• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.130-136
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• 2016

The aim of this study was to examine and analyze the infection management status of Jeju-area general hospitals, and in order to convey the importance of infection management, and to determine role plans of medical technologists as infection management staff, the infection management status was examined through surveys targeting 7 general hospitals located in Jeju Special Self-Governing Province. The infection management of Jeju-area medical institutions showed excellence in that all institutions operated an infection management room, there was dedicated manpower, and hospital infection management guidelines were established and executed. However most institutions were operating their infection management room with only 1 nurse, reporting many difficulties in securing dedicated manpower, microbe-related culture deciphering, frequency of multiple-resistance bacteria, infection statistics, and details on microbe testing. Accordingly, it is believed that the medical technologist who can perform the practical tasks of infection management has sufficient qualification and experience in infection management as per the medical law enforcement regulations, and in operation of an infection management room. If medical technologists (infection control microbiological technologist) with expert knowledge on microbes and infection control nurses can execute the tasks as dedicated personnel, the operation of the infection management room will be more advanced. In addition, for proper infection management in the future, the introduction of a medical system specialized in infection management and full support for infection management of vulnerable small/medium hospitals in addition to general hospitals across the country is considered important.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.79 no.4
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• pp.234-240
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• 2016

Transmission of tuberculosis (TB) is a recognized risk to patients and healthcare workers in healthcare settings. The literature review suggests that implementation of combination control measures reduces the risk of TB transmission. Guidelines suggest a three-level hierarchy of controls including administrative, environmental, and respiratory protection. Among environmental controls, installation of ventilation systems is a priority because ventilation reduces the number of infectious particles in the air. Natural ventilation is cost-effective but depends on climatic conditions. Supplemented intervention such as air-cleaning methods including high efficiency particulate air filtration and ultraviolet germicidal irradiation should be considered in areas where adequate ventilation is difficult to achieve. Personal protective equipment including particulate respirators provides additional benefit when administrative and environmental controls cannot assure protection.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.77-85
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• 2022

The purpose of this study was to investigate the status of infection control of angiography room workers through a survey, and to find out their awareness and performance. A survey was conducted from January 3 to February 28, 2022 on 126 workers working in angiography room of 10 hospitals at or above general hospital level located in Busan City. The questionnaire consists of 10 general characteristics of the subject and 56 items in total, divided into 4 main items of infection control in an angiography room: infection control system in a medical institution, personal hygiene, angiography room environment, and angiography room equipment. was measured on a Likert 5-point scale. Data analysis was performed statistically using SPSS for WindowTM release 25.0. t-test and one-way ANOVA were used to analyze the awareness and performance of each domain according to general characteristics, and Pearson correlation analysis was performed for the relationship between variables. As a result, the awareness level was higher than the performance level in all areas, indicating that the performance level was lower than the awareness level. In addition, awareness and performance showed a positive correlation, suggesting that the degree of awareness of workers is an important variable in infection control that has a significant effect on performance. Therefore, for effective and systematic infection control, workers in angiography room must improve the performance of infection control. In order to do that, infection control education is needed, and it is judged that infection control guidelines for angiography room should be systematized in the future.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.183-192
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• 2016

A total of 228 dental hygienists working in dental hospitals and clinics in the Busan and Gyeongnam areas were surveyed between August 1, 2015, and October 15, 2015. The factors influencing infection control awareness and implementation levels among the dental hygienists were investigated to prepare basic data with the goal of establishing guidelines for systemic infection control. Treatment preparation support for infection control positively correlated with equipment and facility support (r=0.4343, p<0.01), treatment skill and information support (r=0.231, p<0.01), infection control education support (r=0.266, p<0.01), infection control awareness (r=0.354, p<0.01), and infection control implementation levels (r=0.442, p<0.01). Equipment and facility support positively correlated with treatment skill and information support (r=0.418, p<0.01), infection control education support (r=0.422, p<0.01), infection control awareness (r=0.404, p<0.01), and infection control implementation levels (r=0.454, p<0.01). Infection control education support positively correlated with infection control awareness (r=0.348, p<0.01) and infection control implementation levels (r=0.405, p<0.01). Infection control awareness positively correlated with the infection control implementation level (r=0.879, p<0.01). The factors influencing the awareness of infection control include treatment preparation support, equipment and facility support, treatment skill and information support, and infection control education support. The influencing the infection control implementation level include treatment preparation support, equipment and facility support, infection control education support, and treatment skill and information support. To enhance the awareness of infection control and implementation levels amongdental hygienists, an infection control system must be established and implemented A rigorous system for evaluating dental clinics must also be established to ensure an ideal dental treatment environment and to protect patients' health and safety.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.274-277
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• 2017

Objectives: Legionnaires' disease (LD) is a severe type of pneumonia caused by inhalation of aerosols contaminated with Legionella. On September 22, 2016, a single case of LD was reported from a newly built apartment building in Gyeonggi province. This article describes an epidemiologic investigation of LD and identification of the possible source of infection. Methods: To identify the source of LD, we interviewed the patient's husband using a questionnaire based on the Legionella management guidelines from the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Water samples from the site were collected and analyzed. An epidemiological investigation of the residents and visitors in the apartment building was conducted for 14 days before the index patient's symptoms first appeared to 14 days after the implementation of environmental control measures. Results: Legionella pneumophila serogroup 1 was isolated from the heated-water samples from the patient's residence and the basement of the apartment complex. Thirty-two suspected cases were reported from the apartment building during the surveillance period, yet all were confirmed negative based on urinary antigen tests. Conclusions: The likely source of infection was the building's potable water, particularly heated water. Further study of effective monitoring systems in heated potable water should be considered.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.392-402
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• 2014

Purpose: This study was done to investigate the status of disinfection and sterilization in healthcare facilities. Method: A survey of 193 Korean healthcare facilities was conducted from February 8 to March 7, 2013. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, ${\chi}^2$ test, Fisher's exact test, one-way ANOVA, Scheffe with SPSS WIN 18.0. Results: Of the healthcare facilities 93.2% had specific guidelines for disinfection/sterilization, but only 47.9% had a committee on disinfection/sterilization for decision-making, less than half (42.7%) conducted regular monitoring of actual practices, while 83.9% had established procedures for recovery in case of problems with the disinfection process and 89.0% kept records and archives of disinfection practices. Cleaning process, selection of chemical disinfectants and process of disinfection and sterilization were found to be inadequate in some healthcare facilities. Perception score for adequacy of medical instruments was 8.10, environmental disinfection was 7.20, and sterilizer management was 8.45 out of a possible 10. Conclusion: Compared to larger institutions, smaller healthcare facilities had less effective disinfection and sterilization management systems, while some facilities showed inadequate practices for medical equipment and general sterilization. Better academic and state-level support is recommended for smaller facilities in order to establish a better system-wide management system.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.280-292
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• 2016

This descriptive survey assessed knowledge of intensive care unit (ICU) nurses regarding compliance with infection control for six kinds of multi-drug resistant organisms to assist in development of effective intervention strategies. Participants included 210 nurses working in the ICUs of general hospitals who completed a structured questionnaire. The results showed that the nurses' knowledge level and infection control compliance was 10.54 and 3.39 for MRSA; 11.25 and 3.69 for VRE; and 9.60 and 3.49 for CRGNB, respectively[ED highlight - consider providing additional information to describe what these values indicate.]. Knowledge regarding MRSA infection control differed significantly based on age, clinical experience, and experience as a trainee, while compliance with MRSA infection control differed based on age. Knowledge regarding VRE infection control was significantly different based on academic qualification level, experience as a trainee, and whether guidelines existed, while compliance with VRE infection control differed based on academic qualification level and the presence of an isolation environment. Knowledge regarding CRGNB infection control differed significantly based on academic qualification level and experience as a trainee, while compliance with CRGNB infection control differed based on the presence of an isolation environment. Thus, intervention strategies should include education programs for enhancing ICU nurse' knowledge regarding strategies for creating isolation environments.

• Journal of Korean Critical Care Nursing
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.28-41
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• 2009

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the knowledge, perception and compliance to prevent from blood borne infection for the nurses working at operating room. Methods: The data was collected from the questionnaire surveying 330 operating room nurses from 7 different hospitals located in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do from February 11 to March 7 2008. The instrument for perception and compliance to prevent from blood borne infection was 24-item questionnaire, which had been developed by Choi(2005). In addition, to find out the knowledge level of hepatitis B, hepatitis C, AIDS and handling of syringes, 19-item questionnaire was used, which was developed by researcher based on Kim(2003) and Choi(2005). Results: The average score of the knowledge was 14.42. The average perception was 4.51 out of 5.00. The average compliance was 3.91 out of 5.00. The correlation among the knowledge, perception and compliance to prevent from blood borne infection showed that there was positive correlation between the knowledge and perception(r= .234, p= .000) and also it was positive between perception and compliance(r= .415, p= .000). Conclusion: To improve compliance to prevent from blood borne infection for operating room nurses, it should be studied to enhance the perception to prevent from blood borne infection. Moreover, the operating room should be equipped with protective devices and written safety guidelines.

• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.45-56
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• 2016

Purpose: The MERS(Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) outbreaks in Korea highlighted dramatically the failings of traditional hospital environment for controlling or preventing infections among both patients and healthcare workers. MERS is transmitted by droplets that can be airborne over a limited area. The point should be emphasized that MERS in South Korea was predominantly a hospital-acquired (not a community-acquired) infection, because approximately 93% of MERS cases were resulted from exposure in hospital settings. This paper tries to suggest the design guidelines of negative pressured isolation ward for the sake of proper control of severe respiratory infectious diseases. Methods: Literature survey on the design guideline and regulations of airborne infection wards in Korea, Europe U.K. and CDC of U.S. have been carries out. 4 special infection wards in Hongkong, Germany, Japan and Korea have been surveyed in order to make the best use of the experiences related to facility design and operations. Results: Operating system influencing the facility design, space organizations of infectious ward including required space and zoning, and circulations of patients, staffs and materials are proposed. Implications: The results of this paper can be the basic data for the design of the airborne infection ward and relevant regulations. Afterwards in-depth study such as the development of space standards for the single bedroom, locker room and so on could be explored.

• Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.55-63
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• 2021

Purpose: To identify the differences in perception of and adherence to the COVID-19 social distancing behavior guidelines among health care workers, patients, and the general public and to use them to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Methods: From October 16 2020 to November 30, 2020, a survey was conducted among 85 health care workers, 85 patients, and 82 general public regarding the perception of and adherence to the COVID-19 social distancing behavior guidelines. Results: Patients scored significantly higher than the general public in the adherence to the COVID-19 social distancing behavior guideline, and there was no difference between health care workers and general public, and patients and health care workers. In the multivariate analysis, the factors that influence the adherence of the COVID-19 social distancing behavior guide were found in women and the perception of the COVID-19 social distancing behavior guideline. Conclusion: In order to promote the implementation of the COVID-19 social distancing behavior guideline, it is necessary to increase the perception of the COVID-19 social distancing behavior guideline and provide additional education in men. It is necessary to investigate the reason behind why men have low adherence to the COVID-19 social distancing behavior guideline.