• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.269-278
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• 2022

Purpose: This study analyzed the retention factors of Korean community health practitioners who sustained over 20 years based on a multi-dimensional framework. This study suggests global implications for nurses working in rural or remote areas, even during a worldwide pandemic. Methods: The participants were 16 Korean community health practitioners who worked in rural or remote locations for over 20 years. This study identified nurses' key retention factors contributing to long service in rural and remote areas. This is a qualitative study based on the narrative method and analysis was conducted using grounded theory. A semi-structured questionnaire was conducted based on the following: the life flow of the participants' first experience, episodes during the work experience, and reflections on the past 20 years. Results: First, personal 'financial needs' and 'callings' were motivation-related causal conditions. The adaptation of environment-work-community was the contextual condition leading to intervening conditions, building coping strategies by encountering a lifetime crisis. The consequences of 'transition' and 'maturation' naturally occurred with chronological changes. The unique factors were related to the 'external changes' in the Korean primary health system, which improved the participants' social status and welfare. Conclusion: Considering multi-dimensional retention factors was critical, including chronological (i.e., historical changes) and external factors (i.e., healthcare systems), to be supportive synchronously for rural nurses. Without this, the individuals working in the rural areas could be victimized by insecurity and self-commitment. Furthermore, considering the global pandemic, the retention of nurses is crucial to prevent the severity of isolation in rural and remote areas.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.42-65
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• 1992

To survey the specialties or sujects of practice displayed by the private practitioners the authors visited 691 clinics in Taegu from April 1 to May 18, 1991, At the same time, a mail questionnaire was administered to ask the number of displayed subjects of practice, and the reasons for displaying the subjects, reasons for not displaying in case of no specialty was displayed, composition of patients, and role as a specialist. The questionnaire was returned by 308(44.6%) practitioners. The distributions of private practitioners by specialty were 13.9% for internal medicine (IM), 11.7% for pediatrics(Ped), 13.0% for obstetrics '||'&'||' gynecology(OBGY), 11.1% for general surgery(GS), 10.0% for family practice(FP), and 5.3% for general practitioner(GP). Ninety percent of the specialists have displayed their specialty in their offices. Among all the private practitioners, 61.9% of them have displayed their subjects of practice and 23.7% have shown telephone number. Among private practitioners who displayed the subjects of practice, 80.6% have signs of 'subjects of practice'. Mean number of the displayed subjects of practice for the all private practitioners is 1.20, and 1.93 for the private practitioners who displayed subjects of practice. FP and GS have displayed their subjects of practice in 91.2% and 87.0% respectively and OBGY have displayed in 32.2%, the lowest percentage among all the soecuaktues. IM specialists displays pediatrics as a major subject of practice in 72.1% the pediatricians display IM in 88.9% the OBGYs display pediatrics in 77.8%, and the GSs display IM in 51.9%. Most commonly displayed subjects of practice are Ped and IM. Sixty-five percent of the private practitioners answered that they don't display their specialties because their clinics are "primary health care facility". The reasons for displaying the subjects of practice and its relevance with their own specialty(45.6%), and the difficulty in clinic management only with the patients for their own specialty(36.9%). The proportion of clinics whose patients of other specialty are than their own specialty accounted less than 10% was 52.8% and that accounted more than 51% was 16.0%. Specially, 51.4% of GS specialists cared more than 51% of patients of other specialty area than their own specialty. Most of the patients of IM, Ped, and OBGY specialists are the patients of their own specialty. However, 56.8% of GS care more of IM patients and only 24.3% of them care mostly GS patients, The respondents to the mail questionnaire who stated that they can not play the role of specialist well are 30.5% and especially 72.9% of the GS specialists state so. The proportion of respondents who do not suffort the private practice of specialists is 71.1%. Among the surgical specialists, 82.7% of them rarely perform operation. The reasons for not performing operation are insufficient insurance fee (76.9%), and risk of operation(58.0%), so as the OBGY specialists. Above finidngs suggest that most of the specialists, especially surgeons, in the private practice can not play their role as a specialist. It is necessary to develop a policy that facilitates the production of practice and the retention of the specialists in the hospitals.s.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.173-182
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• 1995

Primary health care(PHC) has been established since A Health Law for rural residents has been legislated in 1980 following the WHO declaration, 'Health for All 2000'. in 1978. PHC services are presently assumed to be provided by 2038 Community Health Practitioners(CHP) to about 28% out of rural population in Korea. Most CHPs have confronted the adaptation process to the community being practiced although a CHP's role is to evoke community participation for the improvement of their health by themselves. So the purpose of this study is to describe and explain of the commitment of CHPs into the community. Data were collected by direct interview and tape-recording under subjects' permission till theoretical saturation were occured from 6 CHPs. The subjects were 41 years old and have served in the community for 9 years in average. Main questions and concepts were explored from data according to the procedure of the grounded theory methodology. The results are as follows. 1) The number of the main concepts were twenty four that identified Motive, Desire, Personal characteristics, Unfamiliarity, Denial, Feeling of isolation, Self-sacrifice, Kindness, Patience, Assimilation, Respect for the residents, Support by the family, Support by the residents, Achievement, Acceptance of realities, Use of resources, Inducement of cooperation from the residents, Changes of the difference from time orientation between CHP and residents, Attitude as a official, Technical support, Cost management, Satisfaction level, Acknowledgement by the residents and discrepancy. 2) The twenty four concepts were categorized to seven groups such as Motivation, Feeling of Heterogeneity, Self-discipline, Social support, Induced changes in the attitudes of residents, Familarity and Persistent discrepancy. 3) The categorized groups were analyzed on the base of the Causal Conditions, Central Phenomena, Contexts, Intervening Conditions, Action / Interaction Strategies, and Consequences. Central phenomenon in this study was identified to be the feeling of heterogeneity. Community health practitioners experienced unfamiliarity and denial from the community and felt themselves isolated in the first. In time, they won the trust of residents by their efforts including self-sacrifice, kindness, patience, and assimilation. Afterward, practitioners got self-confidence and familiarity with lesser feeling of heterogeneity. Nevertheless, practitioners could not commit themselves completely because of the persistent discrepancy between CHP and residents. 4) On the commitment process, the CHPs' feeling of heterogeneity were decresed and social support increesed and newly evolved induced change of residents through the continuous interaction between CHP and them The contribution of this study would be concluded as follows. 1) It is expected that effective strategies for more rapid committment into the community can be developed based on this study. 2) More easy committment would be possible for the newly appointed CHP through understanding of the committment process identified on this study.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.466-476
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• 2018

This study was conducted to determine factors affecting professionalism of community health practitioners (CHPs). The participants in this study were 153 community health practitioners working in G province with structured self-report questionnaires from 20 August to 25 September 2017. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, t-test, ANONA, Scheffe's test, Pearson's correlation coefficients and stepwise multiple regression using the SPSS 20.0 program. There were statistically significant differences according to income (F=6.951, p<.001), work experience (F=5.245, p=0.002) and motivation for choosing a community health practitioner (F=3.676, p=0.004). The highest related factors were job satisfaction (${\beta}=0.320$, p<0.001), individual disposition (${\beta}=0.291$, p<0.001), income (${\beta}=0.283$, p<0.001) and job continuance (${\beta}=0.176$, p=0.009). These variables explained 49.6% of the total variance in professionalism. These findings suggest that it is necessary to develop a convergence program and policy support at the individual and organizational level to strengthen the professionalism of community health practitioners.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.33-38
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• 1981

During 2 months from December 1979 to January 1980, Medical practitioners in Chonnam province were grouped into Si (city), Eup (town) and Myun (rural area) groups according to the locations of their clinic. 40 practitioners were randomly selected in each group and were asked their opinions about rural medical care in general. Total of 88 practitioners replied to the question as 73.9 percent of response rate in average. The most frequently mentioned advantages of rural practice were ease of clinic opening in Si-and Myun-group respondents and good social relationship in Eup-group respondents. The most frequently mentioned disadvantages were medical isolation in Si-group respondents and residents' ignorance in medicine in Eup-and Myun-group respondents. In all groups, most respondents thought that rural medical care should be delivered by and controlled by physician. Suggestions made by Eup-and Myun-group respondents for improving rural medical care by structural change focused on the regional medical insurance system, while Si-group respondents noted district hospital or hospital linkage as the most preferrable system.

• Journal of Korean Academic Society of Home Health Care Nursing
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.5-15
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• 2016

Purpose: This study was conducted to evaluate health service delivery and attitudes, toward multi-cultural clients amongst community health practitioners (CHPs). Methods: A survey was conducted among 242 CHPs from December 10-22, 2015. The collected data were analyzed using chi-square test, t-test, and ANOVA using SPSS 18.0. Results: General awareness of multi-culturalism varied significantly by CHPs age and language ability. Additionally, utilization of services in accordance with the location of community health centers (CHCs) was significantly higher in rural areas than urban areas CHCs in post-partum maternal & neonate care giver service (in maternal child health), management of health educational programs and management of physical exercise (in implementing healthy life style) and networking resources in & outside of CHCs (in management of chronic disease). Conclusion: CHPs deliver health-care services to multi-cultural clients, but have not received sufficient training or education to serve these clients effectively. CHPs who received multi-cultural and foreign language training had more positive experiences with multi-cultural clients. This supports the needs for developing educational programs to enhance multi-cultural understanding amongst CHPs.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.153-161
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• 1988

The purpose of this study was to analyze the level of the services provision of community health practitioners (CHP) and to find out the influence factors on the services provision of CHP. In this study the dependent variables were the level of community health services(CHS), maternal and child health services(MCH), family planning services(FPS), primary care services(PCS) and the ratios of preventive health services(PHS). And independent variables were predisposing, community demographic and task factors. For this analysis, atepwise regression was used. Data collected for the study on reorganization of health centers organization in 1985 was partly used. The findings of this study can be summarized as follows : First, total variance of independent variables for CHS, MCH, FPS, PCS and PHS are shown 62.5 percent, 58.3 percent, 41.8 percent, 17 percent and 61.9 percent respectively. Second, the most important variables which explain CHS, MCH, FPS, PCS and PHS was ratios of household contacted ($R^2$＝0.289), marital status ($R^2$＝0.177), marital status($R^2$＝0.167), ratios of household contacted($R^2$＝0.119) and management of preventive health services($R^2$＝=0.203) respectively. The independent varivbles used in this analysis presented that the explnining for the provision of preventive health service are more influenced than primary care services. In summary this analysis suggests that the level of preventive health services provision of CHP is low and the provision of primary care services compared with preventive health services are occurred independentely. In the future, the strategies for active preventive services by CHP must to be strengthened.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.181-185
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• 2014

Background: To assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice of ergonomics among dental professionals of Hubli-Dharwad twin cities, India. Methods: Investigator-developed, self-administered, closed-ended questionnaire assessing knowledge, attitude, and practices regarding ergonomics during dental practice was filled in by undergraduates, house surgeons, postgraduates, and faculty members of dental institutions and private practitioners from Hubli-Dharwad twin cities. Results: Data were collected from a total of 250 participants, 50 belonging to each academic group. Overall mean knowledge, attitude, and practice scores were 52%, 75%, and 55%, respectively. Significant correlation was found for age with attitude (${\chi}^2=10.734$, p=0.030) and behavior (${\chi}^2=12.984$, p=0.011). Marital status was significantly associated with all the three domains; knowledge (${\chi}^2=29.369$, p=0.000), attitude (${\chi}^2=29.023$, p=0.000), and practices (${\chi}^2=13.648$, p=0.009). Conclusion: Participants had considerable awareness and behavior toward ergonomics in dental practice. The high attitude score indicates stronger acceptance of ergonomics principles and guidelines during routine dental procedures. The current study highlights the situation of ergonomics in dental practice in the form of knowledge, attitude, and practices.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.5-16
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• 1992

The maternal and child health is a basis of national health, and indicates the level of social welfare and health of the country, because it is related with community welfare status, general cultural conditions, and medical and health sciences. This is a study carried out to identify the present practices of maternal and child health care programs implemented by the private clinics located in Guns(counties ; rural area) in Kyungsangnam Province and to propose alternatives to improve their current programs through a self-administrative questionnaire. The subjects were 90 private physicians who operated their own clinics since 1990 and were general practitioners, Obstertrician/Gynecologists or pediatricians: This survey was conducted by mail from 15 January to 25 February 1992. The response rate was 94.4 percent. 1) The major manpower for MCH programs of the studied clinics was physicians and nurseaids. 70.3% of physicians were general practitioners, 81.1% of nursing manpower were nurseaids. 31.1% of the studied clinics employed lab-technicians. 89.2% of them had MCH room whatever the size and the setting, and 84.4% of Ob/Gyn clinics installed laboratory equipments. 2) 55.4% and 63.5% of the studied clinics provided 151 or above consulting services and curative services of MCH per physician a month respectively and 33.8% and 25.7% of them provided 10 or less consulting services and curative services per physician a month. 91.9% of lab-technicians had 10 or less laboratory tests per technician a month. 3) There was a difference between Ob/Gyn and pediatric clinics in terms of services delivered : for example, 80% of Ob/Gyn clinics provided pre- and post- natal care services, while 84.6% of pediatric clinics provided vaccinations for children. It was also found that only a few of general practitioners involved pre-and post- natal care services. 4) There were no clinics which had opened regular health education session but 24.3% of them had opened the sessions irregularly. Ob/Gyn clinics put emphasis on maternity and pediatric clinics did on child health, but general practitioners touched with both maternal and child health. 21.6% of the studied clinics had some kind of educational materials for MCH programs. Most of the materials were pamphlets or small booklets. 5) Proteinuria/glucosuria, blood pressure and blood type were tested in 48.6~69% of the studied clinics ; tests for blood sugar and hepatitis B were provided in 39.2~41.9% of them, most of them were done in Ob/Gyn clinics. 6) 41.9% of physicians, 29.7% of nurses and 45.9% of nurses-aids wanted to receive on-job-training for MCH programs.

• Imaging Science in Dentistry
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.253-259
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• 2013

Purpose: Radiographs is an integral part of patient management in dentistry, despite their detrimental effects. As the literature pertaining to radiation protection among Indian dental practitioners is sparse, exploring such protection is needed. Materials and Methods: All private dental practitioners in Mangalore, India were included in the study. A structured, pre-tested, self-administered questionnaire was employed to assess the knowledge, attitudes, practices, previous training, perceptions towards the need to spread awareness, and willingness to gain and implement knowledge about radiation hazards and protection. Information regarding each respondent's age, gender, education, and type and duration of practice was collected. Results: Overall, 87 out of 120 practitioners participated in the study. The mean knowledge, attitude, and practice scores were $9.54{\pm}2.54$, $59.39{\pm}7.01$, and $5.80{\pm}3.19$, respectively. Overall, 25.3% of the respondents had undergone training in radiation protection, 98.9% perceived a need to spread awareness, and 94.3% were willing to improve their knowledge. Previous training showed a significant correlation with age, sex, and duration of practice; attitude was significantly correlated with education and type of practice; and knowledge scores showed a significant correlation with type of practice. Conclusion: Although the knowledge and practices of respondents were poor, they had a positive attitude and were willing to improve their knowledge. Age, sex, and duration of practice were associated with previous training; education and type of practice with attitude scores; and type of practice with knowledge scores. The findings of this study suggest a policy is needed to ensure the adherence of dental practitioners to radiation protection guidelines.