Purpose : The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of nursing organizational culture and head nurse's leadership on the job satisfaction. Methods : For the purpose, a structured questionnaire was conducted. The subjects were 232 nurses who were working in the 2 general hospitals. The data were collected from Sep. 1 to Sep. 20 of 2006. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA, t-test, Pearson Correlation Coefficient, and multiple regression. Results : The dominant organizational culture of nursing organization was rank-oriented culture. The mean score of head nurse's transformational leadership and transactional leadership was 3.20 and 2.79 respectively. The best group of job satisfaction was affiliative-oriented culture group(3.31). The score of job satisfaction of transformational leadership's group was higher than that of transactional leadership's group. Job satisfaction was positively correlated with affiliative-oriented culture, innovative-oriented culture, task-oriented culture, and transformational leadership. Concerning of the job satisfaction, affiliative-oriented culture, rotation time and age explained 25.7%. Conclusion : The organizational culture and head nurse's leadership was correlated with job satisfaction. Especially affiliative-oriented culture and task-oriented culture influenced the job satisfaction. Based on the results, further development should be continued to develop the effective head nurse's leadership and organizational culture to improve the job satisfaction of nurses.

The purpose of this study was to provide criteria which help executives to make decisions through the analysis of profitability of ultrasonography conducted in each medical department. In order to achieve such purpose, the study conducted break-even analyses on three medical departments of a university hospital in which has used ultrasonography was largely conducted in diagnosing diseases and performing surgeries. The research was carried out from January to June 2008. The data necessary for calculating cost, were collected using by computerized data. The results of the study were summarized as follows. 1. The Cost structure of each medical department: The Cost of ultrasonography was divided into direct cost and indirect cost through the categorization by cost object. Labor cost accounted for the largest portion of the direct cost with 69.3% in the department of obstetrics and gynecology, 67.4% in the department of radiology and 58.2% in the cardiac ultrasonography center, which followed by the depreciation cost of ultrasonography equipment. The calculation of the average material cost of each ultrasonographic test by medical test found that the cardiac ultrasonography center took first place with 2,355 won, followed by the department of obstetrics and gynecology with 266 won and the department of radiology with 233 won. As for the power cost of ultrasonography equipment, the department of radiology took fist place with 442,000 won. The power cost, however, did not affect much the cost price, because it accounted for only a small portion of the cost. As for indirect cost, the cardiac ultrasonography center ranked first with 7,156,000 won. Building depreciation cost accounted for the largest portion of the indirect cost. 2. Break-even analysis: Under the supposition that cost price can be divided into fixed cost and variable cost, a break-even analysis was conducted using the cost price confirmed through the cost structure of each medical department. As for the average customary charge of ultrasonography test conducted in each medical department, the department of obstetrics and gynecology charged 24,627 won, the department of radiology 53,179 won and the cardiac ultrasonography center 65,174 won. According to these results, the charges of ultrasonography test imposed by the department of radiology and the cardiac ultrasonography center wre enough to surpass break-even levels, but the charge imposed by the department of obstetrics and gynecology was not enough to offset the cost price. In conclusion, labor cost accounted for the largest proportion of cost price of ultrasonography test conducted in diagnosing diseases and performing surgeries in medical departments, followed by the fixed cost of ultrasonographic equipment depreciation cost. In medical department where the current charge of ultrasonography test turned out not to offset cost price through the break-even analysis of ultrasonographic equipment, ways to reduce fixed cost which accounts for the largest proportion of the cost price should be sought. Even medical departments whose current charge of ultrasonography test is enough to surpass break-even level are required to work for efficient management and cost reduction to continuously generate profits.

Purpose : This study was aimed at examining the relationships of university students' self-efficacy to creative disposition and creative thinking ability. Method : A descriptive study was conducted with a sample of 320 students enrolled 4-year-undergraduate academic programs major in nursing as well as elderly care management in one University located in Pusan, Korea. This study used: (a) 24 items of Self-Efficacy Scale originally developed by Kim & Cha(1996), and (b) 39 items of creative thinking ability and 16 items of creative attitudes in a Self-Report Form of Integrative Creativity Scale developed by Bak & Kang(2006). The data were analyzed by using Pearson correlation and hierarchical multiple regression methods. Result : University students' self-efficacy has significantly positive impact on creative thinking ability(p<.001) with 26.4% of the variance and creative disposition(p<.001) with 48.9%. Creative thinking ability as well as the disposition related to creativity that university students possessed were significantly influenced by efficacy on self-control and efficacy on taking difficult tasks. Conclusion : This result supports Social Cognitive Theory and Investment Theory of Creativity in terms that self-efficacy is the factor affecting fostering creative ability and demonstration of creativity potential to the real. This also implies that healthcare educational programs reinforcing students' self-efficacy would contribute to breed them to healthcare professionals with creative competency.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the determinants of caregiver's conflict experience in elderly care institutions. This study focused on the three key independent variable groups(e.g., socio-demographic, job-related, and individual personality). The sample used in this study are 311 caregivers who are randomly selected from 21 elderly care institutions in Korea. Data were collected with a structured questionnaire by mail from Oct. 15 to Nov. 30 in 2007. The collected data were analyzed using logistic regression. The major findings of the study are as follows: 1) Nearly 40% percent of the respondents reported that they had experienced conflicts with elderly patients. The conflict with other caregivers ranked as second(20.6%), followed by patients' families(18.6%) and hospital employees(15.1%). 2) The personality, especially uniqueness caused conflict with patients or other caregivers. The professional identity reduced conflict with patients. The negative work experiences caused conflict with patients or family. The service attitude reduced conflict with family. The service-centered culture reduced conflict with hospital employees. Those who lived with the elderly showed lower level of conflict with family or hospital employees.

The main objective of this study is to investigate the influence of physician's communication styles and quality, and physician-patient relationship on patient satisfaction for improving physician's communication which is one of factors determining service quality in health care services, and providing the suggestion for building the positive physician-patient relationship. Data were collected from 341 inpatients in 13 general hospitals and university hospitals located in Busan Metropolitan City and Kyeongsang-do area using structured self-administered questionnaires. Major results of the empirical analysis are as follows; First, mutual-opened-cooperative physician-patient relationship, patient's communication receptive attitude, patient-oriented physician's communication style, and quality were significantly varied by respondents' characteristics such as age, consensual, job, and income. Second, empathy, patient's communication receptive attitude, physician-patient relationship, and patient satisfaction were significantly varied by respondents' medical-related conditions. Third, there was a significant correlation between active communication receptive attitude of patient and mutual-opened-cooperative physician-patient relationship. Fourth, patient-oriented physician's communication style and physician-patient relationship were found to have positive influence on total communication quality and effectiveness and empathy facet of communication quality both. Finally, patient-oriented physician's communication style, empathy, active communication receptive attitude of patient, and mutual-opened-cooperative physician-patient relationship were found to have positive influence on patient satisfaction. This research findings suggest that putting emphasis on effective physician's communication and enhancing positive physician-patient relationship are crucial for marketing activities and customer satisfaction management in health care settings.

This study analysed what effects conscious role conflict and conscious self-efficacy have on job satisfaction for hospital coordinators working in medical institutions. In order to study this issue, questionnaires were distributed to 154 hospital coordinators. The results from analysing the effects of role conflict and self-efficacy on job satisfaction are as follows: 1) Role conflict and job satisfaction are negatively correlated. The mean score for hospital coordinators' role conflict was 2.82, which was lower than average. Among subfactors for role conflict, personal role conflict had a significant effect on job satisfaction, while role ambiguity had no effect on job satisfaction. 2) The mean score for hospital coordinators' self-efficacy was 3.42, which was slightly higher than average. Other mean scores were as follows: job attitude 3.83, interpersonal skills 3.54, administrative knowledge 3.30, and medical treatment knowledge 3.02. Among subfactors for self-efficacy, job attitude and adminstrative knowledge had significant effects on job satisfaction, while interpersonal skills and medical treatment knowledge had no effect on job satisfaction (p < 0.01). In conclusion various hospital administration techniques, related job training and education needs to be given when introducing a hospital coordinator in order to strengthen the competitiveness of medical institutions. The hospital coordinators need to clearly understand their role so that they can settle into the system at the hospital and develop their job environment.

The waiting time makes the customer be bored, and is the reason to obstruct the service quality evaluation. The managing waiting time appears to be the most important task, in accordance of physical inconvenience especially because the customers of the medical service are supplied in the unstabled status. Therefore, necessity and object of managing waiting time in the medical service were presented through the definition of waiting time and the consideration about preceding study, and the main cause of the waiting time was analyzed, furthermore the measure of actually indicated waiting time and various ideas for reducing the time were presented lastly as selecting a case study participative hospital for achieving the study object. This study will be one of role model as a solution to reduce the waiting time in each medical institution.