• Journal of Korean Critical Care Nursing
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.1-10
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• 2018

Purpose : This study aimed to develop an in-depth and comprehensive understanding of the experiences of critical care nurses caring for dying patients. Method : Eleven critical care nurses with experience in caring for dying patients were recruited from four tertiary hospitals. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted between November 2016 and March 2017. The transcribed data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis to identify major themes and sub-themes that represented the experiences of critical care nurses. Results : The following six themes, and twelve sub-themes, were identified: (1) the gap between expectation and reality, (2) a distorted meaning of death, (3) repeated emotional pain and stress, (4) finding a solution alone, (5) sublimation into mission and calling, and (6) integration into one's own life. Conclusion : This study found that critical care nurses experience various psychological difficulties while caring for dying patients, and they made efforts on their own to overcome them. These findings are expected to inform the development of specialized programs to support critical care nurses to tackle these challenges, create guidelines on caring for dying patients, and help promote death education.

• Journal of Korean Critical Care Nursing
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.33-42
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• 2015

Purpose: This study was conducted to identify the perception, barriers, and importance of delirium assessment of intensive care unit nurses utilizing a tool for delirium assessment. Methods: The subjects were 150 intensive care unit nurses who routinely use the CAM-ICU to screen delirium. Data were collected using self-report questionnaires and analyzed using descriptive statistics and ranking. Results: Most intensive care unit nurses had experience of education about delirium and delirium assessment, and had assessed over once in a shift. However, a small number of nurses recognized utilizing their assessment result and the effect on higher mortality and underdiagnosed and preventable problem. The first rank of barriers was being too busy to assess patients and the second was difficulty of interpreting intubated patients. The importance of delirium assessment was considered lower than assessing catheter placement and level of pain. Conclusion: The study identified intensive care unit nurses' use of a delirium assessment tool, and the perception, barriers, and importance of delirium assessment. Furthermore, it is necessary to develop education programs to improve the early recognition of delirium by intensive care unit nurses.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.298-311
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• 2013

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare reported physical symptoms, hope and family support of cancer patients between general hospitals and long-term care hospitals. Methods: Subjects were 175 patients diagnosed with cancers from two general hospitals and six long-term care hospitals located in G city. Subjects completed a questionnaire with questions about general characteristics and questions about the disease, physical symptoms, hope and family support. Data was collected from February to April and the data were analyzed using an independent t-test and one-way ANOVA. Results: The subjects in long-term care hospitals showed higher percentage in pain, nausea, fatigue, sleep disorder, and change in appearance. There was a significant difference in family support between two groups. A significant positive correlation was found between hope and family support in subjects in general and long-term care hospitals. Conclusion: Significant differences were found in some physical symptoms and family support between cancer patients in general hospitals and long-term care hospitals. Thus, nurses in long-term care hospitals need provide care suitable for the characteristics of cancer patients in long-term care hospitals.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.245-250
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• 2023

Objectives: This study was conducted to analyze the factors related to unmet dental care needs in Korean adults who needed dental treatment. Methods: This study analyzed data from the 7th Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2016-2018). Among the adults who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2,723 dental treatment who performed oral examinations were the final subjects. General characteristics and oral health characteristics were analyzed with complex sample chi-square test using the IBM SPSS program. Factors related to unmet dental care were analyzed by multiple logistic regression analysis. Results: As for unmet dental care needs related factors, bad oral health was 3.383 times higher, and usually was 1.736 times higher. In the use of dental clinic unmet dental care needs was 0.121 times lower. Unmet dental care needs was high, 1.366 times for those with the experience of tooth pain and 2.736 times for those with chewing difficulty. Conclusions: Based on the above results, it can be seen that oral health status or oral discomfort is related to unmet dental care needs. It is necessary to set goals to improve unmet dental care, recognize that one's oral health condition is very important, and continuously educate about oral health for each life cycle.

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.20-34
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• 2016

Background: It is necessary to find and develop the effective way of intervention for patients with neck pain, since the neck pain is becoming increasingly common throughout the world. To identify the altered motor control in patient with neck pain would be informative to find and develop the effective way of intervention. Objects: The aim of this study was to review literature regarding the altered motor control in patients with neck pain, measured by using surface electromyography (sEMG), ultrasonography, and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and to suggest prospective research work on neck pain. Methods: Case-control (neck pain/healthy) studies published between 2004 and 2015 that investigated neck muscle activation, thickness, cross-sectional area, and fat infiltrate were searched in Scopus, PubMed, and ScienceDirect. Twenty-eight articles were included in this study. Results: sEMG, ultrasonography, and fMRI were used complementarily to investigate the altered superficial and deep neck muscle activation, thickness, cross-sectional area, and fat infiltrate in patients with neck pain. They showed the following altered motor control when compared retrospectively with healthy subjects or during specific functional tasks: (1) increased superficial muscle activation, (2) lesser deep muscle thickness, (3) smaller cross-sectional area of the deep muscle, and (4) greater fat infiltrate in deep muscles. In particular, among the women, the office workers showed higher muscle activation of superficial neck muscles during functional tasks, although they did not have neck pain, than those who were not office workers. Conclusion: Studies revealed that patients with neck pain showed an altered motor control when compared with healthy subjects by using various assessment modalities. Understanding this phenomenon would help researchers design an effective intervention for alleviating neck pain or to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention. In addition, we recommend that female office workers take measures to care for their necks before developing neck pain.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.28-34
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• 2010

Background: An independent medical examination (IME) is a critical process for awarding reparation for injury. However, conducting an IME in pain medicine is very difficult, not only because pain is a subjective symptom, but also because there are no proper objective methods to demonstrate it. This study was conducted to compare IME reports and the court decisions on the disability status of the patients. Methods: We analyzed 79 IME reports and 25 corresponding court decisions on the disability status of patients. The diagnoses, causal relationships between the patients' status and the trauma, McBride's degree of disability, the American Medical Association's impairment ratings, the estimated annual cost for future treatment, and the necessity of care-giving were compared and analyzed. Results: The diagnoses in the 79 cases were complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) type I (58 cases), CRPS type II (7 cases), peripheral neuropathy (5 cases), myofascial pain syndrome (4 cases), herniated intervertebral disc (2 cases), and fibromyalgia (1 case). The types of accidents were road traffic accidents (50 cases), military injuries (14 cases), industrial accidents (11 cases), and others (4 cases). The IME reports and the court decisions stated considerably different McBride's degrees of disability (P = 0.014). However, there was no significant difference in the estimated cost for future treatment between the IME reports and the court decisions (P = 0.912). Conclusions: IME reports should be accurate, fair, and based on objective findings. Feedback on IMEs from the court decisions is helpful for reference use.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.2141-2144
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• 2016

Background: Many cancer patients still experience pain worldwide. There are many barriers for effective control of cancer pain and many of these are related to health care providers. There is a need for further investigation of these barriers. The aim of this study was to investigate nurse-related barriers to control of cancer pain among Iranian nurses. Materials and Methods: In this descriptive study 49 nurses from two hospitals affiliated to Tabriz and Ardebil Universities of Medical Sciences participated using a census sampling method. A demographic and profession related checklist and Barriers Questionnaire II (BQ-II) were used for data collection. Results: The results showed negative attitudes of participants regarding control of cancer pain. Participants believed that cancer pain medications do not manage cancer pain at acceptable levels; patients may become addicted by using these drugs; cancer pain medications have many uncontrollable effects; and controlling cancer pain may distract the physicians from treating disease. Conclusions: Iranian nurses have negative attitudes toward pain control in cancer patients especially about effectiveness of pain medication and their side effects. Educational intervention to reduce these misconceptions is needed.

• The Journal of Korean Obstetrics and Gynecology
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.174-184
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• 2012

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to observe the early postpartum low back pain and pelvic girdle pain in the Korean medical hospital for 2-weeks. Methods: Fifty-one postpartum women who admitted for postpartum care in Korean hospital from December 3rd, 2011 to January 31st, 2012 had written out pain measurement questionnaires(SF-MPQ, VAS, ODI) three times for 2-weeks. SPSS 18.0 for Windows was used to analyse the data and the independent samples t-test, paired T-test were used to verify the results. Results: 1. Evaluation of low back pain within the first week after birth was as follows: SF-MPQ sensory area was $5.06{\pm}4.41$ points; SF-MPQ emotional areas was $0.86{\pm}1.34$ points; VAS mean was $3.79{\pm}2.02$ points; and ODI mean was $10.27{\pm}6.69$. 2. Early postpartum low back pain and pelvic girdle pain were significantly decreased in SF-MPQ, VAS, and ODI after 2-weeks(p < 0.01). 3. Age, birth type, parity, weight, and BMI increased during pregnancy does not affect the postpartum low back pain and pelvic girdle pain. Conclusions: The top 10% of postpartum low back pain scale was 10.8 points or more in the sensory area of SF-MPQ, and 3 points or more in the affective area of SF-MPQ. In the case of VAS, it was more than 7 points, and ODI was more than 21.8 points. Postpartum back pain with oriental medical treatment was significantly improved.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.245-255
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• 2019

Stem cells are attracting attention as a key element in future medicine, satisfying the desire to live a healthier life with the possibility that they can regenerate tissue damaged or degenerated by disease or aging. Stem cells are defined as undifferentiated cells that have the ability to replicate and differentiate themselves into various tissues cells. Stem cells, commonly encountered in clinical or preclinical stages, are largely classified into embryonic, adult, and induced pluripotent stem cells. Recently, stem cell transplantation has been frequently applied to the treatment of pain as an alternative or promising approach for the treatment of severe osteoarthritis, neuropathic pain, and intractable musculoskeletal pain which do not respond to conventional medicine. The main idea of applying stem cells to neuropathic pain is based on the ability of stem cells to release neurotrophic factors, along with providing a cellular source for replacing the injured neural cells, making them ideal candidates for modulating and possibly reversing intractable neuropathic pain. Even though various differentiation capacities of stem cells are reported, there is not enough knowledge and technique to control the differentiation into desired tissues in vivo. Even though the use of stem cells is still in the very early stages of clinical use and raises complicated ethical problems, the future of stem cells therapies is very bright with the help of accumulating evidence and technology.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.3-11
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• 2019

Going back to basics prior to mentioning the use of antipsychotics in patients with pain, the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) definition of pain can be summarized as an unpleasant experience, composed of sensory experience caused by actual tissue damage and/or emotional experience caused by potential tissue damage. Less used than antidepressants, antipsychotics have also been used for treating this unpleasant experience as adjuvant analgesics without sufficient evidence from research. Because recently developed atypical antipsychotics reduce the adverse reactions of extrapyramidal symptoms, such as acute dystonia, pseudo-parkinsonism, akathisia, and tardive dyskinesia caused by typical antipsychotics, they are expected to be used more frequently in various painful conditions, while increasing the risk of metabolic syndromes (weight gain, diabetes, and dyslipidemia). Various antipsychotics have different neurotransmitter receptor affinities for dopamine (D), 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT), adrenergic (${\alpha}$), histamine (H), and muscarinic (M) receptors. Atypical antipsychotics antagonize transient, weak $D_2$ receptor bindings with strong binding to the $5-HT_{2A}$ receptor, while typical antipsychotics block long-lasting, tight $D_2$ receptor binding. On the contrary, antidepressants in the field of pain management also block the reuptake of similar receptors, mainly on the 5-HT and, next, on the norepinephrine, but rarely on the D receptors. Antipsychotics have been used for treating positive symptoms, such as delusion, hallucination, disorganized thought and behavior, perception disturbance, and inappropriate emotion, rather than the negative, cognitive, and affective symptoms of psychosis. Therefore, an antipsychotic may be prescribed in pain patients with positive symptoms of psychosis during or after controlling all sensory components.