• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.880-891
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• 1999

The purpose of this study was to describe nursing decision tasks, their characteristics, and problems associated with decision making. The subjects were 32 nurses who had at least one-year nursing experience and worked on medical-surgical units or intensive care units(ICU). They were asked to describe their decision making experiences in patient care situations and to identify the characteristics of each decisions. They were also asked to describe perceived problems associated with decision making in nursing. The responses on nursing decision tasks and problems were analyzed with content analysis and the decision characteristics were identified by statistical analysis of variance. It was found that there were 16 nursing decisions which are as follows : decisions related to interpreting and selecting appropriate strategies for pain management(6.6%) ; decisions related to providing emotional support (0.7%) ; decisions related to explaining the patient's condition and rationale for procedures(1.1%) ; decisions related to assisting patients to integrate the implications of illness and recovering into their lifestyles(2.9%) ; decisions related to detecting significant changes In patients and selecting appropriate intervention strategies (17.2%) ; decisions related to anticipating problems and selecting preventive measures(4.2%) ; decisions related to identifying emergency situations(0.4%) ; decisions related to effective management of patient crisis until physician assistance becomes available(2.8%) ; decisions related to starting and maintaining intravenous therapy(2.6%) ; decisions related to administering medications(8.1%) ; decisions related to combating the hazards of immobility(7.3%) : decisions related to treating wound management strategies(5.5%) ; decisions related to relieving patient discomfort(13.9) ; decisions related to selecting appropriate strategy according to the changing situation of the patient(18.2%) ; decisions related to selecting the best strategy for patient management(5.3%) ; and decisions related to coordinating, ordering, and meeting the various needs of the patient (3.1%). The nurses reported the fellowing problems in decision making : difficulties due to lack of knowledge and experience (18.6%) ; uncertainty and complexity of decision tasks(15.2%) ; lack of time to make decisions(2.9%) ; personal values which conflict with other staff(15.7%) ; lack of selection autonomy(30.0%) ; and organizational barriers(7.6%). Continuing education programs and decision support systems for frequent nursing decision tasks can be established on the basis of these results. Then decision ability in nurses will increase through the education programs and decision support systems, and then quality of nursing service will be better.

• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.377-390
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• 2005

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of neuromuscular re-education program and general intervention program. It is focused on difference between changes of experimental before and after on 20 stroke patient's motor control ability. The obtained results are as follows; In change in motor control ability, neuromuscular re-education program group about the motor control ability was a significant difference(p<.01). And traditional intervention program group, the motor control ability was a significant difference in all of items (p<.01; p<.05) but, were not a significant difference in bladder management, social interaction, problem solving and memory. And also comparison of change in motor control ability between the experimental group and control group, the between-subjects factors were a significant difference. Most of the functional items on the functional items on the functional measurement and neuromuscular function measurement are concerned with the physical autonomy of the hemiplegic patients. More in depth knowledge may be acquired about the distribution of physical and motor control patterns with respect to the degree of neurologic deficit for the enhencement of residual motor control function in hemiplegia. In conclusion, the neuromuscular re-education program was more effect then traditional intervention program in motor control ability.

• Korean Medical Education Review
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.19-24
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was to observe how Ajou University School of Medicine runs its curriculum to cultivate professionalism. The paper also proposes a plan for the next step for the school. The Patient-Doctor-Society (PDS) course, begun in 2009, can be summarized by three characteristics. First, the PDS course is an integrated curriculum that is not a one-time program for a specific grade, but a continuous program open for all medical students. Second, the PDS course is designed following the philosophy and educational goals of the institution, and the curriculum assures maximum autonomy. Third, the PDS course is 'whole person education' that provides knowledge and teaches skills and an attitude. By analyzing the pros and cons of the program through annual evaluation, leaders of the program at Ajou will continue to consider what to teach and how to do so.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.239-274
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• 2010

Advance directive refers to a description of the treatment method a patient wants to be provided with in case where the person is unconscious or lacks an ability to decision making in a future period or a declaration of intention that delegates and appoints another person who makes a decision regarding a treatment method on behalf of the person. Advance directive is usually a document form, but oral statement is acceptable as well. Advance directive may have a variety of forms though, it basically consists of two basic forms. That is, one is a living will, and the other is a surrogate decision making. Though the importance of advance directive has been emphasized, and the necessity of adopting the system has been strongly argued for so far, the debates on criteria, method, and procedure alike have not yet reached an agreement. It is because even the concept of advance directive is more or less ambiguous, and each specific method has its own theoretical limitations and practical constraints. Thus the inquiries on advance directive raised in the study are summarized as the meaning, practicability, and philosophical foundation of the advance directive. Firstly, the theoretical limitations of Advance directive may be categorized into conceptual and moral limitations. In case of conceptual limitations, authors of advance directives may not be well aware, in advance, of the particular situation in which he or her will experience in the future, and patients may experience the change in his or her values and lack the understanding and information about the future situation due to the changes in treatment methods. In case of moral limitations, a patient has a limited moral autonomy right and self identity that have an impact on his or her preference. Secondly, in case of practical constraints for advance directive, there exist cultural features, low ratio of documentation, as patients themselves admit, and low predictability and stability of patient's own preference regarding life-sustaining care. And the problem of validity and accuracy in proxy's decision making is also raised. Those who administer a living will, especially, may have a difficulty in understanding the directive by a patient, so that the accuracy of execution cannot be secured. In the sense, it is needed to implement a legal device in order to solve such problems. In summary, it is urgently required to understand the limitations and explore desired alternatives to overcome the relevant problems in advance, which must contribute to successfully adopting and effectively operating the advance directive system in Korea.

• The Korean Journal of Emergency Medical Services
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.65-80
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• 2012

Purpose: The objective of this study was to assess the job satisfaction and turnover intention of the emergency medical technicians (EMT) in the private ambulance service, to examine their job satisfaction and turnover intention, and to provide the solution for the management of the private ambulance service. Methods: The survey was conducted with 121 EMTs (73 paramedics, 36 basic EMTs and 12 nurses) in the private ambulance service in Korea from September 15 to October 14, 2011. In the reliability of the questionnaire, Cronbach's ${\alpha}$ was 0.790 for job satisfaction and 0.796 for turnover intention. Using SPSS 18.0, we obtained Cronbach's ${\alpha}$, frequencies, percentages, means, and standard deviations, and performed independent t-tests, ANOVA, and Pearson's correlation analysis. Results: 1) The mean score with regard to job satisfaction was 2.94 and that of their turnover intention was 4.23. In the area of job satisfaction, the mean score of the job demand area was 4.23; 3.97 for the job itself; 3.07 for the area of interaction; 2.98 for the area of autonomy: 2.67 for the organizational demand area; 2.67 for working conditions area; and 1.73 for the wage area. 2) Statistically significant difference was observed in job satisfaction according to age (F=3.819, p=.006), wages (t=-4.640, p=.000), terms of incumbency (F=3.868, p=.011), and in turnover intention it was according to sex (t=-1.995 p=.048), age (F=9.611, p=.000), education levels (F=6.974, p=.002), marital status (t=4.393, p=.000), wages (t=5.515, p=.000), license types (F=8.481, p=.001), and terms of incumbency ( F=14.115, p=.000). 3) The job satisfaction and the turnover intention had a negative correlation to each other (r=-.56, p<.000) in general, and in the sub-7 areas of job satisfaction, the correlation with turnover intention was high in order of the wage area (r=-.61, p=.000), working conditions area (r=-.52, p=.000), the area of autonomy (r=-.49, p=.000), the area of interaction (r=-.45, p=.000), the organizational demand area (r=-.40, p=.000), the job itself (r=-.24, p=.007) and the job demand area (r=-.24, p=.009). Conclusion: The government must take the charge of lowering the turnover intention among paramedics in the private ambulance service by providing the advantage in wages and fringe benefits. Ultimately, this would bring an improvement in the quality of medical emergency services to hospitals especially in the area of patient transfer and transportation.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.148-163
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• 2002

Background : The personnel of emergency department have been under tremendous pressure to manage unexpected emergency situations and excited patients. And interpersonal conflict has existed always, because emergency department was consisted of various personnel of their own specialty. The patient's satisfaction has to come from the personnel's satisfaction. The purpose of this study was to evaluate emergency department personnel's job satisfaction and its related factors and to improve quality of emergency medical service Methods : A self-administered questionnaire survey to the emergency department personnel was conducted between September 1 and October 31, 2001. The response rate was 90.2%. Using SAS program (Version 6.12), the collected data was analyzed by frequency, ANOVA, multiple comparison, Pearson correlation procedure, and stepwise multiple regression analysis. Result : The analysis of related factors of job satisfaction showed high score of interpersonal interaction (3.246), professional prestige (3.095), autonomy (2.916), task requirements (2.701), organizational requirements (2.444), and pay (1.953) in order of item mean. Professional prestige (0.498), task requirements (0.464), and organizational requirements (0.408) were highly positive correlated with overall level of job satisfaction. The factors influencing the job satisfaction were professional prestige and task requirements which explaining efficacy were 37.6% and 32.2% respectively. The total explaining efficacy was 33.6%. Conclusion : It was found out that emergency department personnel's job satisfaction can be raised by promoting professional prestige and task requirements. The personnel of emergency department have to be satisfied through their job, and the administration of the hospital has to pay more attention to their employees' job satisfaction and it related factors.

• The Journal of the Institute of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.117-125
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• 2019

For successful EHR implementation, it is important to understand physicians's acceptance and attitude for EHR. This study aims to provide basic information for the overseas expansion of Korean EHR by studying Saudi Arabia's physicians' acceptance for the Korean EHR exported to Saudi Arabia. Except for physician autonomy and physician-patient relationship, Likert scales of physician involvement, adequate training, ease of use, usefulness, and attitude about EHR usage were over 3.5 points, which are relatively high. The Physicians' experience of Korean EHR may have influenced the EHR acceptance score. Based on the positive research results of this study, we can say that Korean EHR can be competitive in the overseas EHR business.

• Journal of Oral Medicine and Pain
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.283-296
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• 2006

Along with the development of scientific technologies, health care has been growing remarkably, and as the social life quality improves with increasing interest in health, the demand for medical service is rapidly increasing. However, medical accident and medical dispute also are rapidly increasing due to various factors such as, increasing sense of people's right, lack of understanding in the nature of medical practice, over expectation on medical technique, commercialize medical supply system, moral degeneracy and unawareness of medical jurisprudence by doctors, widespread trend of mutual distrust, and lack of systematized device for solution of medical dispute. This study analysed 30 cases of civil suit in the year between 1994 to 2004, which were selected among the medical dispute cases in dental field with the judgement collected from organizations related to dentistry and department of oral medicine, Yonsei university dental hospital. The following results were drawn from the analyses: 1. The distribution of year showed rapid increase of medical dispute after the year 2000. 2. In the types of medical dispute, suit associated with tooth extraction took 36.7% of all. 3. As for the cause of medical dispute, uncomfortable feeling and dissatisfaction with the treatment showed 36.7%, death and permanent damage showed 16.7% each. 4. Winning the suit, compulsory mediation and recommendation for settlement took 60.0% of judgement result for the plaintiff. 5. For the type of medical organization in relation to medical dispute, 60.0% was found to be the private dental clinics, and 30.0% was university dental hospitals. 6. For the level of trial, dispute that progressed above 2 or 3 trials was of 30.0%. 7. For the amount of claim for damage, the claim amounting between 50 million to 100 million won was of 36.7%, and that of more than 100 million won was 13.3%, and in case of the judgement amount, the amount ranging from 10 million to 30 million won was of 40.0%, and that of more than 100 million won was of 6.7%. 8. For the number of dentist involved in the suit, 26.7% was of 2 or more dentists. 9. For the amount of time spent until the judgement, 46.7% took 11 to 20 months, and 36.7% took 21 to 30 months. 10. For medical malpractice, 46.7% was judged to be guilty, and 70% of the cases had undergone medical judgement or verification of the case by specialists during the process of the suit. 11. In the lost cases of doctors(18 cases), 72.2% was due to violence of carefulness in practice and 16.7% was due to missing of explanation to patient. Medical disputes occurring in the field of dentistry are usually of relatively less risky cases. Hence, the importance of explanation to patient is emphasized, and since the levels of patient satisfaction are subjective, improvement of the relationship between the patient and the dentist and recovery of autonomy within the group dentist are essential in addition to the reduction of technical malpractice. Moreover, management measure against the medical dispute should be set up through complement of the current doctors and hospitals medical malpractice insurance which is being conducted irrationally, and establishment of system in which education as well as consultation for medical disputes lead by the group of dental clinicians and academic scholars are accessible.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.67-96
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• 2022

"Aid in Dying" means that when a decision-making patient suffers from an incurable disease, a drug that can speed up death is prescribed by a doctor and used to lead to death. Since the suspension of life-sustaining treatment was institutionalized based on human dignity and patient autonomy, the question of whether assisted death can be legally justified in relation to the right to receive medical help to shorten one's life to die with dignity has recently been actively discussed. In Korea, since the suspension of life-sustaining treatment was institutionalized by the enactment of the Life-sustaining Treatment Decision Act in 2016, an amendment to the Life-sustaining Treatment Act was recently proposed to legalize Aid in Dying. The global trend is that human "Right to Die" is discussed in the division of life and death, from the suspension of life-sustaining treatment to assisted death, and again in the order of euthanasia. In this paper, we started discussing dignified death and institutionalized patients' right to self-determination, looked at the controversy in the United States, which legislated assisted death in many states since the 2000s, and analyzed the main contents of California's End of Life Option Act and the data after enforcement. The strict requirements for Aid in Dying, such as voluntary confirmation of patients' intentions and doctors' obligation to provide information, and the results of California's Aid in dying system, composed of relatively diverse races, were reviewed.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.645-653
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• 2005

The prevalence of undernutrition in hospital populations is known to be high. The presence of malnutrition is associated with depression, infections, sarcopaenia, falls, fractures, reduced autonomy and increased mortality. This study specifically examined the prevalence of malnutrition in patients aged 65 or older at the time of admission as determined by the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) which has been a frequently used nutritional risk screening tools in detecting undernutrition in old people. This study was done for one hundred eight hospitalized geriatric patients in Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seoul, Korea. On admission baseline history, anthropometrics measurements, laboratory data and nutritional status by MNA were assessed. Length of hospital stay was obtained by reviewing medical charts. We used one-way analysis of variance to compare the differences in variables. Spearman's rank correlation coefficients were calculated for associations between MNA and variables. On admission, $22.3\%$ of patients were malnourished and $40.7\%$ were at risk of malnutrition according to the MNA. Percent of ideal body weight, anthropometrics data, albumin, and hemoglobin were lower in the malnourished patients (p<0.05). The malnourished patients stayed in the hospital 7.3 days longer, as compared with well nourished patients (p<0.05). Percent of ideal body weight, albumin, hemoglobin and total cholesterol were correlated inversely with nutritional status according to MNA (p<0.05). MNA can be used for nutritional assessment in Korean old people, because MNA significantly correlated with other nutritional assessment parameters, such as, anthropometric and laboratory data in hospitalized geriatric patients. The high prevalence of malnutrition in the elderly was observed and the presence of malnutrition on admission predicted a significant increase in the length of hospital stay in this study. Therefore further studies are needed to determine whether nutritional interventions in old people with low MNA scores can improve clinical outcomes during the hospital course.