Purpose: This study was aimed to understand and describe the Korean critical care advanced practice nurses' work experience. Methods: Data was collected through 2 focus group interviews that were held in two different university hospitals in Seoul, Korea. All interviews were recorded and transcribed, and data were analysed using modified qualitative content analysis. Results: Ten themes were drawn from data analysis. They are "Various and complex tasks", "Excellency of advanced nursing practice", "Pressure and responsibility accompanied with pride", "Role identity confusion", "Role conflict", "Leaping and evolving role", "Gap between role and outcome evaluation", "Underestimated outcomes", "Where are my outcomes?" "Searching for outcomes: publicize the role". Conclusion: The results of this study help to understand the role of Korean critical care advanced practice nurses and to guide to outcome evaluation of their role effectiveness. Developing qualitative outcome indicators, cost-effectiveness ananlysis of Korean critical care advanced practice nurses' role, and accumulation of evidences through researches on outcome evaluation will be needed to successfully settle down advanced practice nursing in Korea.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify compliance of kidney transplantation(=KT) recipients and the factors influencing on compliance of KT recipients. Methods: One hundred patients who visited out-patients department after KT at S hospital transplant center in Seoul were enrolled in this study. Structured questionnaires of compliance, self-efficacy and family support were used to collect data. The data was collected from April 21 to May 21 in 2011. The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, independent t-test, ANOVA and Pearson correlation coefficient. Statistical significance was accepted to the level of p<.05. Results: The mean score of compliance was 4.37(range from 1 to 5), and that of medication compliance was the highest and that of self care compliance was the lowest. There were no differences of compliance according to characteristics of the subjects. Compliance of the subjects had positive correlation with self-efficacy(r=0.23, p<0.05) and family support(r=0.33, p<0.05). Conclusion: Based on these results, it can be concluded that the nursing intervention program to improve self care using self-efficacy and family support need to be developed.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of tooth-brushing oral care on oral health and ventilator-associated pneumonia of patients in Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Methods: A total of 74 participants were recruited from a medical, surgical, or neurosurgical ICU at S Hospital in Seoul, Korea, from September of 2010 to January of 2011. An experimental group (n= 36) received oral care with tooth-brushing while a control group (n=38) received oral care with cotton ball and gauze. In both group, the oral care was done three times a day at least one minute for 7 days. Oral health was examined by the Modified Oral Assessment Guide before the intervention and each night. Results: There is no difference between the groups in aspect of passage of time (p = .603), interaction between time and intervention (p =.300), the performance intervention (p = .766), and the incidence of VAP (p = .486). Conclusion: The effect of oral care with tooth-brushing on oral health and VAP was not different from that of usual oral care in ICU. However, further study is necessary due to high attrition in this study.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of oral hygiene for ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) incidence. Methods: This study was used a nonequivalent control group posttest design. This study was performed in two groups, experimental group and control group. The experimental group (36 patients) had performed oral care for 6 times a day. The control group (39 patients) had followed and 3 times oral care a day. Participants were patients of 20 years of age or older on mechanical ventilation more than 48 hours from July 5 to October 31 in 2007 at the medical and surgical ICU of C university hospital. Results: VAP occurred in 5 cases in the control group, while only 1 case occurred in the experimental group. Incidence for 1000 ventilator day was 12.59 in the control group and 2.18 in the experimental group. Conclusion: Nursing intervention of 6 times oral care a day proved to decrease incidence of VAP. A guideline should be made using the above nursing intervention for the critical ill patients receiving mechanical ventilation.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop a standardized education protocol for peritoneal dialysis patients. Methods: First, the demand for education was investigated from the 27 patients on peritoneal dialysis and 16 guardians, and later, the standardized nursing education protocol has been developed through the comprehensive literature review and the critical analysis of the related studies. Contents validity and applicability have been tested through the expert group survey. Results: The standardized peritoneal dialysis nursing education protocol with 9 areas and 20 items has been developed. The content validity for timing and duration, contents, method, and place of education proposed by the protocol were all above than 0.8. In terms of the applicability of the protocol, the experts scored between 4.20 to 4.93 for all items except one. The item on home visit education acquired the lowest applicability score, because there might exist potential restrictions in visiting patient's home. Conclusion: The standardized education protocol developed in this study turned out to be adequate by representing high content validity for all items and the applicability also was high except the item on home visit education. Further researches to test the effects of this education protocol should be done.