• Perspectives in Nursing Science
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.67-76
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• 2009

Recently, small and medium-sized hospitals which are located in rural areas have many difficulties in securing high quality nurses. That is because working environments for nurses in small and medium-sized hospitals in rural areas are poor compared with those of big hospitals in urban. As a result, the migration of nurses from small and medium-sized hospitals in rural areas to big hospitals in urban is continuously happening. In general, big hospitals provide nurses with high level of salary and fringe benefits. To prevent the migration of nurses, chief executive officers of small & medium hospitals in rural areas have been interested in improving nurses' working conditions including wages. Also, they have raised nurses' salary and improved working conditions. But, basically these individualized efforts have some limit. In connection with this, medical interest groups have produced various voices in terms of interpretation and solutions for these issues. However, from the future perspectives, it seems evident that two approaches for both manpower supply and demand plans of nurses are necessary. They should contain not only accurate estimation of the supply-demand of nursing manpower but also the improvement of working conditions and wages of nurses. Estimation of nursing manpower supply-demand depends on the standards and criteria being used. Supply and demand may be met or not in accordance with the points emphasized on the decision. In the articles, issues regarding nursing manpower, levels of salary, other working conditions and social support system for child care are discussed. According to Joe's report (2005), most health institutions did not meet the guidelines of nurse staffing in Medical Law. The wages of nurse vary on every hospital and there is a big difference in wages' range. The average starting salary for a nurse is 22 million won a year. In case of tertiary hospitals, it reaches up to 30 million won a year. Nurse as a profession should have a strong responsibility and should take care of the patients for 24 hours with three working shifts. Also, most of them are female who have the burden of child rearing. Therefore, it is suggested to increase the salary, to provide comfortable working conditions, and to have social support system for nurses with household affairs.

• Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.285-294
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• 2023

Purpose: This study aimed to identify the colonization rate of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), the characteristics of CRE isolates, and risk factors for CRE colonization in patients transferred to the general wards of a small/medium-sized hospital. Methods: This retrospective study was conducted on patients who underwent CRE culture tests within 24 hours of admission among patients transferred to a small/medium-sized hospital. Forty-seven patients confirmed as positive for CRE were classified as belonging to the patient group. For the control group, 235 patients (five times the number of the patient group) were matched by sex, age, and diagnosis, and then selected at random. Data were analyzed using descriptive analysis and multiple logistic regression analysis. Results: The CRE colonization rate was 5% (47 out of 933 patients), and Klebsiella pneumoniae (68.0%) was the most common isolate of CRE. The positivity rate of carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae was 61.7%. The risk factors for CRE colonization included renal disease (odds ratio [OR]=4.93; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.49-16.31), heart disease (OR=3.86; 95% CI, 1.35-11.01), indwelling urinary catheters (OR=4.43; 95% CI, 1.59-12.36), and cephalosporin antibiotic use (OR=8.57; 95% CI, 1.23-59.60). Conclusion: Having a comorbid renal or cardiac disease, an indwelling urinary catheter, or a history of exposure to cephalosporin antibiotics could be classified as risk factors for CRE colonization in patients transferred to small and medium-size hospitals. It is necessary to perform active infection control through proactive CRE culture testing of patients with risk factors.

• Journal of the Korean Society for information Management
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.281-308
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• 2022

This study aims to present directions for improving information services of medical libraries in small and medium-sized hospitals by exploring the information use behavior and information needs of nurses, medical technicians, and pharmacists who had not been studied. The research design was conducted based on the reviewing theoretical background studies, and in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with nurses, medical technicians, and pharmacists working in small and medium-sized hospitals. The results show their information needs, information use behavior, and perceptions of the medical library in the hospital. Based on these results, this study suggests ways to improve the information services provided by medical libraries in hospitals. This research is meaningful because it was first to explore the information use behavior and information needs of health care professionals working in small and medium-sized hospitals.

• Journal of Korean Critical Care Nursing
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.85-96
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• 2019

Purpose : The purpose of this study was to examine the mediating effect of perceptions regarding the importance of patient safety management in the relationship between incident reporting attitudes and patient safety care activities for nurses in small-and medium-sized general hospitals. The objective was to provide a basis for planning tailored training programs aimed at improving patient safety care activities. Methods : This study was conducted with 187 participants in small- and medium-sized general hospitals in K city in South Korea from March 15 to March 31, 2019. The data collected from participants were analyzed using descriptive statistics, a t-test, ANOVA, Pearson's correlation coefficients, and a multiple regression using IBM SPSS/WIN 21.0 software. Results : Patient safety care activities were found to be correlated with incident reporting attitudes (r=.27, p < .001) and perceptions of the importance of patient safety management (r=.59, p < .001). Further, perceptions of the importance of patient safety management had a complete mediating effect (${\beta}=.409$, p < .001) on the relationship between incident reporting attitudes and patient safety care activities. Conclusion : Based on the findings of this study, tailored training programs regarding patient safety care activities focused on boosting perceptions of the importance of patient safety management are highly recommended to improve nurses' patient safety care activities in small- and medium-sized general hospitals.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.196-211
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• 2022

Purpose: This is a phenomenological study to improve the quality of nursing and understand its essence by comprehensively analyzing job experience of nursing managers in small and medium. Methods: This study focused on deriving the common empirical attributes of all the study participants, rather than their individual attributes. Data on the job experiences of nine nurse managers in small and medium-sized hospitals were collected and analyzed using Colaizzi's phenomenological method. Result: The job experiences of nurse managers in small and medium hospitals were classified after analysis into 14 theme cluster sets and 34 themes in five categories. The categories derived were 'A feeling of pressure as if taking responsibility for the entire hospital', 'Taking on the difficulties of hiring a nurse alone.' 'Difficulty in mediating conflicts within the organization', 'Struggling to endure', 'To take root in the field with a sense of ownership'. Conclusion: This study is meaningful in helping nursing managers in small and medium hospitals perform their duties more efficiently and stably by understanding their job experience.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.64-87
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• 2002

The purpose of this study is aimed to grasp the factors, which may influence the harmonized organizational efficiency of the objects of hospital structure as well as its structural constituents of each departments of administration, nursing, and para-medical personnels, in order to provide basic data enable to contribute in the development of hospital. The survey data involved in the study was derived from 385 personnels working in 5 medium and small sized hospitals in Seoul area. The main finding of the study can be summarized as follows; 1. The organizational efficiency in accordance with the general characteristics of subjects in order of male, over 30 years of age, university graduates, long-term tenure and high position is higher, whereas, in as much as wage and well trained personnels in administration departments are higher, its organizational efficiency is higher in comparison with those of nursing and para-medical departments. 2. The organizational efficiency in accordance with satisfaction and the motive contributional factors is higher as much as the high satisfactory level in every departments in general. 3. The organizational efficiency in accordance with the factors of job characteristics is higher in as much as difficulty of the jobs is lesser, however there was not statically significance between administration and para-medical departments. In as much as the job circulation is intact, job standard level is higher and the more job responsibility the higher organizational efficiency, while the more workload and the more work feud resulted lower organizational efficiency. It was obvious that the higher professional expertise as well as the training and application level are improving the organizational efficiency. 4. The organizational efficiency in accordance with the factors of structural characteristics was higher in as much as the intercommunication was smooth and the structural formalization level are higher, however there was not statically significance between the participation level of decision making and the organizational efficiency. 5. In as much as higher educational level of over university graduates, management of organization and the job level are satisfied, the psychological motive contributional level is higher, while the lesser job difficulty, the smooth job performance, the higher level of professional expertise, the higher structural formalization level, the smooth intercommunication, have affected as major influence factors of the structural characteristics of organizational efficiency. 6. As the management of hospital organization, the job level and personal relation are satisfied or psychological motive is provided, especially when there are no difficult jobs or smooth job circulation and no job feud are prevailing, it was apparent that the organizational efficiency is improving accordingly. The nursing departments has high educational standard and is satisfied in the management and job level of hospital organization as there are no difficult jobs while the level of hospital's organizational formality is high and the intercommunication is smooth, which are improving the organizational efficiency. The para-medical departments is also satisfied the management and job level of hospital organization and it was apparent that the organizational efficiency is higher in as much as the level of job standardization is high and the intercommunication is smooth. As a result of this study, in order for improving the organizational efficiency of the medium and small sized hospitals, the management and job level as well as personal relation are preferably satisfied, whereas the level of job circulation, job responsibility, the expertise and formalization of organization, intercommunication and etc. should be satisfied, and, therefore, it is advisable to buildup discriminated organizational management and environment for different division on the basis above factors. Since this study is carried on several hospitals in Seoul area, there is a certain limit to generalize its result to all domestic hospitals, nevertheless the gallop poll was made by developing the questionnaires with reasonability and reliability. Especially, as the study was carried by analyzing the comparison of influence factors' difference of organizational efficiency in accordance with the divisional characteristics of the medium and small sized hospitals.

• The Korean Journal of Cytopathology
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.165-169
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• 2007

The authors present the fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) cytologic findings of a case of extranodal marginal zone B cell lymphoma (MZBCL), which featured abundant plasma cells and eosinophilic histiocytes arising in both parotid glands. A 49-year-old female presented with palpable masses in both parotid glands. She had been suffering from systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis. The lesions were evaluated by FNAC and smears showed a small number of clusters of oncocytic cells with abundant eosinophilic granular cytoplasm and small nuclei, intermixed with small to medium-sized lymphoid cells containing round to lobulated nuclei, which suggested Warthin's tumor. Some of lymphoid cells had a plasmacytoid appearance, and some scattered large cells contained a large amount of eosinophilic cytoplasm. Bilateral superficial parotidectomy was performed and a histopathologic study indicated MZBCL with abundant plasma cells, intermixed with eosinophilic histiocytes. The presence of oncocytic cells and a mixture of lymphoid and plasma cells indicates Warthin's tumor, but the cytologic features of a relatively monotonous small to medium-sized lymphoid infiltrate suggest the possibility of MZBCL in the clinical setting of an FNAC study performed on a patient suffering from a connective tissue disease.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.17 no.12
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• pp.127-137
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• 2017

This study aims to identify the awareness and performance level of hospital infection control in medical technicians working in small and medium-sized hospitals. The experiment was conducted in 235 medical technicians (medical laboratory technologist, radiological technologist, and physical therapist), and for statistical processing, SPSS Ver.23.0 was used to conduct mean and standard deviation, analysis of variance, and regression analysis. As a result, it was found that the major cause of improper infection control was lack of experts ($3.17{\pm}1.18$) and performance level was statistically significantly lower than awareness of infection control. "I took no measures after infection accident" was responded the highest at 40.0%(94 persons), and in "I reported to the head of department after disinfection, examination, and/or vaccination," the standardized regression coefficient ${\beta}$ was -0.265, p=0.025, which suggested that there was a significant negative (-) impact. Infection control level showed a significant positive correlation with training and infection control instructions. Therefore, it was found that medical technicians in small and medium-sized hospitals required high skilled manpower in infection control, training, infection control instructions, etc. Through this study, more effective infection control is considered to be possible.

• Journal of muscle and joint health
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.84-91
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• 2018

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the types of violence experienced by small and medium sized hospital nurses. Methods: Data were collected from March 1 to 30, 2017, using self-report questionnaires. Responses from 87 nurses were analyzed using descriptive statistics, $x^2$ test, Fisher's exact test, t-test. Results: The majority of the respondents experienced violence from patients (60.2%), visitors (25.5%), doctors (12.2%), and other staffs (2.0%). Verbal violence (80.5%) and physical threats (74.7%) were more frequent than physical violence (25.3%). Violence occurred throughout the hospital. However, verbal violence ($x^2=20.85$, p=.005) and physical threat ($x^2=20.80$, p=.006) were statistically significant according to the department. Violence occurred most frequently in surgical ward, followed by artificial kidney room, emergency room, and outpatient department. Conclusion: Most nurses are exposed to frequent violence. These results suggest that hospital should improve the respective organizational cultures and develop promotional programs and administrative policies to prevent violence. Also, hospitals should develop of violence intervention policies and education programs and counseling programs for nurses.

• Journal of Korean Clinical Nursing Research
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.337-343
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• 2020

Purpose: This study is a descriptive study to identify the degree of workplace bullying experience of newly graduated nurses and the difference in coping and adaptation processing, organizational socialization in relation to workplace bullying experience. Methods: The Study participants were newly graduated nurses with 3 months to 1-year clinical experience (N=186) and conveniently sampled from a small to medium-sized hospital located in G Metropolitan City. Data were collected in July 2018, using structured questionnaires. Results: Half of the participants (50.0%) reported workplace bullying experience. Most bulling experiences were person or work related. Newly graduated nurses who experienced bullying in the workplace demonstrated significantly lower coping and adaptation process (t=3.34, p=.001) and organizational socialization (t=7.46, p=<.001) than nurses who did not experience bullying in the workplace. Conclusion: Orientation programs for newly graduated nurses need to include contents that can improve the coping and adaptation process. Nursing managers at small and medium-sized general hospitals should actively support the mentor-mentee program to promote the organizational socialization of newly graduated nurses.