• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.50-59
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• 2018

Recently, huge life losses occurred in the elderly long-term medical care fires due to lack of escape safety. As part of the measures to enhance the effectiveness of fire escape safety, while they prolong the available safe egress time (ASET) of non fire compartments, a measure to shorten fire-fighter's arrival time by fire alarm notifying device should be implemented in these facilities. The four categories from the aspects of fire prevention/protection engineering were provided with the necessary component technologies for carrying out these helper-guided evacuations. Fire prevention engineered technology was presented by two provisions; one for ensuring small compartment sections by installing the fire rated wall between bed rooms and another for ensuring the fire retardant or/and non-flammable performance of finishing materials. Also fire protection engineered technology was presented by two items; one for imposing cooling effects by sprinklers and another for providing automatic fire alarm notifying functions to fire stations. In order to improve the escape safety of these facilities in Korea, alternative revisions may presented by considering insufficient provisions in the architectural/fire law provisions by analyzing the provisions of Japanese and domestic laws in detail.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.191-202
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• 1985

As the result of a significant improvement in the economic situation and development of scientific techniques in Korea during the last 20 years, the life expectancy of the Korean people has lengthened considerably and as a result the number of old aged people has markedly increased. Such an increase of the number of aged people brought about many problems. Authors would like to take a medical look at the "Problem of old aged people" presently facing us in Korea. Currently the number of people over 65 has increased rapidly and is 1,620,000, 4% of total population. But it is still much lower than 8.9% in Japan, 10.7% in U.S.A., and 14.9% in the United Kingdom. Over 25% of these aged people were found to have at least more than one disease which requires medical care. Diseases occur in the circulatory system, 30.9%, respiratory system, 17.1%, digestive system 8.6%, mental disorders, 8.4%, malignant neoplasms, 7.0%. About 51% of the aged over 65 are under medical security benefit, mostly with partial coverage plan. Their clinic visit rate was very low (2.0% in 1981), which might be due to financial reasons. Since diseases affecting the aged progress chronically, early detection and long term care are utter most important. However there is almost no special facility, long term care center or geriatric specialist. For proper management of medical problems in the growing population of the Korean eldery expansion of medical security coverage, greater number of specialized facilities, education of geriatric special manpower and efficient operating system should be established.

• 한국노년학
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.217-240
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• 2021

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of care workers' employment characteristics and perception of facility directors' transformational leadership on quality of service through a hierarchical linear model. For this aim, survey data were collected amongst 240 older adults and 200 care workers who are affiliated within 45 long-term care facilities in Seoul, and analyzed using SPSS 26.0 and HLM 8.0. As a result, one's perception of transformational leadership had a positive effect, whereas, among employment characteristics, employment type and working hours had negative effects on quality of service. Regular workers with fewer working hours and higher awareness of transformational leadership toward the director provided higher quality of service. But wage, total experience and tenure didn't meaningfully affect it. Therefore, the following suggestions were presented. First, it is necessary to reorganize incentive, salary systems and budgets, changing the status of temporary workers' hourly wage system into that of regular workers' monthly one in order to strengthen employment security with acknowledging fundamental professional values through reinforcement of expertise. Reinforcement of long-term care's publicness and establishment of base facilities are also suggested. Second, maintaining appropriate hours of work and rest including annual leave under the Labor Standards Act is needed. Also, increasing the salary of and decreasing working hours for night shift workers are required. Third, education and intervention for inspiring transformational leadership of directors and strengthening qualification standards of them are required.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.29-38
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• 2008

Purpose: This study investigated various factors relatied to wandering behavior of Korean elders with dementia (KED). Methods: A sample of 160 ambulatory residents with dementia from 14 long term care facilities was used to examine demographic, individual, cognitive, physical health, and environmental characteristics by comparing wanderers (N=108) to nonwanders (N=52). Subjects were evaluated by Korean versions of the Mini-mental State Exam (K-MMSE), the Physical and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (K-PIADL), and the Revised Algase Wandering Scale Nursing Home version (KRAWS-NH) along its six dimensions. Demographic and environmental data were also obtained. Independent sample t-tests, Chi-square test, Fisher's Exact tests, and ANCOVAs were used to examine differences between wanderers and nonwanders. Results: Wanderers were significantly (p<.05) older and had more limitations in K-PADL and K-IADL. The degree of overall wandering and certain features of wandering were significantly different (p<.05) by total number of residents in the facility, type of bedroom (i.e., "Ondol"), and color of bedroom and living-room walls (i.e., sky blue). Conclusions: Findings of this study may be useful in understanding wandering behavior of KEDs and thus developing more culturally specific management strategies.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.488-496
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• 2011

Purpose: To determine the type and degree of effect that a hot footbath has on sleep quality and fatigue level in older Korean adults. Methods: A non-equivalent control group quasi-experimental design was used. Fifty participants from a long-term care facility in Kwangju, South Korea, were randomly selected and assigned to two groups: experimental group (27 participants) and control group (23 participants). The participants in the experimental group received hot footbaths in a temperature-controlled water tub of $42^{\circ}C$. They soaked their feet up to 20cm above the ankles for 30 minutes before going to bed for 3 nights. Actigraphy was used to measure their sleep patterns. The data were analyzed using the SAS program. Results: After the intervention, the total sleep satisfaction rate of the participants increased, while sleep latency and fatigue decreased significantly in the experimental group compared to the control group. Conclusion: The study results suggest that hot footbaths are beneficial for older Korean adults in enhancing sleep quality as well as reducing fatigue. Therefore, hot footbaths are recommended as a nursing intervention to improve sleep quality and to reduce fatigue in older Korean adults.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.668-678
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• 2002

Purpose: The number of nursing home residents has been increasing in Korea. Nurses need to know the lived experience of relocation of the elderly to long-term care facilities. However, studies on this issue has not yet been conducted in Korea. Therefore, this study was carried out to understand the experience of institutionalization of the elderly using a phenomenological approach. Method: There were 11 participants who consisted of 5 men and 6 women living in 3 different nursing homes. The data was collected through in-depth interviews and participant observation from June 1999 to October 2001, and analyzed by Colaizzi's phenomenological method. Result: A total of 275 meaningful statements related to the experience of institutionalization by the elderly were obtained. Of the 275 statements, 175 were found as the statements with more general forms. 28 themes were grouped into 8 theme clusters. These theme clusters included' resentment at their sons', irresistible admission', 'humiliation on institutionalization', 'being unbearable to shock', 'grief to unfamiliarity', 'being in agony of outwards', 'regret for self-life' and 'comfort for new residence'. Conclusion: Based on these results. we can understand the lived experience of institutionalization of the Korean elderly. We need to develop a nursing program to help the elderly cope with this crisis, and studies about the familys experience on their parents admission to institutionalized facility warrant further exploration.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.166-176
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• 2009

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to identify functional structure and patterns of dialogue sequence in conversations between elderly patients with dementia and nurses in a long-term care facility. Methods: Conversation analysis was used to analyze the data which were collected using video-camera to capture non-verbal as well as verbal behaviors. Data collection was done during February 2005. Results: Introduction, assessment, intervention, and closing phases were identified as functional structure. Essential parts of the conversation were the assessment and intervention phases. In the assessment phase three sequential patterns of nurse-initiated dialogue and four sequential patterns of patient-initiated dialogue were identified. Also four sequential patterns were identified in nurse-initiated and three in patient-initiated dialogues in the intervention phase. In general, "ask question", "advise", and "directive" were the most frequently used utterance by nurses in nurse-initiated dialogue, indicating nurses' domination of the conversation. At the same time, "ask back", "refute", "escape", or "false promise" were used often by nurses to discourage patients from talking when patients were raising questions or demanding. Conclusion: It is important for nurses to encourage patient-initiated dialogue to counterbalance nurse-dominated conversation which results from imbalance between nurses and patients in terms of knowledge and task in healthcare institutions for elders.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.233-242
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• 2021

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to verify influencing factors affecting service quality provided by caregivers working for the elderly with dementia. Methods: Data were collected using a self-reported questionnaire from 214 caregivers in a long-term care facility in D city. The data were analyzed with service quality, dementia knowledge, work value, and job performance confidence. For data analysis, the descriptive statistics, t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficients, and multiple regression were performed using SPSS/WIN 21.0 program. Results: There were significant differences in service quality depending on the health status. Factors influencing service quality were work value, and job performance confidence with R² value of 38%. The highly influencing factors were work value, and job performance confidence. Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that the effort to improve the service quality of caregivers should focus on work value and job performance confidence.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.324-334
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• 1998

Background : Strategic planning is an organizationwide or systemwide, ongoing look into the future usually of 2~3 years, based on objective analysis of the current environment and trends, but it can incorporate both short-term and long-term goals. The strategic planning process includes external analysis, internal analysis, issue analysis, development of mission, vision and values, and lastly development of organizational goals and objectives. As a part of the strategic quality planning process, certain service lines, important organizationwide functions, or key processes supporting these functions can be prioritized to expedite and roll out certain strategic goals. This is called strategic quality initiatives. Methods : We organized a quality improvement team, a subgroup of 21st century vision planning corps of our medical center, and pursued QI activities for improvement of healthcare environment, particularly in the admission setting. We developed a strategic quality initiative based on the results of patient satisfaction surveys, and carried out functions of self-directed work team. Results : The strategic goal was to be the benchmark for peer group hospitals in Korea for providing cost-effective best-practice. The QI team included 3 medical doctors, 1 nurse, 1 social worker, and 1 QI consultant as well as many operational members to support services and quality initiatives met every Tuesday for 18 weeks. Outcome objectives were to improve patient satisfaction score. The issues included in the objectives were comfort, temperature, noise, cleanliness of the admission wards, quality and education of patient meals, matters regarding the admission process, and an appurtenant facility such as restaurant or convenience store. Every issue was discussed and recommendations, conclusions and opportunities were implemented. Conclusions : By developing a strategic quality initiative as a part of the strategic quality planning process, and pursuing a self-directed work team, certain sen/ice lines, important organizationwide functions, or key processes supporting these functions can be improved effectively within a short period. Strategic quality initiatives serve to support, or roll out, certain strategic goals that are relevant to performance improvement and development of specific measurable outcome objectives, and associated performance measure for each initiative. Each strategic quality initiative should include a statement of intent outcome objectives, and performance measures. We will come back with follow up of the strategic quality initiative, for improvement of healthcare environment, and results of patient satisfaction re-survey.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.359-377
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• 2020

Background: This study investigated whether current smoking and a higher nicotine dependency were associated with chronic low back pain (LBP), lumbar related leg pain (sciatica) and/or radicular neuropathic pain. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 150 patients (mean age, 60.1 ± 13.1 yr). Demographic data, the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) neuropathic pain grade, STarT Back tool, and the Fagerström test were completed. A control group (n = 50) was recruited. Results: There was a significant difference between current smokers and nonsmokers in the chronic LBP group in the mean pain score (P = 0.025), total STarT Back score (P = 0.015), worst pain location (P = 0.020), most distal pain radiation (P = 0.042), and in the IASP neuropathic pain grade (P = 0.026). There was a significant difference in the mean Fagerström score between the four IASP neuropathic pain grades (P = 0.005). Current smoking yielded an odds ratio (OR) of 3.071 (P = 0.011) for developing chronic LBP and sciatica, and an OR of 4.028 (P = 0.002) for obtaining an IASP "definite/probable" neuropathic pain grade, for both cohorts. The likelihood for chronic LBP and sciatica increased by 40.9% (P = 0.007), while the likelihood for an IASP neuropathic grade of "definite/probable" increased by 50.8% (P = 0.002), for both cohorts, for every one unit increase in the Fagerström score. Conclusions: A current smoking status and higher nicotine dependence increase the odds for chronic LBP, sciatica and radicular neuropathic pain.