• Journal of Korean Academic Society of Home Health Care Nursing
• /
• v.25 no.3
• /
• pp.232-239
• /
• 2018

Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the influences of professional autonomy and communication competency on the job satisfaction of psychiatric nurses. Methods: Participants were 141 psychiatric nurses working in psychiatric departments in 5 provincial hospitals. The questionnaire was composed of a total of 88 questions: general characteristics of participants (12 items), professional autonomy (30 questions), communication competency (15 questions), job satisfaction (30 questions). Data were collected and analyzed using t-tests, ANOVA, Pearson's correlation coefficients, and Multiple regression analysis with SPSS/WIN 24.0. Results: Job Satisfaction had significant positive correlations with both professional autonomy (r=.18, p<.001) and communication competency (r=.32, p<.001). These variables explained 24.3% of the variance in psychiatric nurses' job satisfaction. Conclusion: Thease findings indicate that professional autonomy and communication competency are important variables influencing job satisfaction for psychiatric nurses. Development and provision of intervention programs to increase professional autonomy and communication competency will help to increase psychiatric nurses' job satisfaction.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• /
• v.21 no.2
• /
• pp.95-102
• /
• 2010

Objectives : This study investigated the differences between the psychiatric characteristics of minor juvenile offenders and normal adolescents as well as differences in psychiatric symptoms after a six month protective disposition. Further, the current study aimed at determining psychiatric screening methods for evaluating delinquent adolescents. Methods : The Latent Delinquency Questionnaire (LDQ), the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale (RCMAS), the Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI), the Reynolds Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire (SIQ), the Piers-Harris Children's Self Concept Inventory (SCI), and the Korean Youth Self Report (K-YSR) were administered to 134 normal adolescents (114 males) and 109 minor offenders (97 males) aged 12 to 16 years. After six months, 46 offenders (all males) completed the RCMAS, CDI, SIQ, and SCI again. Results : Adolescents with minor offenses had more delinquent, aggressive behavior and externalizing behavior problems, but were significantly less depressive, anxious, or suicidal than normal controls. Further, recidivists had more anxiety, depression, and delinquent behavior than non-recidivists. Minor offenders reported that their anxiety and depressive mood decreased after six months of protective disposition. Conclusion : Adolescents with minor offenses had more delinquent, aggressive behavior and externalizing behavior problems suggesting that psychiatric screening tools for minor offenders should measure disruptive behavior disorder.

• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
• /
• v.2 no.2
• /
• pp.115-128
• /
• 1995

Present study reviewed various standardized neuropsychological assessment methods for children that are widely used in Korean child-psychiatric clinic settings to evaluate neurological problems, especially soft neurological signs that could not be identified by neurological techniques like CT, MRI. The characteristics of those neuropsychological test responses in children with psychiatric disorders that neurological factors are thought to play more important role than psychological factors in their etiology were examined. It is more important and required to establish the developmental norms for interpreting the results of neuropsychological tests and for identifying the signs of brain damage in case of children than adults. There are many difficulties in diagnosing brain dysfunction and conducting research for neurological problems in psychiatric disordered children due to lack of the standardized Korean version of neuropsyhological test for children, Therefore, several issues on developing the Korean version of neuropsyhological tests for children were discussed.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
• /
• v.6 no.1
• /
• pp.46-58
• /
• 1998

Objectives : This study was performed to evaluate the status of psychiatric consultation at a newly opened university hospital, to explore problems related to psychiatric consultation and to contribute for future consultation to be more systematic and more efficient. Methods: The subjects of this study were 284 patients hospitalized at Inha University Hospital between September 1, 1996 and August 31, 1997, who were referred for psychiatric consultation during hospitalization. This study was evaluated demographical characteristics of referred patients, resons for referral, recommendations by psychiatric consultant, clinical diagnoses, psychiatric diagnoses, relationship between referral time and hospitalization following the day of consultation and consultation referral types based upon psychiatrists' reports and patients' medical charts. Results : Most common patients referred to consultation were females aged 20s who visited at the department of internal medicine and related to the risk of suicidal attempts. Mood disorder was the most frequent psychiatric diagnosis, and the most common recommendations were to use psychopharmacological treatment along with outpatient visits. The 30% of subjects were referred to consultation within a day after hospitalization. In the case of consultation referral timing within two days and after three days, there was significant difference between early consultation and shorter hospitalization following the day of consultation. Most frequent type of consultation(29.6%) was categorized as IIIa type(physical complication type as a "Mending" request type). Conclusion : In review of consultation referral timing and consultation referral type of the subjects, who were referred for psychiatric consultation for one year at a newly opened University Hospital, referrals were found to be made within two days after their admission to hospital(50.7%), which was observed to be early request. We found that there was significant association between early consultation and shorter hospitalization following the day of consultation. The physical complication type(29.6%) which belongs to "Mending" request type was found to be the most frequent consultation referral type. This result indicates that more systematic psychiatric consultation is needed for the future.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
• /
• v.30 no.6
• /
• pp.1580-1591
• /
• 2000

This study was conducted to assess the amount of nursing services for psychiatric inpatients and to estimate psychiatric nursing costs by using the RBRVS. Full details of medical services, including physician and nursing services, for psychiatric inpatients were surveyed and data of general characteristics of hospitals and patients were also collected. The cost of nursing activities was estimated by the multiple conversion factor which was drawn from the Korean RBRVS Development Project to the RBRVS score of each nursing activities, which was drawn from the results of Korean Nurses Association (KNA)'s projects about nursing RBRVS development and cost of nursing activities. The data about 89 inpatients from 3 general hospitals with psychiatric departments were analyzed. The total cost of nursing activities for each patient per admission day was from KRW 22,185 to KRW 27,954 by hospital, and KRW 25,220 in average. The percent of nursing cost to the total cost of medical services was from 36% to 48% by characteristics of patients and 41.4% in average. The cost of nursing activities estimated in this study was between the existing NHI fee schedule and the one suggested by KNA. It is considered as appropriate and acceptable level compared to the total amount of medical services. In the process of KNA's activities to get nursing fee in NHI fee schedule, results of additional studies to estimate the cost of nursing activities balanced with total cost of medical services in every departments should be found and utilized.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
• /
• v.50 no.3
• /
• pp.333-348
• /
• 2020

Purpose: The present study investigated the association between nurse staffing and health outcomes among psychiatric inpatients in Korea by assessing National Health Insurance claims data. Methods: The dataset included 70,136 patients aged 19 years who were inpatients in psychiatric wards for at least two days in 2016 and treated for mental and behavioral disorders due to use of alcohol; schizophrenia, schizotypal and delusional disorders; and mood disorders across 453 hospitals. Nurse staffing levels were measured in three ways: registered nurse-to-inpatient ratio, registered nurse-to-adjusted inpatient ratio, and nursing staff-to-adjusted inpatient ratio. Patient outcomes included length of stay, readmission within 30 days, psychiatric emergency treatment, use of injected psycholeptics for chemical restraint, and hypnotics use. Relationships between nurse staffing levels and patient outcomes were analyzed considering both patient and system characteristics using multilevel modeling. Results: Multilevel analyses revealed that more inpatients per registered nurse, adjusted inpatients per registered nurse, and adjusted inpatients per nursing staff were associated with longer lengths of stay as well as a higher risk of readmission. More adjusted inpatients per registered nurse and adjusted inpatients per nursing staff were also associated with increased hypnotics use but a lower risk of psychiatric emergency treatment. Nurse staffing levels were not significantly associated with the use of injected psycholeptics for chemical restraint. Conclusion: Lower nurse staffing levels are associated with negative health outcomes of psychiatric inpatients. Policies for improving nurse staffing toward an optimal level should be enacted to facilitate better outcomes for psychiatric inpatients in Korea.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
• /
• v.4 no.1
• /
• pp.3-11
• /
• 1997

Disturbances in memory are the most common problem in patients with an organic mental syndrome. Other patients with significant psychiatric disorders also often have difficulty with memory. So it is very important in the clinical practice of psychiatry to understand the biological and neurocognitive mechanisms of memory proessing, and to develop the assessment tools with which memory function can be evaluated reliably and validly. Moreover, memory researches provide an important viewpoint from which we can understand the pathophysiological mechanisms of major neuropsychiatric illnesses. This article focuses on our understanding of memory functions in clinical and neurobiological aspects. The relevant material will be presented in four parts : 1) terminologies needed in defining major stages of various types of memory processing : 2) neurochemical and neuroanatomical basis of memory processing : 3) brief bed-side screening tests and more comprehensive neuropsychological tests for the evaluation of memory function : 4) the characteristics of memory dysfunction in several major psychiatric illnesses.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
• /
• v.21 no.2
• /
• pp.108-115
• /
• 2012

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship of psychiatric and community mental health nurses' job satisfaction. Methods: This was a descriptive and correlational study in which 151 psychiatric and community mental health nurses (PCMHNs) took part between September and October 2009. Results: The mean score for job satisfaction of the participants was 3.25. In job satisfaction, there were significant differences between psychiatric and community mental health nurse practitioner (PCMHNP) and nurse in community mental health center. All variables except role conflict were positively correlated with job satisfaction. As a result, factors influencing job satisfaction were reward system (${\beta}$=.46, p<.001), self-esteem (${\beta}$=.35, p<.001), leadership (${\beta}$= .27, p<.001), career as a PCMHNP (${\beta}$=-.12, p<.007), job-related characteristics (${\beta}$=.11, p<.24), and career as a nurse in community mental health center (${\beta}$=.09. p<.045). These factors explained 70.3% of the total variance. Conclusion: The results indicated that the comprehensive understanding of job satisfaction to the independent variables could suggest the way how to increase the job satisfaction for psychiatric and community mental health nurse who are a catalysts promoting mental health in community mental health center.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
• /
• v.16 no.4
• /
• pp.246-255
• /
• 2009

Objectives : The aims of this study are to estimate the prevalence of polydipsia and water intoxication and to identify risk factors of polydipsia and water intoxication in psychiatric inpatient. Methods : 1,108 Psychiatric inpatients at 2 mental hospitals in Yongin city were studied from September, 2008 to January, 2009. We diagnosed 'polydipsia' using staff reports(fluid intake>3L/day) or by specific gravity of urine(SPGU<1.008) and diagnosed 'at risk for water intoxication' using normalized diurnal weight gain (NDWG>4%). We attempted to identify clinical characteristics of patients by reviewing their medical records. Results : Two hundred forty seven patients(22.3%) were polydipsic. Sixty eight patients(6.1%) were at risk for water intoxication. The factors associated with polydipsia were lithium, smoking, younger age and increased smoking amounts. The factors associated with risk for water intoxication were valproic acid and polydipsia. Conclusion : Polydipsia and water intoxication in psychiatric inpatients are not rare conditions. Therefore, clinicians' attention should be paid to these conditions.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• /
• v.8 no.1
• /
• pp.70-82
• /
• 1997

Objective：This study was performed to identify and understand the characteristics of adolescents who had a history of police arrest and/or were adjudicated unruly/delinquent by the juvenile court. Method：The study employed a retrospective reivew of coumputer-recorded data set on 210 consecutive admissions to an adolescent psychiatric inpatient unit. Three groups(No Police Contact, N=115；Police Contact Only, N=60；Adjudicated, N=35) were compared on the areas of a) cognitive and educational performance b) emotion：anxiety, depression, suicidality c) personality d) family and life experiences. Standardized assessments were administered to all subjects using WISC-Ⅲ, Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement, Millon Adolescent Personality Inventory, Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale, Revised-Chilren’s Manifest Anxiety Scale, Suicide Ideation Questionnarie, Suicide Behavior Interive, Life Events Checklist, and Family Environmental Scale. A subgroup of the subjects, 60 cases also received a standardized interview by Child Assessment Schedule. Results：The characteristic findings of the delinquent group(the police contact only and adjudicated subjects combined) included (1) a high rate of adoption, sexual promiscuity, out of home placement, and repeated psychiatric hospitalization, (2) low verbal IQ scores and educational achievements, (3) high impulsivity, low social conformity, and high forcefulness in personality inventory, (4) low activityrecreation orientation and low moral religious emphasis in family environment, (5)a high frequency of adverse life experiences, (6) among 3 groups, the Police Contact Only group showed the lowest depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation scores, (7) a high diagnostic frequency of conduct disorder, ODD, and ADHD. Conclusions：The adolescent psychiatric inpatients with a delinquent history presented with a certain clinical, family, psychometric characteristics that warrant specific clinical intervention strategies for their cognitive deficits, an impulsive personality style, family dysfunction with adverse life experiences and disruptive behavioral disorders, different from the rest of adolescent psychiatric inpatients.