Purpose: This study was aimed to describe ethical dilemmas and types of coping behaviors among nurses who worked in intensive care units (ICUs). Methods: Data were collected by 2 focus group interviews with 12 ICU nurses in an academic affiliated hospital in Seoul, Korea. All interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed, and data were analyzed by modified qualitative content analysis. Results: Three themes emerged from the focus group interviews: "Respect for Persons (2 contents)", "Beneficence (13 contents)", "Justice (1 content)". Coping behaviors against the dilemmas were consultations with the doctors or colleagues, acceptance, guilt, reflection, forgetting, endurance, and frustration. Conclusion: The results of this study help us to understand ethical dilemmas that nurses experienced in ICUs and their coping behaviors. It would be useful to develop education programs for nurses in ICUs to support coping strategies for ethical dilemmas.

Purpose: To evaluate the applicability of Lasater Clinical Judgment Rubric (LCJR) as an evaluation tool for hypoglycemia simulation practicum on Korean nursing students. Methods: The methodological study was done to evaluate the reliability and validity of the LCJR. Based on Benner's 4 levels of nursing grading rubric, ten items of the LCJR was evaluated for interrater reliability and internal consistency. The content validity was tested by eight experts and concurrent validity was done by Clark (2006)'s clinical simulation grading rubric. Fifty five video-taped cases of senior nursing students in Y University were used for the reliability and concurrent validity of the LCJR. Results: The interrater reliability was r=.90 (p<.001); Kendall tau b=.87 (p <.001), and Cronbach's alpha was .90. A value of item content validity index of the LCJR was .97 and correlation coefficient between the LCJR and Clark's instrument was .90 (p<.001). The mean (${\pm}SD$) of the nursing students' clinical judgment was 2.04 (${\pm}50$). Conclusion: The LCJR is a useful tool to examine the simulation performance evaluation for improving competency among nursing students. The results indicated that the LCJR may provide valuable information regarding clinical judgment of nursing students and thus, suggested to use to develop a simulation-based education program.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the systematic breathing exercise program on recovery of patients with pneumothorax. Methods: An nonequivalent interrupted time-series control group posttest design was used. Participants were 40 inpatients (Experimental Group; 20, Control Group; 20) at the one University Hospital in U city. The systematic breathing exercise program including education on deep breathing exercise using incentive spirometry, Range of motion (ROM) exercise in shoulder joint, walking exercise and feedback were provided to the experimental group, while the control group carried out deep breathing exercise using incentive spirometry. The duration of chest tube insertion, duration of hospitalization, and frequency of analgesics use were measured. The data were analysed by a SPSS/WIN program. Results: The duration of chest tube insertion and duration of hospitalization in the experimental group were significantly shorter than the control group. However, there is no difference of the frequency of analgesics use between the experimental group and control group. Conclusion: The result showed that the systematic breathing exercise program was effective to improve recovery of patients with pneumothorax. This program can be applied in hospitals for patients with pneumothorax as one of the nursing intervention modalities.

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to evaluate how advanced practice nurses (APNs) recognized their work by analyzing nursing outcomes. The ultimate goal was to examine the utility of APNs by connecting their work to the outcomes. Methods: Cross-sectional survey was conducted to collect the data from 59 APNs in a tertiary hospital lovated in Seoul, Korea. The questionnaire with 84 outcome indicators for advanced practice nurses was used. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data. Results: Among 84 outcome indicators, 11 indicators were associated with the work of APNs. Majority of these findings were included in the categories of clinical results and satisfaction. Items identified to be associated with the work of APNs were different among oncology nursing area, surgical speciality area, emergency care area, and critical care area. Conclusion: The results of the study indicated that the works of APNs were relevant to education/counseling/training and interpersonal relationship with other health professionals. The results of the study could be helpful to delineate the work characteristics of APNs and increase the utility of APNs in Korea where roles of APNs are not yet clearly delineated in most clinical settings.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore health care workers awareness and performance of standard precautions. Methods: Participants were 296 health care workers including nurses, physicians, and medical technicians. Awareness and performance of standard precautions were measured with 4-point Likert scales. The data were analyzed with t-tests and one-way ANOVA by using SPSS 18.0. Results: The mean scores of awareness were 3.72 in nurses, 3.62 in physicians, and 3.47 in medical technicians. There was a significant difference of awareness by occupational classification (F=12.39, p<.001). The mean scores of performance of standard precautions were 3.45 in nurses, 3.19 in physicians, and 3.23 in medical technicians. There was a significant difference of performance by occupational classification (F=10.98, p<.001). In addition, the score of performance of standard precautions was significantly lower than that of awareness (t=11.89, p<.001). Conclusion: The results of this study indicated that awareness and performance of standard precautions were different by occupational classification. To improve performance of standard precautions in hospitals, it is necessary to provide a distinct infection control program by occupational classification.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to measure the inter-rater reliability of Emergency severity index (ESI) version 4 among triage nurse. Methods: This study was carried out from August 11, 2010 to September 7, 2010 in a regional emergency department. Data collection was done by ten triage nurses who trained ESI v.4. Two research nurses and ten triage nurses scored the ESI version 4 to the patients as references, independently. We calculated the weighted kappa between the triage nurses and research nurses to evaluate the consistency of the ESI v.4. Results: A total of 233 patients were enrolled in this study. Classification of ESI level was as follows - level 1 (0.4%), level 2 (21.0%), level 3 (67.8%), level 4 (9.4%), and level 5 (1.3%). Inter-rater reliability by weighted kappa was 0.79 (95% Confidence Interval= 0.74-0.83) and agreement rate was 87.1%. Under-triage rate by triage nurse was 6.0% and over-triage rate was 6.9%. Conclusion: For this study, inter-rater reliability was measured good level between triage nurses and research nurses in Korean single ED.