• Journal of Home Health Care Nursing
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.5-24
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• 2001

The purpose of this study was to develop a parenting intervention program and determine the efficacy of the program with low-birth weight infants and their mothers. Nine dyads for the experimental group and twelve dyads for the control group discharged from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of a University Hospital in Seoul were recruited for the study. For the intervention group, programmed education and support which focused on the maternal sensitivity of the infant's behavior. rearing environment. motherinfant interaction and infant care were given to each subject. Individual counseling and home visits were provided at discharge, one week after discharge. and one and three months of corrected age in every infant. Structured questionaires were administered and feeding interactions were videotaped and coded by a blinded certified observer. A Quasi-experimental design was conducted for this study. Postpartum depression, maternal self esteem. infant care burden, HOME. mother-infant interaction, and infant development were measured. Results were in favor of the intervention versus the control group. On the Beck depression inventory, intervention mothers showed decreasing trends in depressive symptom vs control mothers although, there were statistically no significant differences between the two groups at each time. The mean score of experimental group was 11.55(mild depression state) at discharge and became 8,6(normal state) at 1 month of corrected age. On the other hand, the mean score of the control group was 13.92(mild depression state) at discharge and became 14.0. Maternal self esteem in both groups improved over time. Infant care burden in both groups was also shown to increase over time. There was a significant difference between the two groups in HOME(p=.0340) at 3 months of corrected age. HOME scores of the experimental group and the control's were 31.10 and 25.58, respectively. Mothers' emotional and language responses were significantly high in the intervention group compared with the control group(p=.0155). Intervention group (53.33) showed a significantly high quality of motherinfant interaction compared with the in control group (42.80)(p =.0340). Intervention group mothers appeared have a better quality of mother-infant interaction behaviors. On the other hand, there was no statistical difference in the infant part between groups. Intervention group infants had higher trends in a general developmental quotient: although, there was no statistical difference between groups. The general developmental quotient of intervention infants was 102.56 and control's was 91.28. However, the developmental quotient of the domain of 'individuality-sociality' was higher in the intervention group infants compared with the control's(p=.0155). The concerns identified by parents revealed two domains of an infants' health management -knowledge and skills in caregiving of lowbirthweight-infants, characteristics of lowbirthweight infants, identifying a developmental milestone, coping with emergency situations and relaxation strategies of mothers from the infant care burden. Interview data with the mothers of low-birth weight infants can be used to develop intervention program contents. Limited intervention time and frequency due to time and cost limitations of this study should be modified. The intervention should be continuously implemented when low-birth weight infants become three years old. An NNNS demonstration appeared to be a very effective intervention for the mothers to improve the quality of mother-infant interactions. Therefore intervening in the mothers of low-birth weight infants as early after delivery as possible is desirable. This study has shown that home visit interventions are worthwhile for mothers only beyond the approach as an essential factor in ability of facilitating a growth fostering environment. In conclusion. the intervention program of this study was very effective in enhancing the parenting for the mothers of low-birth weight infants, resulting in health promotion of low-birth weight infants. The home-visit outreach intervention program of this study will contribute to the health delivery system in this country where there is a lack of continuous follow-up programs for low-birth weight infants after discharge from NICU, if it is activated as part of the home visit programs in community health systems.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.430-458
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• 1990

Care is a central concept of nursing. Nursing would not exist without caring. Care and quality of life are closely related. Human behavior is a manifestation of culture. We can say that caring and nursing care are expression of culture. The nurse must understand the relationship of culture with care for ensure quality nursing care. But knowledge of cultural factors in nursing is not well developed. Time and in - depth study are needed to find meaningful relationships between culture and care. Nurses recognized the importance of culturally appropriate nursing There are two care systems in culturally based nursing. The folk care system and the professional nursing care system. The folk care system existed long before the professional nursing care system was introduced into this culture. If the discrepancy between these two care systems is great, the client may receive inappropriate nursing care. Culture and subcaltures are diverse and dynamic in nature. Nurses need to know the caring behaviors, patterns, and their meaning in their own culture. In Korea we have taken some first step to study cultural nursing phenomena. It is not our intent necessarily to return to the past and develop a nationalistic of nursing, but to identify the core of traditional caring and relate that to professional nursing care. Our Assumptions are as follows : 1) Care is essential for human growth, well being and survial. 2) 7here are diverse and universal forma, expressions, patterns, and processes of human care that exist transcul - turally. 3) The behaviors and functions of caring differ according to the social structure of each culture. 4) Cultures have folk and professional care values, beliefs, and practices. To promote the quality of nursing care we must understand the folk care value, beliefs, and practices. We undertook this study to understand caring in our traditional culture. The Goals of this study were as follows : 1) To identify patterns in caring behavior, 2) To identify the structural components of caring, and 3) To understand the meaning and some principles of caring. We faised several questions in this study. Who is the care-giver? Who is the care-receipient? Was the woman the major care -giver at any time? What are the patterns in caring behavior? What art the priciples underlying the caring process? We used an interdisciplinary team approach, composed of representatives from nursing and anthropology, to contribute in -depth understanding of caring through a socicaltural perspeetive. A Field study was conducted in Ro-Bong, a small agricultural kinship village. The subjects were nine women and one man aged be or more years of age. Data were collected from january 15 to 21, 1990 through opem-ended in-depth interviews and observations. The interview focused on caring behaviors sorrounding birth, aging, death and child rearing. We analysed these data for meaning, pattern and priciples of caring. In this report we describe caring behaviors surrounding childbirth. The care-givers were primarily mothers- in -low, other women in the family older than the mother - to- be, older neighbor woman, husbands, and mothers of the mother-to- be. The care receivers were the mother-to-be the baby, and the immediate family as a component of kinship. Emerging caring behavior included praying, helping proscribing, giving moral advice(Deug - Dam), showing concern, instructing, protecting, making preparations, showing consideration, touching, trusting, encouraging, giving emotional comfort, being with, worrying about, being patient, preventing problems, showing by an example, looking after bringing up, taking care of postnatal health, streng thening the health condition, entering into another's feelings(empathizing), and sharing food, joy and sorrow The emerging caring component were affection, touching, nurtuing, teaching, praying, comforting, encouraging, sharing. empathizing, self - discipline, protecting, preparing, helping and compassion. Emerging principles of. caring were solidarity, heir- archzeal relationships, sex - role distinction. Caring during birth expresses the valve of life and reflects the valued traditional beliefs that human birth is given by god and a unique unifying family event reaching back to include the ancestors and foreward to later generations. In addition, We found positive and rational foundations for traditionl caring behaviors surrounding birth, these should not be stigmatized as inational or superstitious. The nurse appropriately adopts the rational and positive nature of traditional caring behaviors to promote the quality of nursing care.