• Korean Medical Education Review
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.67-76
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• 2014

Few studies have examined burnout among the faculty of medical schools in the Republic of Korea. The aim of this study was to determine the level of burnout and its associated factors among the faculty members of three medical schools in the Busan-Gyeongnam area, and to summarise the available literature on burnout. We conducted the survey using a validated questionnaire that incorporated the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS) as well as questions about demographic characteristics, working experience, health, lifestyle, most time spent and most difficult work, and suicidal ideation and job quitting ideation of the survey participants. MBI-HSS scores were analysed in the three dimensions of emotional exhaustion (EE), depersonalization (De), and personal accomplishment (PA). Through the survey, the 186 professors, 49% among the total, provided data which were included in the present analysis. More than thirty per cent (37.1%) of the professors reported at least 1 symptom of burnout. For burnout dimensions, 11.8% of the respondents scored high for EE burnout, 25.3% for De, and 14.5% for PA, with 1.6% scoring high on all three dimensions of burnout. High burnout was found to be strongly associated with several of the variables under study, especially hours worked per week, self-rated health, career (range, 4 to 9 years), and age (range, 50 to 59 years). The EE score was highest for the professors who chose 'patient care' as the most difficult type of work. This study showed that just over one-third of professors have at least 1 symptom of burnout and working more hours per week, short length of work (years), and especially suicidal ideation seem to be associated with the burnout of medical school faculty members in the Busan-Gyeongnam area. In summary, a greater risk of burnout of physicians (including medical professors) seems to be associated with specialties at the front line of care, working more hours per week, work-life imbalance, low self-efficacy, depression, and conflicts with colleagues and patients.

• Journal of muscle and joint health
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.27-50
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• 2001

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic systemic autoimmune disease. Although the joints are the major loci of the disease activity, fatigue is a common extraarticular symptom that exists in all gradations of rheumatoid arthritis. Fatigue is defined as a subjective sense of generalized tiredness or exhaustion and has multiple dimensions. Therefore fatigue is a common and frequent problem for those with rheumatoid arthritis. In fact, 88-100% of individuals with rheumatoid arthritis experience fatigue. Especially the degree of fatigue is higher in women than men with rheumatoid arthritis. Despite the importance of fatigue among the patients with rheumatoid arthritis, the mechanism that leads to fatigue in rheumatoid arthritis is not completely understood. This study was intended to test and validate a model to predict fatigue in women with rheumatoid arthritis. Especially it was intended to identify the direct and indirect effects of the variables of pain, disability, depression, sleep disturbance, morning stiffness, and symptom duration to fatigue. Data were collected by questionnaires including Multidimensional Assesment of Fatigue(Tack, 1991), numeric scale of pain, graphic scale of joints, Ritchie Articular Index, Korean Health Assessment Questionnaire(Bae, et al., 1998), Inventory of Function Status(Tulman, et al., 1991), Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression, and Korean Sleep Scale(Oh, et al 1998). The sample consisted of 345 women with a mean duration of rheumatoid arthritis for 10.06 years and a mean age of 49.64 years. SPSS win and Win LISREL were used for the data analysis. Structural equation modeling revealed the overall fit of the model. Pain predicted fatigue directly and indirectly through disability, depression, and sleep disturbance. Disability, sleep disturbance predicted fatigue only directly, while depression only indirectly through disability and sleep disturbance. Also morning stiffness and symptom duration predicted fatigue through disability and depression. All predictors accounted for 65% of the variance of fatigue. Depression, pain, and disability predicted sleep disturbance. Depression had reciprocal relationship with disability and they both were predicted by pain directly and indirectly. In summary, pain, depression, disability, sleep disturbance, morning stiffness, and symptom duration contributed to the fatigue of patients with rheumatoid arthritis. The best predictor of fatigue was pain. This finding indicates that the modification of pain, depression, disability, sleep disturbance, morning stiffness could be nursing intervention for relief or prevention of fatigue.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.399-418
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• 1995

The purpose of this study was to investigate the stress response of nurses working on psychiatric wards (psychiatric nurses) compared with that of nurses working on general wards (general nurses) in order to provide assessment data for intervention of the stress response. The Symptoms of Stress Inventory was used to measure the stress response. Data were collected by a direct survey method using a questionnaire and were collected from March first to March 30, 1995. A sample of 200 nurses working in three psychiatric hospitals and psychiatric wards in four university hospitals in Seoul and Kangwon province were selected and 200 nurses working on general wards from two general hospitals in Seoul were also selected for a total sample of 400 nurses. Nurses who had experienced more than one of the major life events in the last two years were excluded from the total number in the samples, so the final sample was 161 psychiatric nurses, and 169 general nurses. The Scores for the total stress response, scores of the SOS subscales, stress response by sociodemographic characteristics of the nurses working on the psychiatric wards were compared with those of nurses working on the general ward. The results of this investigation are as follows 1. The mean total SOS score for the psychiatric nurse was 0.81 (SD=0.48) and that of the general nurses was 0.90(SD=0.53). 2. The Mean score for peripheral manifestation, con tral-neurological symptoms, gastrointestinal symptoms, muscle tension, habitual patterns, de-pression, anxiety, anger and cognitive disorganization for the general nurses showed a tendency to be higher than those of the psychiatric nurses. Mean score for cardiopulmonary symptoms for the general nurses was significantly higher than that of the psychiatric nurses. 3. The mean scores for the sixteen SOS items for the general nurses was significantly higher than for the psychiatric nurses. The 16 items were flushing of the face, sweating excessively even in cold weather, thumping of the heart, rapid breathing, dry mouth, a choking lump in the throat, hoarseness, muscle tension in hands or arm, muscle tension in leg, working tiring one out completely, severe aches a핀 Pain make it diffi-cult to do the work, severe nervous exhaustion, worrying about health, feeling weak and faint, so upset that one wants to hit something, unable to keep thoughts from running through one's mind. The mean score of only 505 item were significantly higher for the psychiatric nurses. 4. Stress responses between psychiatric nurses and general nurses were significantly different according to the following demographic characteristics : marriage, duration of work, position, accommodation, planning to move into another working site, working ward, education in psychiatric nursing.

• 한국노년학
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.97-109
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• 2011

The purpose of this work is to examine how work stressors are related to the burnout among staff in long-term care facilities for the elderly. This study offers some responses to a growing stress and burnout for the long-term care workers. The demand for long-term care workers is set to rise in light of an increasing share of older people and dependent elderly. Long-term care workers provide long-term care services to persons with a reduced degree of functional, physical or cognitive capacity. Cross-sectional survey data were collected from 216 staff in long-term care facilities. The standardised Maslach Burnout Inventory(MBI) was used to assess levels of burnout in long-term care workers. The MBI consists of 22 items using a 5-point Likert scale, measuring three sub-scales of burnout; Emotional exhaustion, Depersonalization, and Personal accomplishment. Data were analyzed using regression. This study is empirically tested the degree of association between burnout and its antecedents. The majority of differences in burnout could be explained by work stressors such as client relationship, job overload, job role conflict, and conflicts with clients' family. The study also identified workers' perceptions of their image in society and emotional support as predictors of burnout. Therefore long-term care facilities are encouraged to review their practices so that workers well-being is supported. The study findings suggest attention for organizational oriented initiatives to cope with burnout.