PURPOSE This secondary data analysis study was aimed at identifying the factors related to the patterns of alcohol use (normal alcohol use, hazardous alcohol use, and alcohol dependence) in the Korean adult. METHODS This study analyzed the cross-sectional data from 230,715 Korean adults aged 19 year and older who participated in the 2009 Korean Community Health Survey. Multinomial logistic regression was used to uncover associations between demographic, health related factors and the patterns of alcohol use. RESULTS The patterns of alcohol use was differentiated from the sociodemographic variables (residential area, gender, age, marital status, educational level, monthly income, and occupation) and with health related factors (smoking status, hours of sleep, body mass index, pain or discomfort, subjective health, stress level, liver disease, cardio/cerebro vascular disease, and depression). Hazardous alcohol use was lower in rural areas and lower among women, but higher among people who smoke, reported severe stress, and/or depression. Similarly, alcohol dependence was lower among women and among those in rural areas, and was more likely associated with those who smoke, have severe stress and depression. CONCLUSION A number of factors are associated with patterns of drinking. Smoking, severe stress and depression seems to confound the problems of alcohol use. Additional research is needed to isolate those factors that are the most important influencing the use of alcohol.
PURPOSE The aim of this study was to understand the nurses' experiences of caring for demented older persons in geriatric in care facilities. METHODS The subjects were ten nurses employed in geriatric care facilities. Open in-depth interviews were used to collect data from January, 2010 to October, 2010. The Colaizzi phenomenological method was used for data analysis. RESULTS The experiences of nurses' caring for patients with dementia were divided into the following six categories: 'new encounter', 'understanding of intention and satisfying', 'dilemma of caring', 'contriving of comfort', 'comprehensive coordinator', and 'being present'. There were 15 clusters of themes. The subjects stated that the best caring for the demented older persons were 'encounter, knowing, and being with them'. CONCLUSION Nurses' caring could improve the quality of life for demented older patients in geriatric care facility. These results suggest that institutional, administrational strategies and schemes need to cluster around the relationship with patients who would include encounter knowing and being with them.
PURPOSE The purpose of this secondary analysis study was to examine the incidence of abuse and the contributing factors for that abuse among the Korean elderly with stroke. METHODS Data were derived from the 2008 Korean National Survey on Older Adults. The participants were 934 community-dwelling elderly with stroke. Data were analyzed using the Rao-Scott chi2-test, simple logistic regression and multiple logistic regression with the PASW 18.0 complex samples analysis module. RESULTS The prevalence of elder abuse was 13.5%. Emotional abuse (10.0%) was the most frequently reported abuse, followed by financial neglect (3.8%), caring neglect (3.3%), financial abuse (2.1%), and physical abuse (1.9%). 44.6% of the perpetrators of emotional abuse were coresidential family members. Participants without spouses (odds ratio=2.05, 95% CI=1.14~3.68), those without diabetes (odds ratio=2.24, 95% CI=1.15~4.39), and depressed participants (odds ratio=2.72, 95% CI=1.34~5.52) were more likely to be abused. CONCLUSION Emotional abuse was the most frequently reported type of abuse while physical abuse was least frequent among the elderly with stroke. Nurses caring for the elderly with stroke should be aware of the types of abuse and risk factors such as lack of spouse and incidents of depression.
PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to investigate the health literacy of inpatients at general hospitals. METHODS The sample of this study was 157 inpatients from secondary general hospitals located in a J city during April 1st to April 15th, 2011. The linguistic health literacy was measured by Korean Health Literacy Assessment Tool (KHLAT). The functional health literacy was measured by Korean Functional Health Literacy Test (KFHLT). RESULTS The mean score of the linguistic health literacy was 36.03+/-16.33 (percent of correct answer: 54.6%). The mean score of the functional health literacy was 9.62+/-4.75 (percent of correct answer: 56.6%). The linguistic and functional health literacy were by age, education level, marital status, socioeconomic status and their health status. There was statistically a significant correlation between the linguistic health literacy and the functional health literacy (r=.75, p<.001). CONCLUSION The health literacy of inpatients was strongly related to education level and age. There is a need to develop the educational materials for adjusting the health literacy level of inpatients.
PURPOSE The purpose of the study was to identify reports of workplace violence, stress and turnover intention among perioperative nurses. METHODS The data were collected using questionnaire from 162 perioperative. RESULTS All of the nurses in the study reported incidents of violence within six months of the study. Doctors and specifically operating surgeons were cited as perpetrating workplace violence. The stated source of the violence was failure or shortage of surgical equipment or instrument and fall out of surgeon's preference. Subjects reported (87.7%) workplace abuse from nurses and most often from senior nurses. Nurse abuse was in the form of verbal abuse. Fatigue and stress stemming from heavy workload were cited as the source of the workplace violence. The subjects reported stress levels of 7.39 out of a possible ten points from workplace violence. A little more than thirty five percent of the subjects reported having intentions to leave because of workplace violence. These nurses reported higher level of stress and experienced more workplace violence from nurses and doctors as compared to those nurses who reported no turnover intention. CONCLUSION The results of this study indicate that a third of the employed nurses reported wanting to leave their positions due to workplace violence. Workplace violence is a serious problem for nurses whether it is from physicians or from other nurses.
PURPOSE The purpose of this survey was to investigate emergency department nurses' recognition of forensics nursing and their educational needs for forensics nursing education. METHODS Data were collected via questionnaires from 167 emergency department nurses who were working in 7 university hospitals. Nurses' experiences of trauma or accidents and their recognition of and educational needs for forensic nursing education were assessed. RESULTS All subjects reported having suffered bodily injury due to falling or serious traffic accidents; 92.2% reported having suffered bodily injury caused by suicide attempts; 91.6% reported having experienced physical violence or abuse; 76.0% reported having experienced sexual assault or abuse; 68.9% reported having experienced some difficulties during their nursing care due to lack of forensics knowledge; and 88.6% reported never having been trained in forensics nursing. The educational needs score for "forensics nursing" was 3.61; the needs score for "abuse- and violence-related education" was 3.65; the needs score for "incident data collection related education" was 3.47; and the needs score for "forensics theory related education" was 3.34. CONCLUSION The findings of the study underscore a strong need to develop an educational program on forensics nursing for emergency department nurses.
PURPOSE This retrospective study was designed to examine the frequency of unplanned extubation, and to identify the related factors of unplanned extubation in medical intensive care unit patients. METHODS Data were collected from medical records of patients who received intubation in a medical intensive care unit. One hundred eighteen patient charts were selected for the study. The Patient Severity Classification Scale and unplanned extubation risk factors were examined. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, chi2-test, Fisher's exact test and Mann-Whitney U test. RESULTS The incidence of unplanned extubation was 11 (9.32%) out of 118 patients who had undergone intubation. There were statistically significant differences between the unplanned extubation and work shift (chi2=61.52, p=.001), ventilation mode (p=.001), number of days of ventilator application (U=366.00, p=.038) and administration of sedatives (p=.025). CONCLUSION Unplanned extubation is affected by the following variables: a) whether a nurse is in night shift, b) whether ventilation is mandatory, c) duration of ventilation use and d) administration of sedatives.
PURPOSE This research analyzed the different factors that influenced smoking cessation motivation. METHODS Subjects were both current and past male adult smokers. Data collection was conducted in four small businesses in Seoul and one public enterprise in Gyeonggi-Province from December 10, 2011 to January 30, 2012. Reasons for Quitting (RFQ) scale which was developed by Curry et al. was used for data collection. There were 350 participants and 324 (93%) questionnaires were used for the statistical analysis. RESULTS Participant's level of motivation varied by present smoking, quit attempt, smoking cessation counseling, level of nicotine dependence, stages of smoking cessation, and types of smoking. Participant's drinking pattern, smoking cessation counseling, social seeking type (G) and stages of smoking cessation had a 13% explanatory power for being motivated to stop smoking. CONCLUSION For participants who drink alcohol regularly, who do not participate in smoking cessation counseling and those who are in the pre-contemplation stage for smoking cessation are candidates for future smoking cessation intervention programs or smoking cessation motivation programs.
PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to identify the influencing factors associated to students nurses' cultural awareness toward immigrants for marriage and foreign workers. METHODS The participants were 107 nursing students in C city in Chungnam province. The data were collected with structured questionnaire. Collected data were analyzed using t-test, ANOVA, correlation analysis, and stepwise multiple regression. RESULTS The mean score of cultural awareness was 3.67. The degree of cultural awareness was different according to educational experience related multiculture and age. The variables predicting cultural awareness were social distance of foreign workers, emotions of immigrants for marriage and age. These factors accounted for 26% of the variance of cultural awareness in nursing students. CONCLUSION The results indicate education related multiculture should be provided to nursing students to reduce the social distance between students and foreign workers and enhance positive emotions for immigrants.
PURPOSE The purpose of the study was to compare level of functional independence and its correlates among community-dwelling older adults in rural areas between South Korea and the United Sates. METHODS The study employed a comparative and correlational design. Data were collected from 198 community-dwelling older adults in rural areas (South Korea=100, & US = 98). Functional independence, cognitive function, obesity and general characteristics were measured. RESULTS From both countries, approximately fifteen percent of older adults living independently had cognitive problems without any treatments. Among Korean older adults functional independence was associated with a number of chronic diseases and aging while in the United States the participants had a negative correlation with obesity and aging. CONCLUSION For Korean older adults in rural areas, nurses should focus on monitoring older adults' abilities to manage chronic illness and designing self-management programs while in the United States the focus should be on healthy lifestyle programs about exercise and diet to increase functional independence.
PURPOSE The objective of this study was to examine the relationships between nurses' knowledge and performance for the prevention of intravascular catheter-related infections (ICRI) according to the strength of recommendations in evidence based guidelines (EBG). METHODS The total participants were 144 nurses working for medical.surgical unit and intensive care unit. Data were collected from July 12 to July 30, 2010 and analyzed by one way ANOVA and Pearson's correlation analysis. RESULTS The knowledge and performance mean scores were 0.80+/-0.17 and 3.04+/-0.31 for peripheral venous catheter (PVC) management, and 0.83+/-0.17 and 3.00+/-0.30 for central venous catheter (CVC) management respectively. The items of category IA had the highest knowledge score (F=44.70, p<.001) and the items of category II had the highest performance score (F=47.09, p<.001) in PVC management, while the items of category IA had the highest knowledge (F=20.04, p<.001) and performance scores (F=18.20, p<.001) in CVC management. Knowledge and performance scores were significantly correlated in CVC management (r=.24, p=.004), but not in PVC management (r=.03, p=.753). CONCLUSION EBG for the prevention of ICRI was not fully implemented in clinical settings. These findings emphasize that clinical professions need to develope strategies to enhance nursing practices with evidence based guideline.