are likely to depend solely on individuals' capabilities, such as financial and health literacy; this dependency has a negative impact on knowledge gaps and health inequities.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.15 no.8
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• pp.89-98
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• 2010

Recently supply of Internet is bringing a important change in medical environments. The hospitals which had a different system is required the system that can efficiently share and exchange medical information. In order to transmission medical information between systems, the Health Level Seven(HL7) interface engine development that can convert medical data to HL7 messages is necessary. The HL7 is a standard protocol for data exchange in healthcare environments. In this paper, I implemented HL7 interface engine for Alzheimer's disease in elderly care facility. The interface engine is composed of the client system and the server system. The client system inputs user's medical care data for the aged, and builds them into HL7 message stream. HL7 messages in the client system transmitted over TCP/IP protocol to the server system. The server system parses and validates this messages stream to the segments and fields and then transmits acknowledgement to the client system. I implemented it using the Java and JavaCC. The study of interface engine implementation can be used meaningfully in electronic health record, telemedicine system, and medical information sharing among various healthcare institutions.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.20 no.11
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• pp.175-181
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• 2015

In this paper, based on the reference, we try to review the second issues about opening medical market and health care privatization by each topic and propose the measures and alternatives. Currently, in Korea, connection with launch of the WTO system and force of the FTA, the medical industries getting liberalization and globalization. Thus, it is expected to plunge to full-free competition system, and Korean medical institutions started the global competition which completely different dimension. It means that according to the liberalization of the healthcare market the real problem can be caused and also, the incessant discussion and effort for the implementation of international community are needed. Regard to attracting foreign patients and opening medical markets, the government also spreading the continued advancement strategy politically until now. However, generating problems with implication is inevitable and measures and alternatives to it are also needed. In accordance with the opening, the accompanying suggestions is medical privatization, that is, whether the health care pursue the profit not the not-for-profit and the current hospitals in Korea they are leaved as non-profit hospitals and let the make the subsidiary as general commercial enterprises, it seems indirect. However, it is like a healthcare privatization virtually thus, implication seem be large. Of course, through the public opinion and legal reservation, the liberalization and privatization of medical market can be delayed or not forced. It would be not fit in the flow of the inevitable globalization, it can be inhibited national interest and economic development also, and it can be the critical implications which shake the health system and collapse of the domestic health care market.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.51 no.5
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• pp.585-596
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• 2021

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore nurses' experience with caring for COVID-19 patients in a negative pressure room amid the spread of the pandemic. Methods: This study was a qualitative research, and focus group interviews were used to collect data. Three focus groups comprising 19 nurses were interviewed from February 17 to 25, 2021. All interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim with the consent of the participants. The verbatim transcripts were scrutinized using thematic analysis. Results: Two main themes emerged from the analysis: 'Struggling in an isolated space' and 'Limitations of nursing infrastructure and system'. The nurses caring for COVID-19 patients experienced anxiety and fear about the infection, physical exhaustion, emotional burnout, and a sense of duty as a nurse. They also acknowledged the lack of guidelines, increased task and burden, limitations of nursing care, and the demand for improving the limitations of the nursing system. Conclusion: The results of this study demonstrate that nurses caring for COVID-19 patients encounter physical and emotional problems within the limited healthcare system. The study suggests that comprehensive interventions are needed for nurses. Furthermore, detailed guidelines, strengthening of nursing personnel, and improvements to the nursing system are vital to effectively cope with the pandemic. The government and medical institutions should be aware of the needs of nurses and what they are going through, and make efforts to improve the quality of life of healthcare workers and create a safe healthcare environment.