• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.175-184
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• 2017

This study was conducted to identify factors influencing turnover intention of nurses that were cohort quarantined during the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome(MERS) outbreak. Subjects of this study were 267 nurses from three hospitals that came in direct or indirect contact with diagnosed MERS and suspected MERS patients and were group quarantined during the 2015 MERS breakout. The data were collected from October 1, 2015 through November 30, 2015. The collected data were evaluated based on descriptive statistics, t-tests, ANOVA and multivariate regression conducted using the SPSS/WIN 21.0 program. The factors influencing turnover intention were work experience and usual stress levels. While nurses tending to MERS patients had the highest stress levels (p<.001), different types of patient care during the MERS outbreak did not yield to a statistically significant turnover intention. Theresults of this study indicate that work experience and usual stress levels impact turnover intention of nurses and because the stress resulting from the MERS outbreak did not significantly affect the turnover intention, further human resource management is required to reduce the usual stress levels of nurses.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.131-135
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• 2015

Since April 2012, more than 1,600 laboratory-confirmed human infections with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) have been reported, occurring primarily in countries in the Arabian Peninsula; the majority in Saudi Arabia. The MERS outbreak in Korea, which began in May 2015 through the importation of a single case who had recently traveled to Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. As of November 28th, 186 secondary and tertiary cases had been reported; 38 deaths, mainly associated with underlying chronic illnesses, were reported. One case was exported to China and has been recorded as the first MERS case in China. Thirty-seven confirmed cases were associated with the index case, who was hospitalized from May 15 to May 17. Emergency room at one of the nation's largest hospitals had been affected by hospital-to-hospital and intra-hospital transmissions of MERS-CoV, resulting in an outbreak of 90 infected patients. The vast majority of 186 confirmed cases are linked to a single transmission chain associated with health facilities. The median age of patients is 55 years, with a range of 16 to 87 years. The majority (61%) of patients are men. Twenty-five (14%) of the cases involve healthcare workers. The overall median incubation period was six days, but it was four days for secondary cases and six days for tertiary cases. There has been no evidence of airborne transmission and sustained human-to-human transmission in communities. Intensified public health measures, including contact tracing, quarantine and isolation of all contacts and suspected cases, and infection prevention and control have brought the MERS-CoV under control in Korea. Since 4 July no new cases have been reported.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.144-156
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• 2017

Purpose: Crisis is inevitable to every organization and therefore, successful crisis management is critical to the organizations' survival and prosperity. With the understanding, this study aims to draw propositions for successful crisis management of hospitals when facing infectious disease outbreak. For the purpose, a case of a small and medium sized hospital's experience of crisis management during 2015 Middle East Respiratory Syndrome outbreak was analyzed. Methodology/Approach: The detailed internal circumstances and experiences of the hospital during the MERS outbreak were identified by in-depth interview as well as the extensive material review, and analyzed under the view of the theories of accident, error, and crisis in relation of organization management Findings: Overall, nine propositions are drawn by the phase of crisis. In pre-crisis phase, for example, 'the hospital preparedness has positive influence on the effective responding to the crisis'. In detection phase, 'the mindfulness of the hospital organizations' as well as the individuals' has positive influence on detecting the crisis signals'. In crisis phase, for example, 'improvising naturally occurs in crisis by the unknown disease, therefore, a component site supervisor coordinating such improvision is important'. Lastly, in post-crisis phase, 'successful crisis responding experience facilitates the positive hospital culture'. Practical implication: From the experience of a small and medium size hospital, it is suggested that proactive system approach oriented by safety is beneficial for effective crisis management.

• Korean journal of communication and information
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• v.78
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• pp.116-140
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• 2016

The present study examined the factors influencing individuals' risk information seeking and processing using the case of 2015 MERS outbreak in Korea. Analyses of two-wave online panel data demonstrated that perceived risk, negative affect, subjective norm, and information insufficiency predicted the risk information seeking/avoiding as well as information processing mode, which validates the Risk Information Seeking and Processing(RISP) model. More importantly, this study found new evidence that information seeking and systematic processing promoted MERS preventive behaviors. In addition, active SNS use moderated the link between perceived risk and negative affects about MERS crisis as well as the relationship between social normative pressure and to seek the risk related information.

• Journal of the Korean Society of School Health
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.188-199
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• 2015

Purpose: This study aims to understand schools' response to infectious disease, perceived problems and suggestions, with regard to the 2015 MERS outbreak in South Korea, in order to improve the infectious disease response system. Methods: Data were collected by focus group interviews with three groups composed of school health teachers, other teachers, and parents in Seoul-located schools. Results: The major theme was "Schools' Discretionary Response in the Absence of the Control Tower." Four major categories and 11 sub-categories were drawn from the findings. Four major categories were as follows: (a) Temperature monitoring caused lots of complaints, (b) Closure decisions were left at the discretion of schools, (c) Precautions are now being more emphasized, and (d) The support system were malfunctioning. Conclusion: The main areas to be improved are as follows: (1) School district offices should have an expanded role in infectious disease response and build cooperative partnerships with health authorities. (2) Preparedness for infectious disease should be strengthened. (3) Temperature monitoring systems should be improved, (4) Closure decisions should be made at a local community level. These are expected to help schools establish advanced infectious disease response systems.

• Journal of the Korean Data and Information Science Society
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.725-732
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• 2016

This study analyzes the number of Jeju-bound tourists according to travellers' purposes. We classify the travellers' purposes into three categories: "Rest and Sightseeing", "Leisure and Sport", and "Conference and Business". To see an impact of MERS outbreak occurred in May 2015 on the number of tourists, we fit seasonal ARIMA-Intervention model to the monthly arrivals data from January 2005 to March 2016. The estimation results show that the number of tourists for "Leisure and Sport" and "Conference and Business" were significantly affected by MERS outbreak whereas arrivals for "Rest and Sightseeing" were little influenced. Using the fitted models, we predict the number of Jeju-bound tourists.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.124-136
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• 2016

Because of continuous outbreaks of disasters and emergencies, the importance of government crisis management has been increased. This study analyzed the Korean government's response messages during the 2015 MERS outbreak, which was an emergency issue that showed a great ripple effect. According to the three diffusion phases of MERS, the semantic network analysis of 134 press releases on the central and local governments' official web sites of MERS was conducted. The results showed that during the early stage of MERS, the central government misperceived the crisis situation, and as a result, specific and enough information was not provided promptly regarding a list of hospitals with known MERS exposure and prevention method. During MERS diffusion and decline stages, Seoul and Gyeonggi-do provided more specific and actionable messages than the central government. This study was meaningful in that it analyzed and evaluated crisis communication messages during an outbreak of the infectious disease. The findings of this study provide useful implications for government officials in their crisis management and communication strategy during emergency risk situations.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.145-154
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• 2022

Objectives : This study intends to assess the associations among perceived stigma at the time of infection, coping strategies adopted 12 months later and depressive and posttraumatic symptoms 24 months later in Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) survivors. Methods : A nationwide cohort study was conducted on 63 survivors of 2015 MERS outbreak. Demographic data, illness severity of MERS, depression and posttraumatic stress symptoms, coping strategies and MERS-related stigma were collected 12 and 24 months after the MERS outbreak, respectively. Results : Higher levels of perceived stigma at the time of outbreak were associated with higher levels of dysfunctional coping strategies after 12 months (p=0.003) and more severe depressive (p=0.058) and posttraumatic stress symptoms (p=0.011) after 24 months. Moreover, higher levels of dysfunctional coping strategies after 12 months were significantly associated with more severe depressive (p=0.002) and posttraumatic stress symptoms (p<0.001) after 24 months. Conclusions : Social stigma against people who have contracted an emerging infectious disease can leave a negative impact on the mental health of the survivors in the long term. In case of novel pandemics in the future, prompt rectification of stigma and promotion of adaptive coping strategies in survivors are needed.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.9-14
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• 2017

Background: Pharmacy curriculum change was made from a 4-year program to a 2+4 year program in year 2009 in Korea. The change has resulted in more educational exposures on patient-centered practice environments for about 1,400 hours in the last year of the professional pharmacy program. When the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak hit Seoul and suburban areas and propagated to other provinces in Korea, emergency response to avoid student infection in the pharmacy practice sites became an urgent issue. While other health professional programs such as medicine and nursing had activated emergency preparedness manuals, timely and clear guidelines were not disseminated to all pharmacy programs and protective measures largely relied on individual pharmacy program. Methods: A survey was developed by the Committee on Pharmacy Practice Experience Programs in the Korean College of Clinical Pharmacy to document the status of pharmacy programs during the Korea MERS outbreak in 2015. The 10-question survey was distributed to the pharmacy practice experience coordinators to 34 out of 35 pharmacy schools in Korea by emails. Results: Our findings showed that 82.4% of the program coordinators (28/34) responded to the survey, 96.4% of the programs did not have emergency preparedness manuals, administrative meetings were held in 89.3% of the pharmacy programs, the rotation schedules were modified or withheld in 53.6% of schools, and the changes were mostly observed from the programs classified as MERS outbreak regions. Conclusion: Further needs in establishing the emergency preparedness manual should be explored for pharmacy education stakeholders.

• Journal of the Korean Society for information Management
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.273-287
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• 2015

This study aimed to investigate the impact of the epidemic disease including Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS) on the usage of public libraries. Such disease yields anxiety throughout the nation and discourages social activities in general. 18,711,453 records from 303 public libraries were examined with "big data retrieval & analysis platform for public libraries" located in Sejong National Library. The results are as follows. First, in 2015, when MERS was prevalent, the daily mean of books checked out was 64,645.05, showing decrease of 6,300 per day compared to that of 2014. Second, in 2014, the daily mean of books checked out from July 5th to August 19th was greater than that of from April 4th to May 19th and that of from May 20th to July 4th, implying the impact of summer vacation on the increase in books checked out in public libraries. Third, in 2015, the daily mean of books checked out from July 5th was greater than during MERS outbreak(from May 20th to July 4th), while it did not show statistically significant difference with that of before the outbreak. Fourth, the daily mean of books checked out did not show statistically significant difference between 2014 and 2015 before and during the outbreak, while it showed statistically significant difference between 2014 and 2015 after the epidemic period. The results indicate that MERS and the anxiety it brought nationwide had an impact on the daily mean of books checked out in public libraries after the epidemic period rather than during the outbreak.