• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.82-87
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• 2016

As contemporary society has become more complicated, specialized, and segmented, people are experiencing more diverse types of stress. In particular, while several factors associated with job stress have been examined among nurses, who belong to a professional group, the existing research has made no quantitative assessments of stress that reflect temporal differences in individuals. Therefore, the aim of this study is to understand the effects of job stress on alpha-amylase with regard to the working hours of nurses, to assess the variations in jobs stress over time, and provide basic data to improve the quality of nursing services. Ninety nurses working in three shifts in general, emergency, and intensive care wards of a university hospital in D City participated in this study. Salivary alpha-amylase (SAA) was extracted and analyzed at two-hour intervals from 07:00 to 15:00 from nurses on the day shift and from 23:00 to 07:00 from those working the night shift. The SAA level was highest between 23:00 and 01:00 for nurses in general wards ($mean{\pm}S.D.\;39.00{\pm}14.88$) and between 11:00 and 13:00 for those in both intensive care units and emergency wards ($mean{\pm}S.D.\;67.50{\pm}62.93$ and $mean{\pm}S.D.\;39.67{\pm}35.96$, respectively). The characteristic variation in SAA was significant between 23:00 and 01:00 (p < 0.01) and for those in their fifties or older (p < 0.01). The activation ratio of alpha-amylase, a stress reactant, showed an increase when the sympathetic nervous system was activated by mental stress; in addition, job stress was manifested with the effect of awakening at different time segments and at different ages among the nurses. With the aim of raising the level of service based on the nurses maintaining their mental health, it is necessary to focus sharply on the time segment for critical control and to conduct repetitive studies to determine the divisions of eustress critical values as well as to expand the population.

• Journal of the Korean Dietetic Association
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.235-246
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• 2014

The purpose of this study was to evaluate nurses' perception of clinical nutrition services. A cross-sectional survey design was performed. The research was accomplished by using questionnaires developed for this study and administered from September 12 to December 31, 2013 to 343 nurses at 43 tertiary hospitals and 20 general hospitals. The percentage of nurses who recognized clinical nutrition certificate as issued from nation was 27.8%. The mean scores of perceived usefulness on clinical nutrition services was 4.23/5.00, whereas that of perceived implementation was 3.76/5.00. The mean scores of necessity of disease-specialized clinical dietitian at capital hospitals were significantly higher for obesity (P<0.01), cancer (P<0.05), and infant & childhood disease (P<0.01) than at local hospitals. The rates of nurses' experience in group education on cancer at capital hospitals (21.7%) was significantly higher than that at local hospitals (10.3%) (P<0.05). The mean scores of perceived importance of clinical nutrition services were 4.46/5.00 for 'group nutrition education', 4.46/5.00 for 'individual consultation', and 4.40/5.00 for 'nutrition management for enteral nutrition (EN) patients'. The most common reason why clinical nutrition services are important was 'improving malnutritional status'. To activate clinical nutrition services especially at local hospitals, clinical dietitians should give systematic assistance to patients and also institutional supports are needed.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.345-356
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• 2010

This study investigates the present conditions of hospital clothes management. A survey was conducted with 72 respondents from 28 different hospitals in April and May 2009. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics and correlations using PASW 17.0. The results were as follows: (1) Administrators, nurses, and outside specialists took part in the clothes management process. The administrators participated in the process of purchase determination. Nurses involved in the design, size selection, and outside specialists were responsible for routine management. (2) Most clothes were planned through the discussions between hospitals and manufacturers. Price was the most important element to determine the purchase of clothes. Size systems were various depending on the conditions of the hospital according to the number of beds. (3) Laundry duties were performed by the hospitals themselves or in specialized laundry plants. In addition, the hygienic condition of clothes management were satisfactory. (4) Patient gowns were evaluated positively, yet some complaints from patients were reported. (5) Various medical supplies were used and were uncomfortable related to textile and fitting problems. Future research themes are suggested based on these results.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.55-66
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• 2022

Purpose: This study aims to investigate the factors influencing health personnel's occupational stress on turnover intention regarding healthcare accreditation. Methods: A survey was conducted from May 17 to May 31, 2021, among participants to examine occupational stress and turnover intention among health personnel working at a 188-bed specialized hospital in Seoul that is preparing for healthcare accreditation. Results: Occupational stress regarding healthcare accreditation was found to have a positive correlation with turnover intention (r=.698, p <.001), and influenced turnover intention the most, which explains the variance of 55.8% (F=29.015, p <.001). There were significant differences between occupational groups in job stress (F=13.292, p<.001) and turnover intention (F=10.930, p <.001) in the healthcare accreditation. Conclusion: Occupational stress regarding healthcare accreditation is higher in nursing than in other occupations, indicating the need to lower the turnover intention of nurses by preparing a national institutional standard for nursing manpower and also put in place an appropriate compensation system for each hospital seeking accreditation.

• Journal of Home Health Care Nursing
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.11-18
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• 2012

Purpose: The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficiency of the outpatient clinics in a hospital, using DEA. Methods: Data were collected using an activity-based costing system, medical information system, and annual reports of customer satisfaction management team of a general hospital in a city. The input variables were the number of doctors, the number of nurses, and the number of staffs. The output variables were the number of treatment times, the number of outpatient clinic patients, the total profits from outpatient clinic, the patient's satisfaction score, and the number of re-visit appointments. EMS Window version 3.1 was used to measure the efficiency score and benchmarking analysis. Results: The average efficiency score of 24 outpatient clinics was about 82.01%. Thirteen outpatient clinics had 100% efficiency score among them. The lowest efficiency score was 57.56%. Conclusion: According to these results, we found that, generally, outpatient clinics were operated very efficiently. However, some outpatient clinics had low efficiency and they needed specialized outcome improvement strategies. To increase the efficiency of inefficient outpatient clinics, we will recommend using results of DEA, as a benchmark point of the most efficient outpatient clinics.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.15-32
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• 1996

The clinical practice program for home care nurses was implemented in June 1994, to help to set up a hospital-based home care system in the Kwangju City area as a collaborative work between the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at Chunnam University Hospital and Chunnam University School of Nursing. Under the developed clinical practice strategy, the eight week training was given to five licensed home care nurses who had completed Part I and II of the home health care nursing practicum from June 1994. The purpose of this descriptive evaluation study was to identify the effectiveness of the clinical practice program for home care nurses specialized in the area of patient care for people with musculoskeletal function impairment. As a method in data analysis, data triangulation was used in the five home care nurse case evaluations. The variety of data analyzed include confidence score by home care nurse self-evaluation, patient and family member satisfaction scores, and competency score by preceptor evaluation. The study findings revealed that an increase rate in nursing performance didrate necessarily coincide with an increase not in competency score and also, not with the patient /family member satisfaction scores. And an order derived from the clinical performance scores of five home care nurses corresponded to those from three measurements-competency score, patient satisfaction score, and family member satisfaction score. However, it differed from the order associated with the confidence score. Consistency derived from the three objective evaluation methods may lead to the possibility that the level of competency measured by educator can be further explained by the levels of patient/family member satisfaction. The salient finding of this study was that, in case of nurse A who have had little clinical experience in the orthopedic patient care, there was a significant increase in the level of confidence and competency in subscale of professional skill with the home care clinical practice. Therefore, the effect of the clinical practice program would be successful for nurses who have had little experience in the area of specialization. The study results suggest that there might be some time difference in the development of cognitive sense (confidence) in performance and actual clinical performance (competency). In future research, relationships between the confidence and competency score, and between the confidence score and the patient satisfaction score should to be measured in different time frame to achieve a better explanation power of the study outcome.

• Journal of Korean Clinical Nursing Research
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.131-143
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• 2010

Purpose: The purpose of this survey was to identify a set of performance indicators for Korean APNs (Advanced Practice Nurses). Methods: A convenience sample of 78 APNs working in 2 leading hospitals in south Korea participated in the three-round Delphi survey. In the first round, subjects were asked to propose performance indicators to evaluate the effectiveness of their practice. They rated the relevancy of each indicator during the second round. In the final round of survey, subjects rated the relevancy of indicators again in the light of second round's overall results and they also were asked to check on current and future use of indicators. Results: After 5 months of three-round Delphi survey, 60 performance indicators were identified. In regard to relevancy, the 10 highly ranked indicators were patient satisfaction, self-care ability, expertise of service, family satisfaction, nurse satisfaction, satisfaction in nursing education, advanced nursing service count, education for patient/ family, education for nurse, and compliance. Advanced nursing service count, education for patient/ family, and education for nurse are currently used as indicators by more than 70% of respondents. Conclusion: Additional research is needed to identify subsets of performance indicators for specialized areas and to determine the validity and sensitivity of indicators.

• KIEAE Journal
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.19-26
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• 2015

Purpose: Maximizing human comfort in design of medical environments depends immensely on specialized architects particularly critical care design; the study proposes Evidence-Based Design as an apparent analog to Evidence-Based Medicine. Healthcare facility designs are substantially based on the findings of study in an effort to design environments that augment care by improving patient safety and being therapeutic. On SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Science) t-test is applied to simulate two independent variables of PDR (Pre Design-Research) and POE (Post- Occupancy Evaluation). PDR is conducted on relatively new hospital Hallym University Dongtan Sacred Heart Hospital to analyse visibility from researchers' point of view, here the ICU is arranged in I-Shape. POE is applied on Dongguk University Ilsan Hospital to simulate walking on LogWare where two NS are designed based on L- Shape and Seoul St. Mary's Hospital, The Catholic University of Korea where five NS are functional for ICU Intensive Care Unit, Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU), Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU), Critical Care Unit (CCU), Korean Oriental Medical Care Unit which are mostly arranged in U-Shape, and walking pattern is recognized to be in a zigzag path. Method: T-Test is applied on two dependent communication variables: walkability and visibility, with confidence interval of 95%. This study systematically analyses the Nurse Station (NS) typo-morphology, and simulates nurse horizontal circulation, by computing round route visits to patient's bed, then estimating minimum round route on LogWare stop sequence software. The visual connectivity is measured on depth map graphs. Hence the aim is to reduce staff stress and fatigue for better patients care by minimizing staff horizontal travel time and to facilitate nurse walk path and support space distribution by increasing effectiveness in delivering care. Result: Applying visibility graph and isovist field on space syntax on I- Shape, L- Shape and U- Shape ICU (SICU, MICU and CCU) configuration, I-shape facilitated 20% more patients in linear view as they stir to rise from their beds from nurse station compared to U-shape. In conclusion, it was proved that U-Shape supply minimum walking and maximum visibility; and L shape provides just visibility as the nurse is at pivot. I shape provides panoramic view from the Nurse Station but very rigorous walking.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.8
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• pp.183-191
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• 2016

This study was aimed to identify the level of knowledge and performance on nurses for the prevention of extravasation. Subjects of this study was 293 nurses working at three university hospitals, two general hospitals and one specialized hospital that frequently performed chemotherapy in D city. The highest score for the knowledge of nurses was extravasation drug related that it was $18.50{\pm}2.18$. The knowledge and performance were also higher for nurses with age greater than 50 years and married, with a clinical career of more than 10 years and high regard for extravasation. It is essential to develop other plans that promote the prevention of extravasation and to provide a continuous education for preventing extravasation. Therefore, it is necessary for medical institutes to operate patient safety management teams to develop standardized protocols and educating nurses and related persons.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.55-81
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• 2000

This study examined nursing care in a Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU) by reviewing nursing activities for the newborns. Through direct observation, time used for nursing care according to the nursing activity, shift, day of the week, and position of the nurses was measured. This study was done on November 15, 21, 24, 1999 at a university medical center hospital and included eight nurses and 179 newborns as the study subjects. The data were collected from the medical records, and by using a nursing activity record for the NICU, and a nursing activity time record for the NICU. The first step in the data collection process was to develop a list of nursing activities which was done through a literature review, examination of medical affairs and duty records. Content validity was measured by a panel of three professors who were experienced clinicians. In the second step two pre-training sessions were held with three sophomore student nurses who then measured the time for each nursing activity using a stopwatch. The data were analyzed using frequencies for nursing activities, averages, percentages and ANOVA for differences between shift and between days of the week, and percentages and t-test for differences according to position of the nurse. The results are as follows: 1) The total number of activities was 156, direct or indirect nursing activities. Direct nursing activity classified according to physical, educational, emotional/social/economic/spiritual needs. There were 109 direct nursing activities in 16 fields. 2) The order of nursing activities, according to time required, was record keeping, nutritional care, measurement/observation, medication, hygiene care, examination and specimen collection, and checking supplies, and according to frequency, measurement/ examination, record keeping, nutrition care, hygiene care, elimination care and medication. 3) According to shift, direct care during the night shift at 313.4 minutes was the longest time and indirect nursing care during the night shift at 252.2 minutes was the highest time. 4) For days of the week, Monday had the highest time for direct care 275.8 minutes (34.6%) and Wednessday had the highest time for indirect nursing care 269.6 minutes (36.1%). 5) For nursing time according to position of nurse, general nurses had the highest for direct care (330.7 minutes), nurse managers for indirect nursing activities (239.0 minutes) and general nurses for individual private time (63.9 minutes). The results of this study show that the major nursing time consuming activities included record keeping, nutrition care and measurement/examination. For newborns, time needs to be allowed for care to be sensitive, sophisticated and specialized rather than concentrated on indirect nursing tasks such as record keeping. Therefore, it is imperative to develop computerized systems that support a systematic approach to record keeping which is more efficient. Moreover, nursing needs according to shift, day or position of nurse can be utilized in assessing nursing resources through a computerized process.