• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.565-577
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• 2013

Purpose: This study was done to propose an improvement in the Nursing Fee Differentiation Policy to alleviate polarization of nursing staffing level among hospitals and to rectify the confusion of legally mandated standards between the Korean Medical Law and National Health Insurance Act. Methods: The policy regulation was reconstructed related to nurse staffing standards and nurse-to-patients ratios. Data on nurse staffing grades were obtained from database of the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service (HIRA) for the third quarter of 2010 for 44 tertiary hospitals, 274 general hospitals, and 1,262 hospitals. A break-even analysis was used to estimate financial burden of the revised policy improvement proposal. An industrial engineering method was used to calculate Nurse-to-Patients ratios per shift. Results: Twelve tertiary hospitals were downgraded. 74 general hospitals and 102 hospitals were upgraded after application of the regulation. Finances for total hospitalization expenditures changed from -3.55% to +3.14%. Conclusion: The results indicate that the proposed policy would decrease polarization between tertiary hospitals and small hospitals, and would not put a major strain on the finances of the Korean National Health Insurance. Therefore, it is suggested that government stake-holders and many interest groups consider this policy proposal and build a consensus.

• Perspectives in Nursing Science
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.23-35
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• 2010

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the demand and supply of advanced practice nurses and suggest alternative benefit strategies in the Korean national health insurance. Methods: A revised demand & supply model was used to estimate the excess supply of APNs, and policy making process and key actors in the Korean health insurance were considered to develop a political approach to the APN issue. Results: The social demand for APNs is currently estimated to be less than 50% of its supply and the APN education program fell into difficulties in recruits. No reimbursement mechanism for APN's services in the national health insurance has given no economic incentive to hospital managers who have monopsony power in nursing labor market, which has caused the demand shortage of APNs in hospital industry. Payment for APN's services recognized as one of the most significant strategies to booster the social demand for APN's services should be carefully designed and implemented in the national health insurance. In line with this, key actors in health insurance policy decision-making include government, national assembly, labor unions, NGOs, civic groups, medical associations, and academia. Conclusion: The basic researches for APN's activities and cost-effectiveness analysis in clinical settings are required to support the strategies aforementioned. Constructing a policy network among key actors is able to make the payment strategy feasible, which will increase the socal demand for APNs.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.243-247
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• 2008

Neonatal intensive care in Korea has improved remarkably since the 1990s, but there is still a shortage of facilities and equipment in NICUs. Only 71.1% of the beds needed for neonatal intensive care are available. Mechanical ventilators are not appropriately distributed to the NICUs that are equipped to handle neonatal intensive care. The number of doctors is far too small, making the number of patients per doctor very high. Nurses, too, need to take care of 7.7 patients per nurse, making it very difficult to provide adequate intensive care. All this is caused by insufficient investment by the hospitals, which, in turn, is caused by inadequate reimbursement from health insurance. Therefore, a government-sponsored effort is necessary to bring the level of neonatal intensive care up to par.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.265-273
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• 2019

The Purpose of this study was to investigate the attitude and confidence of patient safety in undergraduate healthcare professions students. The subjects consisted of 145 grade 3,4 students who have had clinical practice in nursing and emergency medical technician schools in a J province from June 1st to 30th in 2016. Data were analyzed with SPSS 21.0 using descriptive statistics. The results of the study showed that the attitude of nursing students were more positive, but there was no difference in patient safety self-confidence and patient safety education experience, and the students who had experienced medical errors saw positive attitude and self-confidence. Based on the results of this study, I propose case-based multidisciplinary contents development to nurture emergency healthcare professions

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.16 no.12
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• pp.541-553
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• 2018

The purpose of this study was to analyze the differences in the frequency and importance of basic nursing practice between comprehensive nursing care service wards and general wards and to provide basic data for the efficient of services. The subjects of this study were 99 comprehensive nursing care service and 90 general wards. Data were collected from February 1 to 28, 2018 and analyzed using a t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson's correlation coefficient, Scheffe test. The results showed that the frequency of basic nursing practice was higher by 2.43, and there were significant differences in personal hygiene, nutrition and excretion, exercise & activity. The recognition of the importance of basic nursing was high in both groups, but comprehensive nursing care service wards were slightly higher at 4.24 points. However, as the frequency of practice is lower than the recognition of the importance of basic nursing, a method to increase the frequency of practice is necessary. These results suggest that comprehensive nursing care service wards should provide appropriate nursing staff and system development so the nurses can provide care service as professionals.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.114-124
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• 2018

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to examine the modern history of public health(PH) and suggest a way forward for PH nursing(PHN). Methods: This paper is a review article that derives results from literature review. Results: In the period of beginning (up to 1944), PHN began as the PH Department was created in the Hygiene Bureau in 1908 and tasks about nurses were legislated. PHN was limited to infectious disease tasks and performed mostly by missionaries. In the period of foundation formation (1945 to 1961), the Republic of Korea was founded, and PH policies and tasks were defined with the establishment of the central government organization and the applicable laws. In the period of foundation establishment (1962 to 1979), the Regional PH Act was amended, and as a result, PH Centers(PHCs) spread across the country. In the period of foundation expansion (1980 to 1994), the PH referral system of PHCs, PH Units, and Primary Health Care Post was established. In the period of organization in each area (1995 to 2005), PH programs reflecting changes in disease structure and public needs for the quality of life. A regional health care plan was launched. In the period of funtion expansion (2006 to present day), Centers for support health living were established. Conclusions: In the future, PH nurses need to have a macroscopic perspective that views PH through the overall PH system, and to expand from the existing healthcare concept to the national and global healthcare one.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.23-30
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• 2019

The purpose of this study was to examine job stress, job satisfaction, and turnover intention of the nurses who work at the comprehensive nursing service units in two academic medical institutions that provide healthcare service at the tertiary care level in Korea. A descriptive study was conducted with the nurses by using self-reported questionnaires. We used descriptive statistics to summarize the data and Mann-Whitney U test for group comparison. The mean scores of job stress, job satisfaction, and turnover intention were $89.17{\pm}12.56$, $107.25{\pm}6.85$, $37.19{\pm}4.86$, respectively. Nurses with religion showed more job stress than those without. Nurses with their age below 30 years old had significantly less job satisfaction than those older than 30 years old. Monthly income was significantly associated with turnover intention in our data. The top three sub-category of the job stress were conflict with physicians, patients and their caregivers, and conflicts with others; and those of the job satisfaction were pay and promotion and task requirement. Job stress, job satisfaction, and turnover intention were significantly correlated. In order to reduce turnover intention of nursing professionals in the comprehensive nursing service, job stress related to issues on relationships with patients, their family, health care providers need to be taken into consideration. Policy and administrative support are needed to improve their work environment.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.181-189
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• 2021

This study uses a structural equation model for the turnover intention of female nurses performing shift work at a tertiary hospital. Data collection was conducted from November 11 to December 20, 2015, and 283 samples were included in the final analysis. As a result, 12 of the 19 hypotheses of the final model were supported. It was confirmed that external employment opportunities, nursing professional value, nursing organizational culture, job stress, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and burn out accounted for 47.8% of the turnover intention. Burn out(+) and organizational commitment(-)had direct effects on turnover intentions, and nursing professional, relationship-oriented nursing organizational culture, and job stress showed indirect effects. Therefore, in order to reduce the turnover intention of female nurses working in shifts at tertiary hospitals, it is necessary to prevent burnout, increase organizational commitment, and job satisfaction. For this purpose, measures to strengthen relation-oriented nursing organizational culture and nursing professional intuition are required. In terms of hospital manpower management, the institutional arrangements of hospitals that enable flexible working hours adjustment, mutually respectful relationship-centered organizational culture, education, and policy support to reinforce nursing professional intuition, and the institutional system of hospitals to work with pride should be implemented.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.380-389
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• 2013

The nurse staffing level in the acute care hospitals affects patient safety and performance, and the nurse staffing legislation can be an important tool to guarantee the minimum nurse staffing. In Korea, although the medical law suggests the nurse staffing standards, it is necessary to revise the medical law for quality of nursing care and patient safety. Firstly, the nurse staffing standards in the current medical law enacted in 1962 needs to be revised to reflect changes in health care environment. Secondly, legal nurse staffing standards in the medical law are the minimum nurse staffing that medical institutions should comply with and thus must be managed so that all medical institutions should abide by them. Thirdly, the nurse staffing standards should apply on the basis of RN-to-patient ratios per shift in order to help patients understanding and ensure the easy management. Fourthly, the information of nursing staff level by the nursing unit and nursing shift in hospitals shall be released.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.701-711
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• 2013

Purpose: The plan proposed by the Ministry of Health and Welfare in 2012 did not reflect the position of nurses and focused only on how to increase the number of nurses. There is a need for coming up with a specific and viable alternative plan considering the qualitative aspect of nursing, delegation of nursing tasks, the in-death analysis of the reasons for leaving the nursing profession, and the legal standards based on varying nursing tasks. Methods: Drawing on a review of existing literature, this report was written to examine policy directions and the factors that influence the institutional environment that regulates the supply and demand of the nursing workforce in Korea. Results: Implementing the government's plan for introducing a new type of nurse, the registered practical nurse, which generally requires a two-year associate's degree, must be reconsidered. Also, a concrete plan to make use of unemployed nurses and to close the salary gap between nurses working at hospitals in cities and those working at hospitals in rural areas must be prepared. Furthermore, there is a need for introducing a new rating system aimed at boosting the quality of nursing care in small-and medium-sized hospitals, thereby increasing the number of nursing professionals who provide high quality care. Conclusion: In preparation for expected poor quality of care and looming unemployment crisis due to the increase in the number of nursing professionals, a practical and concrete plan for the supply and demand of the nursing workforce should be made. The Korean Nurses Association should mount a profession-wide campaign to make the government formulate a new and viable policy on the supply and demand of the nursing workforce.