• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.1013-1024
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• 2017

Objectives: The study investigated health professionals working in the metropolitan area and Jeolla-bukdo, South Korea, from April 30 to May 17, 2017 to understand their views on the issue of including dental hygienists in the scope of medical personnel of South Korea. Methods:A total of 270 surveys were analyzed in this study. The survey consists of 5 questions on general issues; 10 on the awareness of present work of dental hygienist; and 1 on opposition or approval about including dental hygienist in medical personnel. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS for Windows 18.0, as well as frequency analysis, cross analysis and logistic regression analysis. Statistical significance level (${\alpha}$) is 0.05. Results: 1. Broken down by gender, male subjects showed more oppositions against including dental hygienists in the category of medical personnel while female subjects showed more favorable opinions (p<0.05). In terms of academic background, those who had graduated from graduate school or higher showed a higher propensity for opposition while those who had graduated from a 3-year college showed a higher tendency for approval on the idea (p<0.05), In terms of occupational type, health professionals showed more opposing views whereas medical technologists showed more approvals than others (p<0.001). 2. With respect to the awareness of work specialty and proficiency of dental hygienist according to general characteristics, the higher the age, the higher the awareness level was. In terms of the occupational type, medical technologists were found to have higher awareness level than health professionals (p<0.001). 3. With respect to the relationship between general characteristics and view on including dental hygienists in medical personnel, the occupational type of health professional was found to have 6.33 times more oppositions than medical technologists. When the awareness level on proficiency of dental hygienist was low, opposition was 6.52 times more frequent (p<0.05). Conclusions: Based on the findings above, the inclusion of dental hygienists in medical personnel seems necessary in properly establishing the specialty and role of dental hygienist in the dentist medical environment of the country in order to enhance national oral health related preventive dental service and expand the demand. To this end, it is necessary to provide nationwide promotion, work to change the awareness of health professionals in other occupational types, and facilitate public promotion for legal ground establishment.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.42-45
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• 2007

Rapid integration of information technology into health care systems has included the use of highly portable systems-in particular, personal digital assistants (PDAs). With their large built-in memories, fast processors, wireless connectivity, multimedia capacity, and large library of applications, PDAs have been widely adopted by physicians and nurses for patient tracking, disease management, medical references and drug information, enhancing quality of health care. Many health-related PDA applications are available to both dietetics professionals and clients. Dietetics professionals can effectively use PDAs for client tracking and support, accessing to hospital database or information, and providing better self-monitoring tools to clients. Internship programs for dietetics professionals should include training in the use of PDAs and their dietetics applications, so that new practitioners can stay abreast of this rapidly evolving technology. Several considerations to keep in mind in selecting a PDA and its applications are discussed.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.231-240
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• 2007

The hospital setting provides many opportunities for health promotion. There are many health professionals including physicians, nurses, medical technicians who have close contact with patients and their family. Health professionals are very influential to arouse the awareness about health and illness, and to motivate to change lifestyle among patients. Thus health professionals are most effective and important human resources for health education for patients to improve recovery rates and to promote health. In spite of the importance of health professionals' role in health promotion, the Korean government has provided little support for their health education for patients. Most of the health professionals have not learned about health education theories and skills, and have little attention to educate patients to change their lifestyle. Also the health professionals themselves have relatively poor lifestyle compared with advanced western countries. To improve health education for patients and their family, following strategies and policies should be considered: reinforcing curriculum for health education in college and training course, providing practical incentives for patient education, capacity building for health education and developing guideline for patient education, training health educators, networking and collaborating between community health center and hospitals, promoting the importance of health education among patients, researching and developing health education theory and practice including cost-benefit of health education.

• Korean Medical Education Review
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.32-45
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• 2020

This narrative review introduces global trends in pharmacovigilance (PV) education for healthcare professionals and the status of PV education in Korea. Proactive participation of healthcare professionals, including physicians, pharmacists, and nurses in reporting suspected adverse events is the main driving force for effective operation of the spontaneous adverse event reporting system database, which in turn facilitates early safety signal detection of otherwise unknown suspected adverse events. The World Health Organization recognizes PV education curriculum as a key aspect in promoting awareness of PV and adverse event reporting among healthcare professionals, and multiple studies have demonstrated that PV educational interventions for healthcare professionals have increased overall adverse event reporting. Considering the global trends in PV education, the curriculum in Korean universities still has room for improvement in promoting PV obligation among future healthcare professionals. Further research is needed to develop PV education curriculum. We suggest a three-step project for innovating PV education in Korea to meet the global PV educational standards: a survey to gauge current PV competencies among healthcare professionals, reform of current PV academic curriculum, and evaluation and fine-tuning of the reformed curriculum.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.41-57
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• 2016

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate how many healthcare professionals experienced near misses, what types of near misses occurred most often, and healthcare professionals' opinions about near misses at one university hospital in Korea. Methods: The authors developed a questionnaire including 26 core types of near misses and 4 questions about preventability and reporting barriers. The survey was conducted from Oct. 31st to Nov. 18th 2011, about 3 weeks, using a self-administrated questionnaire that was administered to 697 healthcare professionals (registered nurses, pharmacists, technicians, and nurses aides) who worked at a university hospital. Medical doctors and employees working in the department of administration were excluded. Results: About half of hospital workers experienced at least one or more near misses during the past one year. The drug dispensing process was the most common subcategory of near misses. Among the 26 items, patient falls was highest. Over 95% of respondents reported that the near miss they experienced was preventable. Also, more than half of respondents did not report the near miss and the main reason for omission was fear of blame. Conclusion: Regarding patient safety issues, a near miss is a very significant factor because it can be a potential adverse event. Therefore, we should grasp the size of the problem through tracking and analyzing near misses and should make an effort to reduce them. To do so, we should check whether our reporting system is well designed and functioning.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.421-443
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• 1992

The purpose of this study was to identify patients' perceptions of health professionals' unkind behavior and the effects of this unkind behavior using a Phenomenological research methodology. Understanding of this phenomena should enlighten nurses to interaction and relationship problems between patient and health professionals and thus lead to further research toward enhancing these interaction and relationships. The subjects were 40 adult patients hospitalized in a university hospital in Seoul. They were from 20 to 65 yews old and hospitalized at IM, GS, OS, NS, OB /GY ward. Their hospital days were from 4 to 72. Data were collected from July 29 to August 9, 1991 and from January 6 to 17, 1992. The research questions were “What behavior on the part of health professionals you perceive as unkind and what effect does such behavior have in you\ulcorner”. Responses to the non-structured open-ended questions were audio-recorded during the interviews done by two nurses researchers. Data were analyzed using the phenomenological method of Colazzi. The validity was enhanced by confirmation of the analysis by two nursing clinical researchers, and professor of psychology, and philosophy, all knowledgable of phenomenological research. From the protocols, 146 significant statements about unkind behavior were organized into 38 formulating meanings which were then grouped into six clusters of themes. Patients' Perceived health professional' unkind behavior as being cold, insincere, unconcerned, disregardful, lacking in technical skill, and failing to provide a therapeutic environment. From the protocols, 65 significant statements about the influence of such behavior on patient care were organized into 18 formulating meanings which were then grouped into four clusters of themes. Patients perceived these unkind behavior influencing then emotionally, physically and having negative effects on their compliance with medical and nursing care. The study points to the need for health professionals to understand how their behavior may be perceived by their patients as unkind behavior. Patients perceptions of health professionals' unkind behavior may suggest the opposite desire, that professionals have exellent medical knowledge and skill and that they be sincere, concerned, respectful and warm emotionally toward their patients.

• The Journal of Pediatrics of Korean Medicine
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.46-54
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• 2024

Purpose As modern science and medicine develop, the concept of life is changing, and the importance of patients' rights is emphasized, making it essential for medical professionals to think ethically. However, there is currently a lack of medical ethics research in the field of Oriental medicine, especially for pediatric and adolescent patients, we would like to take a look at this. Methods Through a literature review, we aim to discuss various ethical issues and human rights of children and adolescents that arise when Oriental medical doctors treat children and adolescents as medical professionals and use these as basic data for future research and education on Oriental medical ethics for children and adolescents. Results Medical ethics include the principles of autonomy, prohibition of evildoing, beneficence, and justice, and medical staff must make ethical judgments based on these principles. Ethical issues regarding children and adolescents arise in various clinical situations, and education on medical ethics is essential. Conclusions Discussions on the rights of children and adolescents are becoming active, and their importance is increasing. Therefore, sufficient explanation and consent must be provided to guardians, children, and adolescents with legal rightsand the opinions of the participants must be respected as far as possible.

• Journal of Audiology & Otology
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.40-47
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• 2020

Because the psychophysical symptoms of hearing loss and dementia in the elderly are very similar, untrained healthcare professionals in dementia facilities can easily overlook a severity of hearing loss in their patients. The present study identifies their knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) on hearing loss using a survey whether they may help hearing problem of the patients with dementia. A total of 29 health-care professionals responded to the KAP survey. Also, 2 family members participated. The results showed that most of the nurses and caregivers in elderly medical welfare facilities who worked with dementia patients did not have knowledge of their hearing loss. Even the facility managers did not know how to conduct hearing tests for their patients although they did recognize that some of their patients had a hearing loss. Eventually, actual practice was not possible at this moment by the professionals. However, our respondents did have a positive attitude toward screening for hearing loss and help their patients with dementia wear hearing aids if a clinical guideline was provided. We suggest to develop clear and precise clinical guidelines of the hearing screening test for the dementia patients due to the interrelationship between dementia and hearing loss. When these guidelines apply to elderly residents in a medical welfare facility, early diagnosis and treatment of their sensory loss will help alleviate their dementia as well.

• Korean Journal of Audiology
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.40-47
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• 2020

Because the psychophysical symptoms of hearing loss and dementia in the elderly are very similar, untrained healthcare professionals in dementia facilities can easily overlook a severity of hearing loss in their patients. The present study identifies their knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) on hearing loss using a survey whether they may help hearing problem of the patients with dementia. A total of 29 health-care professionals responded to the KAP survey. Also, 2 family members participated. The results showed that most of the nurses and caregivers in elderly medical welfare facilities who worked with dementia patients did not have knowledge of their hearing loss. Even the facility managers did not know how to conduct hearing tests for their patients although they did recognize that some of their patients had a hearing loss. Eventually, actual practice was not possible at this moment by the professionals. However, our respondents did have a positive attitude toward screening for hearing loss and help their patients with dementia wear hearing aids if a clinical guideline was provided. We suggest to develop clear and precise clinical guidelines of the hearing screening test for the dementia patients due to the interrelationship between dementia and hearing loss. When these guidelines apply to elderly residents in a medical welfare facility, early diagnosis and treatment of their sensory loss will help alleviate their dementia as well.

• Korean Medical Education Review
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.151-158
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• 2013

Patient safety is achieved through systematic improvement based on the knowledge and willingness of medical professionals. A systematic longitudinal curriculum for patient safety is essential to prepare medical students and professionals. The purpose of this article is to introduce our experience with a 'workshop for developing a patient safety curriculum' and to compare the results with previous studies. The workshop comprising 15 medical professors and patient safety experts met for 2 days. The Consensus Workshop method was applied, collecting opinions from all of the members and reaching consensus through the following stages: context, brainstorm, cluster, name, and resolve. The patient safety curriculum was developed by this method, covering patient safety topics and issues, and teaching and assessment methods. A total of 7 topics were extracted, 'activities for patient safety, concepts of patient safety, leadership and teamwork, error disclosure, self-management, patient education, policies.' Issues, teaching methods, and assessment methods were developed for each topic. The patient safety curriculum developed from the workshop was similar to previous curricula developed by other institutions and medical schools. The Consensus Workshop method proved to be an effective approach to developing a patient safety curriculum.