• Journal of Korean Clinical Nursing Research
• /
• v.19 no.3
• /
• pp.357-368
• /
• 2013

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate risk factors related to delirium and to develop screening model on delirium occurrence in MICU (Medical Intensive Care Unit) patients. Methods: For developing a preliminary tool for delirium, the data of 166 patients were collected and analyzed. In order to estimate the accuracy and discriminating power for the developed screening model, 98 patients were enrolled. The data used in this study were collected by EMR (Electronic Medical Record) review from January to September in 2012. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS/PC Win 18.0 program. Results: Screening model on delirium in MICU patients was developed using the results of logistic regression. The total score of screening model was 24 point and measuring point was 10 point. When the measuring point is over 10 point, it means that the risk of delirium occurrence is high. The discriminating power and the validity of screening model showed AUC .908 (p <.001) and .935 (p <.001) respectively. This result showed that the screening model on delirium which developed in this study was an appropriate model for screening the delirium risk group in MICU. The sensitivity of the screening model was 83%, specificity 89% and accuracy 84%. Conclusion: The developed screening model on delirium occurrence in MICU should be combined with EMR for screening and preventing delirium in a high risk group.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
• /
• v.25 no.3
• /
• pp.14-28
• /
• 2020

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to calculate the total daily nursing workload and the optimum number of nurses per intensive care unit (ICU) based on the nursing intensity and the direct nursing time per inpatient using the patient classification. Methods: Two ICUs at one general hospital were investigated. To calculate the nursing intensity, patient classification according to the nursing needs was conducted for 10 days in each unit during September 2018. We performed patient classifications for a total of 167 patient-days in the Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU) and 86 patient-days in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU). The total number of person-days for nurses who responded to the Nursing Time survey was 151 for MICU and 85 for SICU. In each unit, direct and non-direct nursing hours, nursing intensity score, and direct nursing hours were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentage, and average calculated using Microsoft Excel. The amount of nursing workload and the optimum number of nurses were calculated according to the formula developed by the authors. Findings: For the MICU, the average direct nursing time per patient was 5.59 hours for Group 1, 6.98 hours for Group 2, and 9.28 hours for Group 3. For the SICU, the average direct nursing time per patient was 5.43 hours for Group 1, 7.21 hours for Group 2, 9.75 hours for Group 3, and 12.82 hours for Group 4. Practical Implications: This study confirmed that the appropriate number of nurses was not secured in the nursing unit of this study, and that leisure time such as meal time during nursing work hours was not properly guaranteed. The findings suggest that to create working environments where nurses can serve for extended periods of time without compromising their professional standards, hospitals should secure an appropriate number of nurses.

• Journal of Korean Clinical Nursing Research
• /
• v.18 no.1
• /
• pp.149-158
• /
• 2012

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate incidence and factors related to diarrhea in an intensive care unit (ICU). Methods: Retrospective correlational design was used. Data were collected from reviewing medical records of 210 patients stayed at an ICU in one university hospital, Seoul. Patients were included in the study if they 1) had no gastrointestinal disorders or fecal incontinence before coming to the ICU, 2) stayed longer than 5 days at the ICU, 3) were not on stool softners, 4) were without abdominal surgery, and 5) were 20-year-old or older. Results: The incidence of diarrhea was 27.1%. Durations of ICU stay, antibiotics administration, and enteral feeding were found to be statistically significant factors correlated with diarrhea. The enteral feeding was the significant predictors of the diarrhea in ICU. Conclusion: Since characteristics of diarrhea in ICU patients is shown to be multifactorial, nursing strategies for evaluating and managing related factors are recommended.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
• /
• v.66 no.1
• /
• pp.27-32
• /
• 2009

Background: The management of patients with lung cancer has improved recently, and many of them will require admission to the medical intensive care unit (MICU). The aim of this study was to examine the clinical characteristics and to identify risk factors for mortality in patients with lung cancer admitted to the MICU. Methods: We conducted retrospective analysis on 88 patients with lung cancer admitted to the MICU between April 2004 and March 2008. Results: Of the 88 patients (mean age, 66 years), 71 patients (80.7%) had non-small cell lung cancer and 17 patients (19.3%) had small cell lung cancer. Distant metastasis were present in 79 patients (89.8%). The main reasons for MICU admission were acute respiratory failure (77.3%), sepsis (11.4%), and central nervous system dysfunction (4.5%). Mechanical ventilation was used in 54 patients (61.4%). Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II score, length of MICU stay, need for mechanical ventilation, source of MICU admission were correlated with MICU mortality. The type of lung cancer and metastasis were not predictive factors of death in MICU. Conclusion: Most common reason for ICU admission was acute respiratory failure. Mortality rate of lung cancer patients admitted to the MICU was 65.9%. APACHE II score, length of ICU stay, need for mechanical ventilation, source of MICU admission were predicted factors of death in the MICU.

• KIEAE Journal
• /
• v.15 no.2
• /
• pp.19-26
• /
• 2015

Purpose: Maximizing human comfort in design of medical environments depends immensely on specialized architects particularly critical care design; the study proposes Evidence-Based Design as an apparent analog to Evidence-Based Medicine. Healthcare facility designs are substantially based on the findings of study in an effort to design environments that augment care by improving patient safety and being therapeutic. On SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Science) t-test is applied to simulate two independent variables of PDR (Pre Design-Research) and POE (Post- Occupancy Evaluation). PDR is conducted on relatively new hospital Hallym University Dongtan Sacred Heart Hospital to analyse visibility from researchers' point of view, here the ICU is arranged in I-Shape. POE is applied on Dongguk University Ilsan Hospital to simulate walking on LogWare where two NS are designed based on L- Shape and Seoul St. Mary's Hospital, The Catholic University of Korea where five NS are functional for ICU Intensive Care Unit, Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU), Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU), Critical Care Unit (CCU), Korean Oriental Medical Care Unit which are mostly arranged in U-Shape, and walking pattern is recognized to be in a zigzag path. Method: T-Test is applied on two dependent communication variables: walkability and visibility, with confidence interval of 95%. This study systematically analyses the Nurse Station (NS) typo-morphology, and simulates nurse horizontal circulation, by computing round route visits to patient's bed, then estimating minimum round route on LogWare stop sequence software. The visual connectivity is measured on depth map graphs. Hence the aim is to reduce staff stress and fatigue for better patients care by minimizing staff horizontal travel time and to facilitate nurse walk path and support space distribution by increasing effectiveness in delivering care. Result: Applying visibility graph and isovist field on space syntax on I- Shape, L- Shape and U- Shape ICU (SICU, MICU and CCU) configuration, I-shape facilitated 20% more patients in linear view as they stir to rise from their beds from nurse station compared to U-shape. In conclusion, it was proved that U-Shape supply minimum walking and maximum visibility; and L shape provides just visibility as the nurse is at pivot. I shape provides panoramic view from the Nurse Station but very rigorous walking.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
• /
• v.13 no.2
• /
• pp.340-349
• /
• 2001

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of a hand massage program on anxiety, vital sign and pain in clients with ischemic heart disease. The design utilized for this study was quasi-experimental with a nonequivalent control group non-synchronized design The subjects were fifty-four patients, twenty-eight for the experimental and twenty-six for the control group, who were admitted with ischemic heart diease at a cardiac intensive care unit in K medical center of K university. This study was carried out from May, 1999 to March, 2000. The level of anxiety and pain measured by Visual Analogue Scale, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure and pulse rate were measured before and after hand massage, the state of Anxiety was measured by the Spielberger (1970) scale at admission and after hand massage for three days. The collected data were processed by using the SPSS PC program and analyzed using $\chi^2$-test and t-test. The result of this study are as follows : 1. The scores of VAS anxiety and State of anxiety of the experimental group were lower than those of the control group. 2. The degree of systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure and pulse rate of the experimental group were lower than that of the control group. 3. The score of VAS pain of the experimental group was lower than that of the control group. The results suggested that hand massage can decrease VAS anxiety, State of anxiety, vital signs and VAS pain of patients who were admitted with ischemic heart disease at cardiac intensive care unit Therefore, it is proposed that hand massage is an appropriate nursing intervention to relieve anxiety of the patients who were admitted with ischemic heart disease at a cardiac intensive care unit.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
• /
• v.27 no.2
• /
• pp.77-82
• /
• 2017

Background: Clostridium difficile associated diarrhea (CDAD) is a leading cause of hospital-associated gastrointestinal illness. Risk factors for CDAD include advanced age, long-term admission, antibiotics, proton-pump inhibitor or $H_2$ blocker use and immunosuppression. The practice guideline of American Journal of Gastroenterology (2013) suggests metronidazole for the first-line therapy of mild-moderate CDAD as well as vancomycin for severe CDAD. MICU inpatients receiving stress ulcer prophylaxis and antibiotics are susceptible to nosocomial CDAD. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate occurrence and treatment of CDAD in MICU. Methods: Patients who were admitted to the MICU and had CDAD from August 2012 to August 2015 were analyzed retrospectively. Results: Of the 90 patients with CDAD, 20 patients (2.22%) had mild-moderate CDAD (16 received metronidazole and 4 received vancomycin therapy) and 70 patients (77.8%) had severe CDAD(54 received metronidazole and 16 received vancomycin therapy). Among the patients with mild- moderate CDAD, treatment with metronidazole or vancomycin resulted in same clinical cure in 50% of the patients (p=1.00). Among the patients with severe CDAD, treatment with metronidazole or vancomycin resulted in clinical cure in 40.7% and 50.0% of the patients, respectively (p=0.511). Clinical symptoms recurred in 7.4% of the severe CDAD patients treated with metronidazole and 6.3% of those treated with vancomycin(p=0.875). Conclusion: Our findings suggest that metronidazole and vancomycin are equally effective for the treatment of mild-moderate CDAD; however, vancomycin demonstrated higher clinical cure rate and lower recurrence rate for severe CDAD, although the difference was not statistically significant. For better clinical outcomes, appropriate medication use by disease severity is needed.

• Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
• /
• v.20 no.1
• /
• pp.38-46
• /
• 2018

Purpose: The aim of this study was to verify the effects of daily 2% chlorhexidine gluconate (CHG) bathing on the acquisition of multidrug-resistant organisms (MDRO) and healthcare-associated infection (HAI) in a medical intensive care unit (MICU). Methods: The study was a randomized controlled group posttest only design, involving 91 patients in MICU at a tertiary hospital (47 patients in the experimental group and 44 patients in the control group). The 2% CHG bathing was performed daily according to bathing protocol to the patients in the experimental group, and traditional bath was performed every three days to those in the control group. Fisher's exact test and x2 test were used to analyze the data. Results: MDRO were found in 6 patients of the experimental group and in 15 patients of the control group. The difference was statistically significant (p= .016). HAI occurred in 2 patients of the experimental group and in 7 patients of the control group. The difference was not statistically significant (p= .084). Conclusion: The results confirmed that daily bathing with CHG was effective in reducing the incidence of MDRO acquisition. Therefore, it is expected that daily bathing with CHG will be used as an effective nursing intervention to reduce the incidence of MDRO acquisition.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
• /
• v.44 no.5
• /
• pp.384-393
• /
• 2011

The objective of this study was to determine the nutritional support in patients treated in medical intensive care units (MICUs) by evaluating the extent of current nutritional support using the patient care plan and considering the association between nutritional status and the amount of nutrition supplied. From April to December 2010, 114 patients (age ${\qeq}$ 18 years) admitted to the MICU and who underwent nutritional support for > 5 days were included. Descriptive statistics showed that the 114 patients received nutritional support within 1.2 ${\pm}$ 0.7 days and for 16.2 ${\pm}$ 11.7 days in the MICUs. The total delivered/required caloric ratio was 81.08 ${\pm}$ 27.31%, and the protein ratio was 80.32 ${\pm}$ 28.93%. Patients who received > 80% of required calories and protein showed improved nutritional status (p < 0.05). The results showed that adequate nutritional support is crucial to critically ill patients. We suggest early nutritional screening using simple tools such as periodic monitoring and management to recalculate nutritional status and nutritional requirements and nutritional support using a multidisciplinary method. Systematic nutritional support teams are needed to provide adequate nutritional support for patients in the MICU.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
• /
• v.37 no.6
• /
• pp.883-890
• /
• 2007

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the entity of critical care nursing practices through analyzing nursing statements described by electronic nursing records in a MICU. Methods: 176,459 nursing statements of 188 patients during a 6 month-stay were analyzed statement by statement according to the nursing process(nursing phenomena, nursing diagnosis, & nursing activity) and 21 nursing components of Saba's Clinical Care Classification. Results: Among 176,459 single statements, the statements of nursing activity ranked first in number. The contents of the statements were analyzed and categorized by main themes. Among 489 categorized themes, the number of themes of nursing phenomena statements was the highest. When analyzed by Saba's clinical Care Classification, the nursing statements mainly included a physiological component. Among 21 components, the respiratory component ranked in the first position in nursing phenomena, nursing diagnosis and nursing activity. The extra statements not included in the 21 components were 9,294(15.1%) in nursing phenomena and 21,949(22.7%) in nursing activity. Most are statements related to tests and the doctor. Conclusion: The entity of MICU nursing practice expressed by electronic nursing records was mainly focused on physiological components and more precisely on respiratory components.