• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.216-222
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• 2013

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine nurses' emotional responses and ethical attitudes towards elderly patients' Do-Not-Resuscitate (DNR) decision. Methods: Data were collected using a questionnaire which was filled out by 153 nurses who worked in nursing homes and general hospitals. Data were analyzed using real numbers, percentages, means, standard deviations and Pearson's correlation coefficients with SPSS 19.0 program. Results: The average score for ethical attitudes towards the DNR decision was 2.68 out of 4. Under the ethical attitudes category, the highest score was found with a statement that said 'Although they will not perform cardiopulmonary resuscitate (CPR), it is right to do their best with other treatments for DNR Patients'. Items regarding emotional responses to the DNR decision, the average score was 2.36 out of 4. Among them, the highest score was achieved on 'I understand and sympathize'. No significant correlation was found between ethical attitudes and emotional responses in relation to patients' DNR decision (r=-0.12, P=0.13). Conclusion: Regarding elderly patients' DNR decision, nurses showed somewhat highly ethical attitudes and slightly positive emotional response. A follow-up study is needed to investigate variables that affect our results.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.117-148
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• 2024

This study attempted to examine the ambiguity of work from the legal, social perspective, and actual performance differences in domestic nursing work compared to foreign countries. We compared the historical background of nurses' expanded work through overseas situations, compare and analyze the legal basis for nurses' qualifications and work in each country, and what changes they have undergone to clarify their work. Through this, we would like to consider the current status of the absence of a legal basis for professional work of domestic nurses and seek a direction for the development of domestic medical care. This study applied the case study method as one of the comparative institutional research methods. Among OECD countries, developed countries such as the United States, Australia, and Japan were selected and compared among developed countries that are solving medical gaps using nurses. In the United States, Australia, Japan, and Korea, nurses' professional work has been created by changes in the medical environment due to an aging society, chronic diseases, and lack of doctors. We looked at the start of their professional work, the establishment of legal grounds, the timing of qualification recognition, the development of the credential system and scope of work. Foreign countries have legal grounds for their roles and tasks, but domestic countries are before legislation. The country still has not narrowed the gap between the position of the legislative and judicial branches and actual work, and the current status of the domestic healthcare system has been measured through overseas development cases.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.92-103
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• 2018

Purpose: This descriptive study was conducted to examine factors that affect hospital workers in their decision to withdraw from life-sustaining treatment, such as knowledge, attitude, and perception of organ donation, transplantation, death and hospice palliative care. Methods: A questionnaire was completed by 228 workers of a tertiary general hospital, and data were analyzed using t-test, ANOVA, and Pearson's correlation by using SPSS 21.0. Results: The subjects' knowledge of biomedical ethics awareness differed by age, education level, occupation, affiliated department, and biomedical ethics education. Their knowledge of brain death, organ donation and transplantation was positively correlated with attitudes toward tissue donation and transplantation, knowledge of hospice palliative care, and perception of hospice palliative care. Their attitudes toward tissue donation and transplantation were significantly correlated with knowledge of hospice palliative care, perception of hospice palliative care, and withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment. Their awareness of death was significantly correlated with knowledge of hospice palliative care, perception of hospice palliative care and withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment. The perception of hospice palliative care was significantly correlated with withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment. Factors associated with their withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment were work at the hospice ward (32.5%), attitudes toward tissue donation and transplantation and perception of hospice palliative care. Conclusion: This study has shown that work at the hospice ward, attitudes toward tissue donation and transplantation and perception of hospice palliative care were related to attitudes toward withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment. More research is needed to further develop various curriculums based on biomedical methods.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.111-118
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• 2011

With increasing interest in health promotion and quality of life, growing attention has been focused on the beneficial effects of urban green area. However, very few evidence-based approaches have been conducted on the health-related benefits of urban greenery. Therefore, this study examined the health-related benefits of green areas using physiological and psychological indices to obtain evidence-based data on these benefits. Twenty male university students were selected as subjects. Data were collected when participants viewed landscapes in a green area or an urban area for fifteen minutes. This research was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of School of Medicine, Chungnam National University. Physiological data in the green area revealed significantly decreased heart rates, significantly increased high-frequency value of heart rate variability, an index of parasympathetic activity, and reduced salivary cortisol concentration, a stress hormone, compared to the urban area. Psychological tests showed the green area significantly reduced the negative mood state and psychological symptoms, and significantly increased the positive mood state. Our data provided evidence for the health-related benefits of green areas, and the findings of this study support that green areas can play a critical role in health promotion for urban residents, by positively affecting autonomic nervous and endocrinal activities.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.45-50
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• 2015

Objectives: In this study, we investigated the 4-week repeated-dose oral toxicity of gami-jakyak gamcho buja decoction (Mecasin) to develop safe treatments. Methods: In order to investigate the 4-week oral toxicity of Mecasin, we administered Mecasin orally to rats. Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were divided into four groups of five male and five female animals per group: group 1 being the control group and groups 2, 3, and 4 being the experimental groups. Doses of Mecasin of 500, 1,000, and 2,000 mg/kg of body weight were administered to the experimental groups, and a dose of normal saline solution of 10 mL/kg was administered to the control group. We examined the survival rate, weight, clinical signs, and gross findings for four weeks. This study was conducted under the approval of the Institutional Animal Ethics Committee. Results: No deaths occurred in any of the four groups. No significant changes in weights or food consumption between the control group and the experimental groups were observed. Serum biochemistry revealed that some groups showed significant decrease in inorganic phosphorus (IP) (P < 0.05). During necropsy on the rats, one abnormal macroscopic feature, a slight loss of fur, was observed in the mid dosage (1,000 mg/kg) male group. No abnormalities were observed in any other rats. In histopathological findings, the tubular basophilia and cast of the kidney and extramedullary hematopoiesis of the spleen were found. However, those changes were minimal and had occurred naturally or sporadically. No other organ abnormalities were observed. Conclusion: During this 4-week, repeated, oral toxicity test of Mecasin in SD rats, no toxicity changes due to Mecasin were observed in any of the male or the female rats in the high dosage group. Thus, we suggest that the doses in a 13-week, repeated test should be 0, 500, 1,000, and 2,000 mg/kg respectively.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.222-225
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• 2018

Health policy is a historical product in the process of development, including the political and economic factors of the state as well as the social and cultural elements of the country. Bioethics began to debate the ethical questions that arise in the overall process of life's birth and death, and gradually evolved by presenting ethical directions for various social phenomena. Especially, according to the moral awakening of 'scientific medicine' which caused in some human problems in the rapidized scientific society from the late 19th century to the early 20th century, as a result of distress including the concept of various social relations, it is possible to say that it has reached the bioethics. Although health policy and bioethics are different in terms of starting and concept, they can be found in common with social, cultural, and political diversity in the times. In 2004, 'Bioethics Law' was enacted through the issue of research ethics in the life sciences. Therefore, in order to examine ethical aspects of current health policy direction and major issues, it can be divided into before and after enactment of 'Bioethics Law' in 2004. The authors would like to examine how the evolution of the ethical viewpoint on the health policy has changed in line with the enactment of the 'Bioethics Law' and how it is trying to solve it from an ethical point of view. Through the various events that took place in the 1990s and the 2000s, various discussions on bioethics were conducted in Korea. Prior to the enactment of the 'Bioethics Law,' ethical judgments of professions, distribution of healthcare resources, if the discussion focused on the ethical judgment of abortion, and the various events that appeared in the early 2000s became the beginning to inform that the ethical debate about the life, death, and dignity of human beings began in earnest in Korea with the enactment of the 'Bioethics Law.' Since then, 'Hospice and Palliative care Law' which was enacted in 2017, is based on the fact that the health policy of our country focuses on the treatment of the past diseases, health promotion, and delivery of health care services. It was an opportunity to let them know that even the quality problems were included. Therefore, considering the various circumstances, the ethical issue facing Korea's health care system in the future is the change of the demographic structure due to aging and what is to be considered as the beginning and the process of life in the overall process of life. It is the worry about how to die and when it sees as death. This has far exceeded the paradigm of traditional health care policies such as disease prevention and management and health promotion, and calls for innovative policy response at the national level that reflects the new paradigm, which in many cases creates a predictable ethical environment. And health policy should be shifted in the direction of future ethical review considering sustainability in the development process of future health care rather than coercive management.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.63-71
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• 2015

Objectives: This study was carried out to analyze the single-dose toxicity of Eun-Bi San pharmacopuncture injected into the muscle of Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats. Methods: All experiments were performed at Biotoxtech, an institution certified to conduct non-clinical studies under the Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) regulations. Six week old SD rats reared by ORIENTBIO were chosen for this pilot study. The reason SD rats were chosen is that they have been widely used in safety tests in the field of medicine, so the results can be easily compared with many other databases. The Eun-Bi San pharmacopuncture was made in a clean room at the Korean Pharmacopuncture Institute (KPI, K-GMP). The constituents of the Eun-Bi San pharmacopuncture are Angelicae gigantis radix, Strychni semen and Glycyrrhizae radix. These were extracted at low temperature and low pressure in an aseptic room at the KPI. Doses of Eun-Bi San pharmacopuncture, 0.25, 0.5 and 1.0 mL, were administered to the experimental groups, and a dose of normal saline solution, 1.0 mL, was administered to the control group. This study was performed under the approval of the Institutional Animal Ethics Committee of Biotoxtech Co., Ltd. Results: No deaths or abnormalities occurred in any of the four groups. No significant changes in weight, hematological parameters or clinical chemistry between the control group and the experimental groups were observed. To determine if abnormalities existed in any organs and tissues, we used microscopy to examine representative histological sections of each specified organ; the results showed no significant differences in any of the organs or tissues. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that treatment with Eun-Bi San pharmacopuncture is relatively safe and that its clinical use may be beneficial. Further evaluations and studies on this subject will be needed to provide more concrete evidence in support of these conclusions.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.491-501
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• 2021

Purpose: This study is designed to provide care workers with basic data on the development of job training programs for enhancing professionalism of senior care services by identifying and analyzing job recognition and education requirements according to the type of work place. Methods: Data were collected from April to July 2019 from 177 care workers working at the Elderly Care Facilities, Elderly Housing Welfare Facilities and Rehabilitation Facilities in the B Metropolitan City. It was analyzed using the SPSS Win 21.0 Statistical Program. Results: The results of job recognition of care worker according to the type of work place shows as follows. As for health care welfare facilities for senior citizens and residential welfare facilities for the elderly was the highest level for physical change and mobile care protection belonging to basic care protection technologies. For the rehabilitation and welfare facility, human rights and prevention of abuse among senior citizens which is belonging to occupational ethics and attitudes of care workers showed the highest. Conclusion: It is required for differentiated job training to enhance capacity for care workers according to the type of work place, and it is needed to developed systematic and specific customized hands-on training to perform, not for simple knowledge.