• Human Ecology Research
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.581-592
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• 2017

This study investigated the occupational experiences of social workers in child care facilities. The participants of the study were six social workers in child care facilities. This qualitative research used a Consensual Qualitative Research (CQR) method that and classified the main findings into five categories and twelve sub-themes. This study revealed that child care professionals define themselves as "caregivers" and "role models." Positive effects of institutional life on a child were forming peer relationships and being able to use diverse services while negative effects included acquiring a social stigma, having problems in developing attachment between a child and a surrogate caregiver, developing passive attitude and weak will power from communal living. Meanwhile, conflicts with children and poor working conditions led to burnout for caregivers. Our recommendations on the direction of change for the facilities are: categorizing admitted children, supporting restoration of family functions, reinforcing support for children's preparation for an independent life, and developing expertise. This paper provides a better understanding of child care facilities as well as encourages further social discourse on institutionalized children in order to promote policy making and implementation.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.217-224
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• 2006

Purpose: This study was done to investigate the effects of pilocarpine mouth care on the condition and discomfort of the oral cavity in patients with terminal cancer. Method: A quasi-experimental design with a non-equivalent control group, pre- and post-test was used. The participants were 30 patients admitted to the hospice care unit of C university hospital. Fourteen patients received pilocarpine mouth care for 5 days. The other sixteen received general mouth care. Results: Improvement in the condition of the oral cavity was significantly higher in the experimental group compared to the control group. Decrease in oral discomfort scores was significantly higher in the experimental group compared to the control group. The incidence of oral candidiasis was significantly higher in the control group compared to the experimental group. Conclusion: These findings indicate that pilocarpine mouth care could be an effective intervention for relieving oral discomfort, improving the condition of the oral cavity, and decreasing the incidence of oral candidiasis in patients with terminal cancer.

• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.143-153
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• 2019

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the frequency, perceived importance and competence of pediatric emergency nursing practice (PENP) in nurses who cared for pediatric patients in the emergency department. Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive study analyzed 175 emergency department nurses caring for pediatric patients at 7 university hospitals with more than 500 beds, located in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province. The measurement tool was modified from the Classification of Standard Nursing Activities to measure the frequency, importance of PENP, and nursing competence. It comprised 143 items in 16 domains of PENP. Results: The most frequent nursing practice was the domain of 'nursing records and environmental management' and the least frequent practice was the 'research and consulting' domain. The nursing care domain perceived to be most important by nurses was 'specialized intensive nursing care'. The nursing care domain with the highest level of nursing competence was 'hygiene care', and the domain with the least level of nursing competence was the 'research and consulting'. Conclusion: These results will be utilized as basic data for future pediatric emergency nursing education initiatives and for establishing priorities of nursing policy to improve health care for children admitted to the emergency department.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.189-204
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• 2023

Objectives: The goals of this study are to exploring critical factors and methods to improve Korean Community Care through the cases of GyeongsangNamdo. Methods: For this study, we performed in-depth interviews with 90 people involved in Community Care services of 6 regions, and the collected data were analyzed. The collected data were analyzed utilizing NVivo12. In the end, we reconfirmed the process through Topic Modeling analysis. Results: We conducted descriptive statistics and qualitative data analysis collected through surveys and in-depth interviews. In the case of qualitative analysis, we extracted principle codes (Need, Lack, Absence), and sorted the contents into sub-categories. The response rate of 'Need to strengthen capabilities' was the highest, 'Need to communicate and share information' was the second, and 'Need for integrated operation and a control tower' was the third. Conclusion: As a result, we find the critical factors to improve Community Care. Based on them, we should conduct follow-up researches to propose concrete methods to apply to diverse regions.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.107-129
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• 2008

The purpose of this paper is to critically examine Korean government's efforts in policy making and implementation regarding the Korea National Health Insurance System in the past and suggest a new paradigm for future policy changes. The structural and political characteristics of the Korea National Health Insurance, where health care services are provided almost exclusively by the private providers and funding for health comes equally from public and private sources, imply persistent difficulties in the operation of the system This may partially explain why the Korean system has continually experienced conflicts among stakeholders whenever there was an attempt to change policy. In this paper, we discuss four cases to illustrate such difficulties and barriers. We propose that in order to address these challenges and reduce policy errors as well as unintended results, it is necessary to restructure policy making process from being oriented toward 'quantitative expansion' to 'qualitative maturity', from a 'linear thinking' to a 'system thinking', from taking a 'top-down' to a 'governance and participatory' decision making process.

• Journal of Korea Technology Innovation Society
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.1163-1186
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• 2013

Big science such as nuclear fusion accelerators shares the characteristic of requiring long-term and massive budget input, human power, and related state-of-the-art technology. Because big science, by nature, thus requires large-scale budgets and facilities yet harbors the possibility of failure, most projects are led by the government. When the actual circumstances are examined, however, such projects are often implemented through the formation of cooperative relations with small and medium businesses (SMBs) possessing outstanding technological capacity. On the other hand, the reality is that the entry of corporations into the business ecosystem of big science is not easy and that even those that have once entered big science likewise fail to find sales outlets for technology that they have developed following the supply of single items, thus leading their technological capacity to lie idle. Consequently, based on an awareness of the problem, the present study seeks to propose strategies for activating the business ecosystem of nuclear fusion and accelerators and to present alternatives regarding which policy tasks must be pursued first by using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) technique. The present study derived the four policy alternatives of approach, care, expansion, and infrastructures in accordance with the results of empirical analysis to activate the business ecosystem of nuclear fusion and accelerators and analyzed their priority in terms of urgency and effectiveness, the results of which were, in this order: care-approach-expansion-infrastructures. The significance of such research results lie in presenting the policy direction when the government determines which policy task must be pursued first and implements strategies for the activation of the business ecosystem of nuclear fusion and accelerators with limited financial resources in the future.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.71-79
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• 2015

With the growth of aging population in Korea, a better care of chronic and other degenerative illnesses is urgently needed. Evidences suggest that this can be achieved through incorporating a wide range of care options, expanding beyond medical interventions. The aim of this study is to analyze the distribution of publically funded research to understand if the Korean research and development funding system matches various approaches and purposes to successfully tackle the chronic care needs of an aging society. We complied the list of funded projects to be analyzed by searching the National Technical Information Service database with key words such as aging society/senescence, chronic diseases, disability, and health promotion. Most projects were based on the biomedical approach with the purpose of establishing the etiology and clinical (treatment) interventions. Health promotion projects showed a distinctive distribution with more percentage of projects based on psycho-behavioral approaches while research on chronic diseases predominantly biomedical. It would be necessary to diversify publically-funded research projects to develop effective and efficient care technologies for the future.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.416-423
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• 2009

Objectives : This study was performed to examine medical care utilization of psychiatric patients and to explore patients' characteristics associated with extended hospitalization. Methods : Data were extracted from information of Korean Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service. All data associated with admission and outpatient clinic visit were analysed by patient characteristics. We selected first psychiatric admission patients who diagnosed mental and behavioral disorders due to use of alcohol (main disease code: F10), schizophrenia and related disorders (F20-29) and mood disorders (F30~33) from January to June 2005. We analysed status of admission, mean length of stay, regular access to outpatient clinic and rates of extended hospitalization during 3 years. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were conducted to identify factors associated with extended hospitalization. Results : The number of psychiatric patients during the first six month of 2005 was 30,678. The mean length of stay was longest for schizophrenia and related disorders but shortest for mood disorders. Patients who experienced an extended hospitalization were 18.8% of total subjects. An extended hospitalization was more common in schizophrenia and related disorders than other diagnostic groups. The factors associated with the extended hospitalization were age, sex, diagnostic group, type of insurance and medical care utilization groups. Conclusions : The study indicates the problem of an extended hospitalization for psychiatric patients in Korea. It is suggested that variations in rates of extended hospitalization among medical care utilization group may need an active early intervention system in psychiatric treatment service. Particular attention needs to be devoted to planning and funding for reducing extended hospitalization.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.14-33
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• 2022

Purpose: To examine whether the Patient Experience Assessment (PEA) has led to perceptible changes at the ground level of health care, as a way of evaluating PEA as a policy intervention for quality improvement. Methods: Four focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted, each comprising six to eight participants who were employees responsible for patient experience at their respective hospitals. The primary focus of the FGDs was on questions such as: 1) How do hospitals respond to PEA? 2) What significant changes were observed after the implementation of PEA? 3) What were the unintended consequences of implementing PEA, if any? 4) What areas of improvement have been identified for maximizing the potential of PEA? Results: Two broad themes emerged out of the FGDs: changes observed post implementation of PEA, and areas for improvement of PEA. Four significant changes were reported by participants: changes in perception and attitude regarding patient experience in hospital employees, increased active involvement by the hospital leadership, enhanced efforts to improve patient experience, and increased cooperation between such activities. Furthermore, eight areas of improvement were identified, which have been grouped in three categories: improving the process of data collection for PEA, introducing additional catalysts to facilitate further changes, and paying attention to structure- and patient-level constraints that must be addressed in parallel. Conclusion: The implementation of PEA led to perceptible changes within hospitals, which implies that it can serve as an effective catalyst for improving patient experience. A number of areas of improvement that would aid in maximizing the potential of PEA were also identified.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.169-192
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• 2012

This study reviewed the current status of in-service education programs for infant care teachers in early childhood education and care settings. In addition, the training program(titled "infant specialist program") which had been developed in one district of Seoul in order to assist the job performance and speciality for infant care teachers was discussed. The focus in the development of the training program, its teaching content and method were addressed in detail. The results related to evaluation of the training program of interest were reported. The infant care teachers who had participated in the training program reported that the levels of their teaching efficacy and those of knowledge of infant development from post-tests were significantly increased over time. In line with the main results of this study, implications for practice and policy were discussed.