• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.35 no.8
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• pp.1493-1499
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• 2005

Background. Adequate staffing is necessary to meet patient care needs and provide safe, quality nursing care. In November 1999, the Korean government implemented a new staffing policy that differentiates nursing fees for inpatients based on nurse-to-bed ratios. The purpose was to prevent hospitals from delegating nursing care to family members of patients or paid caregivers, and ultimately deteriorating the quality of nursing care services. Purpose. To examine nurse staffing levels and related factors including hospital, nursing and medical staff, and financial characteristics. Methods. A cross-sectional design was employed using two administrative databases, Medical Care Institution Database and Medical Claims Data for May 1-31, 2002. Nurse staffing was graded from 1 to 6, based on grading criteria of nurse-to-bed ratios provided by the policy. The study sample consisted of 42 tertiary and 186 general acute care hospitals. Results. None of tertiary or general hospitals gained the highest nurse staffing of Grade 1 (i.e., less than 2 beds per nurse in tertiary hospitals; less than 2.5 beds per nurse in general hospitals). Two thirds of the general hospitals had the lowest staffing of Grade 6 (i.e., 4 or more beds per nurse in tertiary hospitals; 4.5 or more beds per nurse in general hospitals). Tertiary hospitals were better staffed than general hospitals, and private hospitals had higher staffing levels compared to public hospitals. Large-sized general hospitals located in metropolitan areas had higher staffing than other general hospitals. Occupancy rate was positively related to nurse staffing. A negative relationship between nursing assistant and nurse staffing was found in general hospitals. A greater number of physician specialists were associated with better nurse staffing. Conclusions. The staffing policy needs to be evaluated and modified to make it more effective in leading hospitals to increase nurse staffing.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.296-308
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• 2021

Electroencephalography (EEG) provides the most accurate and quickest diagnosis of epilepsy. It is also an important examination for the real-time evaluation of brain function and seizures, no matter where. In the field of epilepsy, it is appropriate for a clinical pathologist with considerable knowledge of EEG and clinical experience to perform the role of a Physician Assistant (PA). The electrode attachment method is based on the international 10-20 system. The EEG reading is mainly taken by longitudinal bipolar montage. However, a reading using only one montage may result in an error. Hence, two or more montages should be used for readings according to the clinical situation. In the EEG, electric potentials are seen as contour lines. The most important principle in EEG reading is under-reading, not over-reading. The higher the repetitions of the EEG recording, the greater the sensitivity of the reading. For a good reading, the EEG recording must be of good quality. So, the relationship between the neurologist and the EEG technician is very important. In the future, it is expected that the field of activities of the EEG technician with abundant EEG reading experience and clinical practical knowledge will be further expanded.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.41-72
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• 2018

In the division of labor (or teamwork) in medicine, the responsibility of medical and nursing staff should be separated or distributed to justify negligent criminal offenses. The present work refers to the standards by which the due diligence and responsibility of the individual persons are to be determined and delimited. In this context, it has been proven that objective theory as a measure of due diligence is appropriate. From a moral point of view, when assessing due diligence, it makes sense to impose greater individual or higher performance demands on the perpetrator, but law and order require that due diligence should result from socially relevant human behavior. To give objective measure of negligence and to provide the highest level of personal responsibility, so that man can not be burdened too much responsibility and it is accordingly with an equality theorem. Afterwards some points are presented, which should be considered in a concrete fact in the determination of the medical negligence. Medical action has specific characteristics such as professionalism, discretionary and exclusive, unbalance of information. These characteristics distinguish medical actions from general negligence. The general level of knowledge, the urgency, working condition and working environment of the medical facility, duration of the professional practice, assessment of the medical activity are crucial in this context. As a standard of delineation of due diligence, I have used the permitted risk and the principle of trust. In the horizontal division of labor, the principle of trust applies. The principle of trust applies in principle in cases of division of labor interaction, when doctors in the same hospital exercise their own specific occupational field or everyone works in another hospital. However, this is not true for every case. In the vertical division of labor, the principle of trust does not apply and the senior physician can not trust the assistant doctors. In this case, the principle of trust is converted into a duty of supervision for assistant doctors by the senior physician. This supervision requirement could be used as a random check.

• Journal of Korean Medical classics
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.103-153
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• 2010

"Sanghanjeonsaengjip(傷寒全生集)" is a classic medical work, written by the outstanding physician Dohwa(陶華) in the Ming Dynasty. The characteristic of "SangHanJeonSaengJip" is that this book succeeded to the spirit of pattern identification and treatment of Treatise on Cold Damage Diseases, newly changed a table of contents by symptoms, and together with this indicated the prescriptions in accordance with diswase-pattern at "YujeunghwalInseo(類證活人書)", "Hwajegookbang(和劑局方)" etc. Also because this kept the existing ephedra decoction, cinnamom twig decoction, minor decoction of bupleurum, decoction for reinforcing middle-energizer and replenishing qi etc.'s name on and unlikely indicated the medicine composition, it caused confusion, but at the later ages "Euhakipmun(醫學入門)" the so-called 'Doci(陶氏)' was added to the prescription name, so we are able to distinguish. Together with this, this book dose not indicate the dosage of medicine and indicates the first, the second, and the third classes[上中下] below medicine. As this dose not mean the three grades of quality"good, fair, and poor[上中下] of "Shennong's Classic of Materia Medica" but expresses the sovereign medicinal as the first class[上], minister medicinal as the second class[中] and assistant and courier medicinal as the third class[下], doctors can voluntarily decide the dosage of medicine in accordance with the degree of disease. At this thesis, I single out ten chapters in contents of 2nd volume named Hyeong(亨) corresponding to the details, among "Sanghanjeonsaengjip(傷寒全生集)". I discussed superficial fever types of exogenous febrile disease in chapter 1, aversion to cold types of exogenous febrile disease in chapter 2, syndrome caused un-sufficient sweating in chapter 3, organic fever types of exogenous febrile disease in chapter 4, aversion to wind types of exogenous febrile disease in chapter 5, Tidal fever types of exogenous febrile disease in chapter 6, Alternative attacts of chills and fever in chapter 7, Dysphoria with smothery sensation in chapter 8, Fidgetiness of exogenous febrile disease in chapter 9, and Headache of exogenous febrile disease in chapter 10, and together with this I discussed, in detail, which influence the prescriptions which are listed on each chapter have caused on future generations In accordance with this, I think that the above-mentioned symptoms and prescriptions are important when I research cold damage and warm disease study. So I orderly research revision, annotation, rendering and an investigation.

• 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.