• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.117-125
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• 2017

Purpose: Little is known about the dieting experiences of obese adolescent boys, as the majority of studies on obesity in children and adolescents have included only girls. This qualitative study was designed to explore the ways in which male middle school boys attach subjective meanings to their obese bodies, and experience dieting practices in their everyday lives. Methods: Fifteen obese boys aged 14 to 16 were interviewed via in-depth, face-to-face interviews. All interview data were audiotaped, transcribed, and analyzed using thematic analysis. Results: Having a large build and increased strength that prevented bullying by peers had positive meanings participants attributed to their obese bodies. However, negative meanings existed as well, including feeling heavy and having no physical endurance, having a clammy and odorous body, and being bullied and vulnerable to disease. With respect to dieting experiences, multiple positive and negative subthemes were identified. Conclusion: The findings of this study show the intersection between adolescence and everyday life challenges for obese middle school boys in the Korean culture. Further, recommendations for healthcare professionals include a gender-specific approaches when intervening and planning programs for obese adolescents.

• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.166-180
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• 2017

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to have an in-depth understanding of delivery room nurses' experiences of caring for stillborn babies and their parents. Methods: After obtaining approval from the Institutional Review Board, data were collected from March 1 to August 30, 2016. A total of six nurses participated in the study. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted and the data subsequently analyzed. Results: Using thematic analysis, six themes were defined and refined: Emotional distress as a result of encountering stillborn babies; Caring for the deceased baby; Concerns for the mother's pain; Consideration for the father; Conflicts between accepting and dismissing parents' requests; and Strong mindset for the stillborn babies and their parents. Conclusion: The results showed that the nurses' experiences of caring for stillborn babies and their parents might be a difficult and lonely process. However, it could also be a process of attaining maturity by finding meaning and value in one's work. It would be helpful for the delivery room nurses to share examples of effective communication, train through simulation, and learn useful strategies that each nurse can use.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.35-51
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• 2012

Objective: The objective of this study is to explore factors that contribute toward improving the effectiveness of school-based smoking cessation programs for Korean adolescents. Methods: Thematic analysis was done on the feedback gathered from a focus group interview of 5 instructors with ample service experience at smoking cessation programs provided in school settings. Results: This study has identified 9 categories of initiatives that may contribute to improving the quality of existing programs. These nine categories were grouped into the following 4 themes. 1) Improvement in the structure of intervention: the programs should be restructured to allow more instruction time and better instruction environment; 2) Improvement in the content of intervention: the programs should develop differentiated contents considering the characteristics of adolescence; 3) Importance of rapport, adolescents' interests and compensation: the program should be more interesting to adolescents and provide rewards based on the rapport between instructors and adolescents; 4) Cooperation among smoking cessation instructor, school, and community: instructors, teachers at schools, and communities should cooperate actively with one another. Conclusions: The school-based smoking cessation programs will benefit from implementing the findings of this study in improving its effectiveness in smoking cession in adolescents.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.288-294
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• 2020

Purpose: This study aimed to comprehensively examine middle-aged male taxi drivers' perceptions of the risk of cardiovascular disease. Methods: A qualitative method was used, with focus group interviews. The participants were middle-aged male taxi drivers who had been driving for more than ten years and for more than six hours daily. Results: The data were analyzed using qualitative thematic analysis. Middle-aged male taxi drivers' perceptions of the risk of cardiovascular disease were categorized into three main themes: "individual perceptions of cardiovascular disease", "possibility of behaviors for cardiovascular disease" and "motivations of behaviors for cardiovascular disease". Six sub-themes were extracted as follows: "perception of vulnerability", "perception of seriousness", "perception of profitability", "perception of disability", "self-awareness" and "advancing toward health care". Conclusion: It is necessary to invigorate support systems through measures including education, counseling, and web-based programs to prevent cardiovascular disease in middle-aged male taxi drivers.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.12
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• pp.5113-5119
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• 2016

Purpose:The present qualitative study explored adolescents' perceptions regarding effective strategies to prevent adolescents from using tobacco products (TP). Apart from the commercial TPs, there has been emerging use of alternatives such as vapes, e-cigarettes and shisha. This unfortunate phenomenon continues despite the currently available preventive strategies. Thus, understanding of the perceptions of the current generation would be valuable to provide new insights. Methods: Purposive sampling was utilized to recruit 40 adolescents between the age of 15 and 16 years old attending public daily secondary schools. Eight focus group discussions were conducted among the TP users, ex-users and non-users. Data were analyzed using a thematic content analysis procedure with NVivo. Results: Among barriers with the currently available strategies were having teachers who smoke tobacco, addiction to nicotine and self-perceptions of being healthy. The content of any program should include knowledge on negative outcomes of using tobacco products and awareness of the legislation together with ways to overcome peer and family influence including improving self-efficacy and refusal skills. Strategies were suggested to be delivered using information technology which provides interactive learning and visual effects. Conclusions: Adolescents agreed that the content and delivery of tobacco use prevention strategies need to be revised to suit the current generation to ensure sustainability.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.149-159
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• 2012

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to understand the life of newly appointed professors of nursing by exploring the meaning and essence of their academic work and life experience. Methods: The participants consisted of 11 newly appointed female full-time professors with less than five years of experience who had been purposely sampled from three or four-year nursing colleges. Data were collected from October 2010 to December 2011 through the face-to-face interview and phone interview. Thematic analysis was conducted using hermeneutic phenomenological methodology. Results: The findings were classified into seven themes: 'Starting feeling hope and delight', 'putting sustained energy into lecturing and training', 'struggling in the tense atmosphere where assessments are often conducted', 'gaining courage in an associated relationship network', 'experiencing confusion of the identity as a professor', 'seeking compromise, handling their work and housework', and 'shedding new light on reality with self-awareness'. Conclusion: This study is significant in that it offered the foundation for the creation of human resources networks and mentoring programs that help newly appointed professors to effectively adjust to university society on the basis of the sympathetic understanding of and support for their life.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.1336-1354
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• 1999

Researchers have rarely explored menopausal experience in the context of the totality of women's lives, subsequently making the picture of menopause incomplete, discrete and fragmented. Respecting the totality of women's lives, this study addressed how a vulnerable group of women-low income Korean immigrant women-experience menopause within a context of multiple transitions. This is a cross-sectional study using methodological triangulation. A sample of 119 first-generation Korean immigrant women aged 40 to 60 years, who were in low-income jobs, was recruited using convenience sampling methods. From the total sample, 21 peri-or post-menopausal women were recruited for in-depth interviews following the collection of the survey data. Questionnaires, short interviews, and in- depth interviews were used to collect data. The quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Thematic analysis was used to interpret interview data. The findings indicate that menopause was given the lowest priority amidst women's multiple and demanding roles within a gendered multiple transitional (immigration, work and menopause) context. The lack of language clarity to describe women's experience, cultural background, inadequate knowledge, and lack of social supports made menopause hidden, invisible, and inaudible. Conclusions and implications for nursing practice are guided by the goal of understanding women's experiences and meanings of menopause and supporting women through reflecting these experiences into their health care.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.238-248
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• 2016

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the meaning of the experience of Korean immigrant nurses working in US hospitals. Methods: Purposive sampling yielded 15 Korean immigrant nurses who had more than one year of clinical experience in US hospitals. Data were collected from March to August 2012 through in-depth interviews and thematic analysis was conducted using van Manen's hermeneutic phenomenological approach. Results: The findings were classified into eight themes: 'struggling from staff at workplace being territorial to outsiders', 'feeling oppressed due to language barrier', 'accepting rational and horizontal relationships at work', 'staying alert in the environment where lawsuits are rife', 'feeling a sense of stability from the social system that values human dignity', 'maintaining self-confidence from prominent nursing practices and senior Korean nurses' professional reputation', 'performing essential comprehensive nursing care', 'promoting self-development to be equipped with professionalism.' Conclusion: The findings indicate that the Korean immigrant nurses were able to excel in their workplace when their clinical experience at US hospitals was combined with the lived space in US politics and environment, lived time of patience, lived body to be alert, and lived others with multi cultural characteristics.

• Korean Institute of Interior Design Journal
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.88-96
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• 2009

Contemporary hotels adopt distinctive designs in order to symbolize themes of various spaces they consist of. This phenomenon shows that the importance of spiritual values reflected through themes of spaces is emphasized as much as those of basic functions and structures of hotels. Above all, a variety of expression methods pervading throughout spaces of guest rooms consist of thematic spaces, visualization of emotions, as well as mixture of artistic genres, ones that are originated from unconsciousness of symbolic theory of C.G. Jung and widely perceived as variations of archetype. Meanings of symbolic expressions derived from the analysis of various hotels can be defined by attributes of local cultures as well as propensities of mythicism, which feature local pride enlightened by natural environments, the spirit of the times, historical events and other transcendental and fantastic topics. These symbolic expressions are metaphysical forms that are made unconsciously and such symbols are far beyond mere historical and cultural signs which require us profound and mature methods to approach. It is pleasing to know that we are living in the modern society in which progresses are being made to better understand minds and metal states of human beings. Given such a circumstantial advantage, researches on meanings of symbolic expressions should not be limited to only those of hotel designs, but also those of religious architectures and museums in which spiritual values are emphasized throughout designs of the spaces they consist of.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• 2007.10a
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• pp.341-344
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• 2007

A major obstacle to classify and validate Land Cover maps is the high cost of generating reference data or multiple thematic maps for subsequent comparative analysis. In case of inaccessible area such as North Korea, the high resolution satellite imagery may be used as in situ data so as to overcome the lack of reliable reference data. The objective of this paper is to investigate the possibility of utilizing QuickBird (0.6m) of North Korea obtained from Google Earth data provided thru internet. Monthly NDVI images of nine months from the summer of 2004 were classified into L=54 cluster using ISODATA algorithm, and these L clusters were assigned to 7 classes; coniferous forest, deciduous forest, mixed forest, paddy field, dry field, water and built-up area. The overall accuracy and Kappa index were 85.98% and 0.82, respectively, which represents about 10% point increase of classification accuracy than our previous study based on GCP point data around North Korea. Thus we can conclude that Google Earth may be used to substitute the traditional in situ data collection on the site where the accessibility is severely limited.