• 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.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.424-433
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• 2012

Purpose: With the rapid increase in information technology in the medical environment, protection of patient's privacy is a crucial issue to hospital nurses. The purpose of this study was to determine neonatal nurses' perception and performance of behavior to protect patient privacy, and professional self-concept, and to investigate the relationships among these variables. Methods: The participants in this descriptive correlation study were 182 nurses in nursery and neonatal intensive care units using EMR or OCS in November, 2011. Results: Perception and performance averaged 4.61 and 4.04 (out of 5) respectively, and the average score for professional self-concept was 2.73 (out of 4). There was a significant difference between perception and performance. The performance of behaviour to protect patient privacy had a positive correlation with perception and professional self-concept. Multiple regression analysis showed that the key determinants of performance were recognition of necessity of patient privacy education, professional self-concept and perception, and these explained 36% of the total variance of performance. Conclusion: Study results indicate a need to establish policy to protect privacy of neonates and their families, and to develop educational programs to enhance neonatal nurses' perception and performance.

• Journal of Audiology & Otology
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.76-82
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• 2019

Background and Objectives: Noise levels and room acoustic parameters at a tertiary referral hospital, Seoul National University Hospital (SNUH) in Korea, are investigated. Materials and Methods: Through a questionnaire, acoustically problematic rooms are identified. Noise levels in emergency rooms (ERs) and intensive care units (ICUs) are measured over about three days. Acoustically critical and problematic rooms in the otolaryngology department are measured including examination rooms, operating rooms, nurse stations, receptions, and patient rooms. Results: The A-weighted equivalent noise level, L_Aeq, ranges from 54 to 56 dBA, which is at least 10 dB lower than the noise levels of 65 to 73 dBA measured in American ERs. In an ICU, the noise level for the first night was 66 dBA, which came down to 56 dBA for the next day. The noise levels during three different ear surgeries vary from 57 to 62 dBA, depending on the use of surgical drills and suctions. The noise levels in a patient room is found to be 47 dBA, while the nurse stations and the receptions have high noise levels up to 64 dBA. The reverberation times in an operation room, examination room, and single patient room are found to be below 0.6 s. Conclusions: At SNUH, the nurse stations and receptions were found to be quite noisy. The ERs were quieter than in the previous studies. The measured reverberation times seemed low enough but some other nurse stations and examination rooms were not satisfactory according to the questionnaire.

• Korean Journal of Audiology
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.76-82
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• 2019

Background and Objectives: Noise levels and room acoustic parameters at a tertiary referral hospital, Seoul National University Hospital (SNUH) in Korea, are investigated. Materials and Methods: Through a questionnaire, acoustically problematic rooms are identified. Noise levels in emergency rooms (ERs) and intensive care units (ICUs) are measured over about three days. Acoustically critical and problematic rooms in the otolaryngology department are measured including examination rooms, operating rooms, nurse stations, receptions, and patient rooms. Results: The A-weighted equivalent noise level, L_Aeq, ranges from 54 to 56 dBA, which is at least 10 dB lower than the noise levels of 65 to 73 dBA measured in American ERs. In an ICU, the noise level for the first night was 66 dBA, which came down to 56 dBA for the next day. The noise levels during three different ear surgeries vary from 57 to 62 dBA, depending on the use of surgical drills and suctions. The noise levels in a patient room is found to be 47 dBA, while the nurse stations and the receptions have high noise levels up to 64 dBA. The reverberation times in an operation room, examination room, and single patient room are found to be below 0.6 s. Conclusions: At SNUH, the nurse stations and receptions were found to be quite noisy. The ERs were quieter than in the previous studies. The measured reverberation times seemed low enough but some other nurse stations and examination rooms were not satisfactory according to the questionnaire.

• Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.45-53
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• 2003

The purpose of this study was to identify the proper changing time of tracheal suction catheter by examining the microorganisms inside after used The samples were the adult and the elderly patients who were in the intensive cane unit of one university hospital in Korea from the early December, 2002 to the end of May 2003. Since the patients needed tracheal suction, sterile catheter including other equipments were used whenever tracheal suction provided, to the experimental group. The sterile catheter with others was provided when the catheter repeatedly used for four hours, to the comparative group. Research was permitted by the head of hospital administration, hospital nursing department; microbiology and intensive care unit. The main results of the study are as follows. 1) The demographic characteristics between the two groups present statistically no difference. 2) Every the experimental group showed various kinds of microorganisms, the numbers of the kinds and carries of the microorganisms were less than those of the comparative group. 3) The mean numbers of the microorganisms between the two groups were significantly different, p < 0.05. This study results strongly emphasize the needs of using sterile catheter whenever a nurse suctions to keep patient's airway open.

• Journal of Korean Critical Care Nursing
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.78-88
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• 2013

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the trends in studies published in Journal of Korean Critical Care Nursing (JKCCN) from 2008 to 2013. Methods: A total of 65 studies published between 2008 to 2013 were reviewed using criteria developed by researchers. Results: Approximately 36% of studies were conducted with patients. Intensive care unit (ICU) was the most popular site as the study setting. Among 59 research papers, 42.4% were approved by institutional review board (IRB). Quantitative studies were 78.6%, while qualitative studies were 4.6%. The research designs for the quantitative studies were survey (52.3%), quasi-experimental (16.9%), and so on. There was no randomized controlled trial. The most frequently used methods to provide nursing intervention was education. In addition, "nurse" and "ICU" were most commonly used keyword. Conclusion: Considering the low rate of IRB approval, more stringent application of research ethics is necessary to improve the quality of JKCCN. In addition, more randomized controlled trials should be encouraged to support evidence-based practice in critical care.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.917-928
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• 2002

The traditional nursing roles have become increasingly blurred. Nurses are now working in different ways and at higher levels of practice that enable nurses to adapt their roles and take on new responsibilities. The advanced role of nurses requires a different kind of master-level prepared education. Method & Result: This article describes an curriculum development process in preparing registered nurses for their advanced nurese' roles in the area of acute adult health nursing, geriatric nursing, pediatric nursing, neonatal intensive care nursing and oncology nursing. Several important issues to be solved regarding introduction of APN were also discussed. Conclusion: The curriculum that was proposed in the study will equip nurses to meet the challenges of future healthcare provision and will be a model to other areas of nursing practice and curriculum development.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.810-821
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• 2007

Purpose: This study investigated job stress and coping of ICU Nurses. Method: Data was accumulated from 206 ICU nurses serving at least more than one year in 500 bed order hospitals during the period of three months from June1, to August 30, 2006. Results: The average job stress was $2.96{\pm}.95$ points, which was relatively high. The average coping was $2.55{\pm}.23$ points. Conclusion: The extent of the job stress of ICU nurses was relatively high, and they received the heaviest stress from job circumstances. For the prevention of job stress, every effort is required to analyze the causes of stress caused by job circumstances and to pose an appropriate solution. Meanwhile, job stress, needs to be controlled using a solution for the central problem, and search for social support.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.11 no.11
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• pp.443-450
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• 2020

The purpose of this study was to examine the inter-rater and intra-rater reliability of the oral mucosa pressure ulcer classification system based on the photographs. The study consisted of two stages; development and evaluation. In the developmental stage, 9 photographs of 82 were selected. In the evaluation stage, a total of 49 participants were invited web-based survey by e-mail. Cohen's weighted kappa and Krippendorff's alpha were used to define the inter-rater reliability. Nine photographs consisted of two, three, three, and one in normal, stage 1, stage 2, and stomatitis, respectively. The inter-rater reliabilities of wound care nurse specialist, intensive care nurse specialist, and dentist groups were 0.75, 0.70, and 0.78, respectively. The intra-rater reliability was 0.73. The inter-rater and intra-rater reliabilities of the oral mucosa pressure ulcer classification system showed substantially good agreement.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.18-31
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• 2017

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyze literature related to nursing team effectiveness and to summarize the definition variables included, measurement tools, and findings. Basic data on operation and research for team effectiveness in nursing units was sought. Methods: A literature search was performed to identify all studies published between 2003 and 2016 from periodicals indexed in PUBMED, CINAHL, SCIENCE DIRECT, RISS, KISS, and NAL databases. The following keywords were used in the search: 'team effectiveness', 'nurse', 'nursing', and 'hospital'. Ten studies were analyzed. Results: The analysis included domestic and international literature on nursing team effectiveness. The foreign literature included studies of various organizations including nurses, use of various research tools, leadership programs and/or new nursing delivery systems. In the Korean studies, most of the research on team effectiveness surveyed nurses on team satisfaction, team commitment, and team performance in general nursing units, operating rooms, and intensive care units. Conclusion: The findings show the necessity to develop a definition of team effectiveness that can be accepted comprehensively in nursing organizations in Korea. The definition should reflect team effectiveness that includes all cooperating units not only nurses of the nursing unit but also all other related health care teams.