PURPOSE
This study was conducted to explore nursing education modality for facilitating undergraduate students' critical thinking within the Korean nursing education context.
METHODS
Data were collected from four group interviews from two focus groups, which were composed of six nursing professors in each group. Data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis.
RESULTS
Five themes with 13 sub-themes involving 10 categories were delineated. The five themes were managing shared resources, a supportive system in preparing qualified faculty, reflective thinking (self-directed learning), theory courses for understanding nursing resources, and clinical practicum for exercising critical thinking.
CONCLUSION
A nursing educational model for facilitating critical thinking within Korean context was suggested. This could be used as an accelerator in developing nursing undergraduate course programs for critical thinking in Korea.

PURPOSE
This study was conducted to examine the knowledge level and assessment experience of nurses in regards to delirium, and to utilize the study results as baseline data for planning delirium education programs for nurses.
METHODS
Subjects were 465 nurses who were working in a general hospital. A 'delirium related knowledge and assessment experience' questionnaire was used to collect data.
RESULTS
Knowledge levels regarding delirium averaged 70 out of 100, and at each domain, they scored 87 for etiology of delirium, 62 for symptoms, and 69 for nursing management. The knowledge level of delirium was significantly different according to educational level (F=3.851, p=.022), past education related to geriatrics(t=2.471, p=.014), and awareness of need for in-service education on geriatric nursing(F=2.663, p=.032). About 85% of nurses had past experience of dealing with delirious patients and only 7.7% of nurses used delirious state assessment tools.
CONCLUSION
According to the above results, it is necessary, not only to provide delirium related educational programs for nurses, but also to emphasize the usefulness of applying the assessment tool.

PURPOSE
This study was performed to identify the prevalence and type of urinary incontinence (UI) after a stroke, to find the differences in urinary symptoms according to continence or incontinence, and to find the degree of impact of UI on daily life.
METHOD
For data collection, we had a structured interview with a questionnaire. The subjects were 239 post stroke patients.
RESULTS
Among the subjects(mean age: 65 +/- 10), 66.1 percent had an infarction, and 25.5 percent had a hemorrhage. And 26.4 percent of subjects were within 2 weeks and 28.9 percent from 1 year to 5 years since their episodes of a stroke. Forty five point six percent of subjects had various types of UI: urge 25.7 percent, stress 14.7 percent, functional 20.2 percent, and mixed 39.4 percent. There were significant differences in frequency, nocturia, decreased stream, and incomplete emptying between the incontinent and continent groups. Subjects reported UI influenced various aspect of daily life, 54.1 percent as cause of distress, 53.2 percent on overall quality of life, and 40.4 percent on sleep. The Mixed UI, including urge UI, had higher impact on daily life than others.
CONCLUSION
There was a high prevalence of UI, mixed, urge, and functional type as most prevalent, and it had a strong impact on daily life of post stroke patients.

"Journal of Korean Academy of Adult Nursing" has been published since 1989 and more than 330 articles have been published up 2000. We reviewed all the articles published in this journal to analyze the contents and trend of published articles and to find out the way of improvement both in quantity and quality of studies in this area. The results are as follows; 1) Ninety percent of articles were quantitative studies. Experimental design was used in 16.1% and quasi-experimental design was adapted in 73.6% of articles. Qualitative research were 10.3% of total articles reviewed. 2) Only 5.1% of articles described theoretical framework and 73.6% of experimentally designed articles included research hypotheses. 3) Among experimental studies, only one was true experimental studie design. Eighty nine point three persent had descriptive survey method among non-experimental studies. Amog the thirty four qualitative studies, phenomenologic(73.5%), grounded theory(14.7%), and ethnographic (11.8%) design were used. 4) Most of research subject were patients and few healthy people, healthcare worker, and patient family. 5) Psychosocial data collection method which used questionnaire were 53.7% and interview, physical measurement, observation were used in 22.8%, 8.2%, 5.4% of articles respectively. 6) Total number of keywords were 692, and average number of key words per article was 2.2. Health-related keyword was the most frequently used according to four metaparadigm of nursing (human, health, nursing, and environment). Environment related keyword was rarely appeared. The number and quality of nursing research in "Journal of Korean Academy of Adult Nursing" have been improved continuously. It is difficult to find out special trend or characteristics which is unique in this journal because of relatively short history of adult nursing studies. This review study was performed to analyze adult nursing studies only in the view of quantitative aspect, but it is needed to analyse qualitatively to find philosophical or theoretical trend in nursing.

The cause of essential hypertension is yet unknown, but in general is caused by interaction of hereditary factors, diet, obesity, lack of exercise and stress. The aging process influences various physiological mechanism related to regulation of blood pressure. So elderly hypertensives have a tendancy to consider the disease as a result of the physiological aging process. This attitude causes many complications, worsening of the disease and even early death because of inappropriate care. In order to improve self-management of elderly hypertensives in this study the researcher examined the effect of blood pressure regulation by an education program that improves self-care behavior, through increasing self-efficacy. The education program consisted of group education on hypertension and self-care strategies, and encouraging and reinforcing self-efficacy resources such as verbal persuation, performance accomplishment and vicarious experiences. A quasi-experimental pre-and post-test design was used. Thirty-two elderly hypertensives participated in the study. Eighteen in the education group and fourteen in the control group. The education program consisted of eight sessions twice a week for four weeks. There was no intervention for the control group. Data were analysed using SPSS for Windows(Version 8.0). The results were as follows. 1. There was a significant decrease in systolic and diastolic blood pressure between the experimental group and control group over three different times, and interaction by groups and over time. 2. There was no significant difference in the level of self-care behavior between the experimental group and control group over three different times, and interaction by groups and over time. 3. There was significant difference in self-efficacy of experimental and control group, depending on the measuring period, but there was no difference between these groups on interaction by groups and over time. 4. There was positive correlation between self efficacy and self care behavior depending on the measuring period. There was negative correlation between diastolic blood pressure and self-care behavior on the posttest of the program, and between systolic blood pressure and self-care behavior on the follow-up test of the program. Findings indicate that this study will contribute to develop nursing strategies for the regulation of blood pressure for the elderly, which is easy for the elderly to learn as a nonpharmacologic approach.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the compliance with low-salt diet in essential hypertension patients, and to identify the related factors of compliance with low-salt diet. The subjects of this study were 177 hypertensive patients who have been followed at Seoul National University Hospital outpatient clinic. The data was collected from August 20, 1998 to September 22, 1998, through survey using a self-report questionnaires and chart review. 24-hour urine sodium excretion was measured for validation of self-reported low-salt diet compliance from 22 patients who agreed for 24-hour urine collection. The questionnaires consist of general characteristics, disease-related characteristics, diet-related characteristics, and 4 scales: (1) Numeric scale (2) Knowledge of low-salt diet (3) Family support for low-salt diet (4) Low-salt diet compliance. The results were as follows: 1) The mean score of low-salt diet compliance was 38.97 +/- 9.26. The mean salt intake converted from 24-hour urine sodium was 16.81g/day, which was much greater than recommendation. The percentage of patients who were taking salt 6-8g/day was only 13.6%, and 8-10g/day was 13.6%. 2) The mean score of knowledge of low-salt diet was 5.12 +/- 1.81. The mean score of family support for low-salt diet was 30.08 +/- 8.81. The patients received emotional, instrumental, evaluative, and informational aspect of family support in sequence of amount. 3) Several factors were found as significant factors which influence low-salt diet compliance. Those were knowledge(p=.015), family support(p=.000), age(p=.039), diastolic pressure(p=.014), previous dietary habit(p= .000), duration of low-salt diet(p=.000), recognition of importance of low-salt diet on hypertension control(p=.000), and recognition of necessity of low-salt diet while antihypertensive drug therapy(p=.030). 4) Four significant predictive factors of low-salt diet compliance were identified: (1) Family support accounted for 24.8% of low-salt diet compliance (2) Previous dietary habit, 14.4% (3) Recognition of importance of low-salt diet on hypertension control, 3.7% (4) Diastolic pressure, 2.1%. Therefore, these factors accounted for 45.0% of low-salt diet compliance. In conclusion, low-salt diet compliance in hypertensive patients was very poor, which call for nursing intervention for enhancing low-salt diet compliance. It is necessary to provide practical knowledge of low-salt diet for hypertensive patients and family members.

This study examined burdens of primary family carcgivcrs of paticnto with cerebrovascular accidents (CVA) along with related factors. In addition, their needs for support group intervention were assessed to develop a support group to reduce the burdens of caregiving. Eighty-one primary family caregivers of patients with CVAs at a general hospital in Seoul participated in this study . The patients with CVAs aged from 26 to 83 years with mean age of 63 years. About 90% of the patients had some paralysis and 56.6% suffered speech problems. Fifty-eight percent of the primary family caregivers were spouses of the patients and 80.2% were women. Primary family caregivers' burdens were assessed by the Burden Scale originally devel oped by Zarit (1980) and Novak & Geust(1989) and modified by Jang (1995) for use in Korea. The instrument consists of six subscales time-dependent burden, developmental burden, physical burden, emotional burden, social burden, and financiaI burden. The results were as follows : 1. The average of burden score was 91.7, indicating moderate to severe level of burden. The time-dependent burden was scored highest followed by physical, developmental, social, financial, and emotional burdens. 2. of the characteristics of patients, age, gender, and severity of the disease were found to be associated with the level of burden. Of the characteristics of primary family caregivers, age and educational level were significantly related to the level of burden. Time of care since the CVA and the quality of relationship between a patient and a caregiver prior to the stroke were significant situational factors affecting the level of burden. 3. The need for support group intervention for the caregivero was very high (95.1%). The earcgivcrs of patients who had a CVA for the first time showed higher levels of need compared to those of patients who had a CVA more than once. The caregivers indicated a support group held once a month near home or hospital would be welcomed. In addition, they replied that a group composed of 9 to 10 caregivers and guided by health care professionals (e.g., physicians and nurses) would be most desirable. More than 85% of the earegivers identified the areas that they wanted intervention in as follows : knowledge, skills, and resources to care for a patient with a CVA. the counsel of health care professionals, share of their experiences with those who have similar situations, stress management skills, and methods to overcome emotional isolation due to the great responsibility for a patient. Given the results, support group is expected to be an effective way to reduce the burdens of primary family caregivers of patients with CVAs. As a follow up It is necessary to examine the effect of support group intervention on the patient's recovery and rehabilitation.

The purpose of this study was to analyse the current adult nursing curriculum content in diploma and baccaleurate level nursing schools. The Study was initiated by the Korean Academic Society of Adult Nursing and data were collected from these institutions from March 1997 to April 1998. The questionnaire was constructed after several meetings of researchers which included course description, objectives, conceptual framework, credits(theory and practicum), number of teaching staffs, content and hours for each content. The questionnaire was sent to all of the nursing schools(41 baccalaureate and 62 diploma) in the nation and the response rate were 53.7% in baccalaureate and 25.8% in diploma schools. Primary analysis was took place during summer workship of 1997 Korean Academic Society of Adult Nursing. The second analysis was carried out after additional data of detailed content and hours in adult nursing course were obtained from the schools. The result of primary analysis were as below : 1) The consensus in philosophy of adult nursing was drawn. The client of adult nursing was defined as individual over 18 years who has psychological, physical, social and spiritual aspects and interacting with environment. The client is a member of family and community. The students who finished the course should be able to adapt nursing process to their clients, and improve quality of life. The client, nursing process and nursing were common concepts which included in their conceptual framework. 2) Theory credits ranged 9-18(mean 14.1), practicum credits ranged 5-12(mean 8.1). The number of teaching staffs ranged from 2-6(mean 3.2). 3) The content which most hours assigned to were neuro/endocrine(mean 30.8 hours) gastrointestinal(mean 28.4 hours), cardiovascular(mean 28.6 hours) and respiratory(mean 22.7 hours) systems. 4) Areas taught by other profession(mostly physician) were eye, ear, nose, throat integumentary, radiation therapy, neuromuscular, rehabilitation, respiratory physiology, male genitourinary, pathology and anesthesiology. 5) Contents overlap with other course content should be rearranged in each school curriculums. Improvement of RN national board examination is prerequsite in order to improve adult nursing education in Korea. The result of second analysis were as below : 1) Credits required for graduation were 130-175 in baccalaureate, 93-134 in diploma. Thirteen to Twenty-eight percent of total credits required for nursing major were credits of adult nursing. 2) Mean hours of total adult nursing lecture were 217 in baccalareuate and 212 in diploma. 3) Disease process occupied more hours than nursing process in adult nursing theory. It is suggested to include all nursing educational institutions in order to complete the survey, to delineate the core contents of adult nursing and rate of hours between theory and practise by Korean Academic Society of Adult Nursing.

This study examined the types of touch received by elderly patients from nurses, and explored the elderly patient' and nurses' perceptions of touch occurring during nursing activities. Non-participant observation and semi-structured interviews were the methods employed for data collection. The study subjects were composed of 24 nurses of the three medical wards, and their 83 elderly patients who were hospitalized at S Hospital in Seoul from February 15th to March 15th in 1996. The Observation Schedule, the Perception of Touch Instrument, and the Patient classification were study instruments. The most common types of touch occurring during the nurse-elderly patient interactions were : task touch(82.9%), caring touch(4.9%), and concurrent type of touch (12.2%). The mean score of the elderly patients' perception of touch was higher at 30.45(range 5-35)compared to the mean score of the nurses' perception of touch which was 23.01(range 5-35). Elderly patients received the nurses' touch much more positively than the nurses. But the two scores were not significantly correlated(r=.06, 29). The elderly patient's touch perception score was higher(p<.05) in the group that was touched upon approach than the group was touched later. Elderly patients preferred caring touch to task touch, but it was not significant. Nurses' touch perception scores were higher(p<.05) for female than male. Elderly patients felt most comfortable when the nurses administered the touch on their painful site.

The purpose of this study was to test the effect of Kegel exercise(pelvic floor muscle exercise) for the older women with stress incontinence. The researcher developed, 12-week-long training program was implemented at a senior citizen's center in Seoul. The exercise method was followed the Kimberly-Clark criteria. Verbal instruction for the exercise was given to the group of subjects. Subjects' understanding of exercise was confirmed and evaluated by description of the exercise method by subjects. Thirteen elderly women(mean age 73.7) who have stress incontinence were participated and completed the program. The training session was held every week, the length of each session was 40minutes, including 10minutes Kegel exercise and 30minutes for various topic of health education. Three dependent variables(incontinence, self-esteem, social activity) were compared between pre and post 12-week-training utilizing nonparametric statistics. There was significant decrease in level of incontinence(p=.003). But there was no significant change in self-esteem(p=.06) or in social activities(p=.50). The general evaluation of program by participant was positive. Future study with larger sample and control group was suggested in order to confirm the study results. Because of limited sample size, the study results was not conclusive, although effectiveness of the program as a nursing intervention for the community residing elderly women with stress incontinence is suggestive.

No abstract available.