• Perspectives in Nursing Science
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.67-76
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• 2009

Recently, small and medium-sized hospitals which are located in rural areas have many difficulties in securing high quality nurses. That is because working environments for nurses in small and medium-sized hospitals in rural areas are poor compared with those of big hospitals in urban. As a result, the migration of nurses from small and medium-sized hospitals in rural areas to big hospitals in urban is continuously happening. In general, big hospitals provide nurses with high level of salary and fringe benefits. To prevent the migration of nurses, chief executive officers of small & medium hospitals in rural areas have been interested in improving nurses' working conditions including wages. Also, they have raised nurses' salary and improved working conditions. But, basically these individualized efforts have some limit. In connection with this, medical interest groups have produced various voices in terms of interpretation and solutions for these issues. However, from the future perspectives, it seems evident that two approaches for both manpower supply and demand plans of nurses are necessary. They should contain not only accurate estimation of the supply-demand of nursing manpower but also the improvement of working conditions and wages of nurses. Estimation of nursing manpower supply-demand depends on the standards and criteria being used. Supply and demand may be met or not in accordance with the points emphasized on the decision. In the articles, issues regarding nursing manpower, levels of salary, other working conditions and social support system for child care are discussed. According to Joe's report (2005), most health institutions did not meet the guidelines of nurse staffing in Medical Law. The wages of nurse vary on every hospital and there is a big difference in wages' range. The average starting salary for a nurse is 22 million won a year. In case of tertiary hospitals, it reaches up to 30 million won a year. Nurse as a profession should have a strong responsibility and should take care of the patients for 24 hours with three working shifts. Also, most of them are female who have the burden of child rearing. Therefore, it is suggested to increase the salary, to provide comfortable working conditions, and to have social support system for nurses with household affairs.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.453-467
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• 2013

Purpose: This study was done to describe nurses' experience of incivility in hospitals and to consider nurses' work environment. Methods: Data were collected through in-depth interviews and analyzed using Colaizzi' phenomenological analysis methodology. Participants were seven experienced clinical nurses working on a general ward (2 nurses), or in an intensive care unit (2 nurses), emergency room (2 nurses), or operating room (1 nurse). Results: The incivility that nurses experienced was categorized as follows: 'being afflicted as a weak person', 'being treated as less than a professional', 'being overwhelmed by shock and anger', 'experiencing an untenable situation', 'struggling to survive', and 'pursuing professional growth'. Conclusion: Behavior guidelines should be developed to reduce incivility, and incivility cases should be continuously monitored by the nursing department. Also, to handle incivility problems in clinical nursing areas, a reporting and counseling system and education programs are needed.

• Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.43-54
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• 2021

Purpose: This study aimed to identify the factors influencing infection-related characteristics and patient safety culture on awareness of blood-borne infection prevention between operating room nurses and general ward nurses. Methods: Participants were 198 nurses(operating room nurses 98 and general ward nurses: 100) working at three general hospitals and three university hospitals in three cities. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire from September 11 to October 14, 2020. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-tests, ANOVA, Pearson's correlation coefficient, and multiple regression with IBM SPSS/WIN 26.0 program. Results: Typically, 39.8% of nurses in the operating room and 24.0% of ward nurses experienced injuries such as needles and sharp instruments used by the patient. The awareness of patient safety culture was identified to be higher for the ward nurses. Factors influencing the awareness of blood-borne infection prevention in operating room nurses were patient safety culture and wearing protective equipment for infection prevention while nursing infected patients. Moreover, the explanatory power of these variables was 19.4%. In general ward nurses, the patient safety culture was identified as a significant predictor, which accounted for 16.5% of awareness of blood-borne infection prevention. Conclusion: To prevent hospital infection, a strategy is needed to improve the level of awareness of blood-borne infection prevention and patient safety culture of operating room nurses. To this end, the difference in infection-related characteristics and influencing factors between the operating room nurses and the general ward nurses should be considered and planned.

• Journal of Korean Clinical Nursing Research
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.321-332
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• 2013

Purpose: Korean health insurance extended application of the Diagnosis Related Groups (DRG) payment system to tertiary and general hospitals from July, 2013. This study was done to develop a DRG fee adjustment mechanism applied to levels of nurse staffing to assure quality nursing service. Methods: Nurse stafffing grades among hospitals in Korea were analyzed. Differences and ratio of inpatient costs by nurse staffing grades in DRG fees and differences of DRG fee between tertiary and general hospitals were compared. Results: In 2013, nurse staffing grades in tertiary and general hospitals had improved, but other hospital nurse staffing grades remained at the 2001 level. Gaps of inpatient costs between first and seventh nurse staffing grades were over 10% in 4 out of 7 DRG diagnosis; However differences of DRG fee between tertiary and general hospitals were only 4.51% and 4.72% respectively. A DRG fee adjustment mechanism was developed that included nurse staffing grades and hospitalization days as factors of the formula. Conclusion: Current DRG fees motivate hospitals to decrease nurse staffing grades because cost reduction is bigger than compensation. This DRG fee adjustment mechanism reflects nurse staffing supply to motivate hospitals to hire more nurses as a reasonable compensation system.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.372-380
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• 2013

Purpose: This study was done to investigate nurses' perceived importance of, and performance of intravenous fluid therapy. Methods: Data were collected from a convenience sample of 234 nurses (return rate: 93%) working in 3 small-medium general hospitals. Results: The score for perceived importance of intravenous fluid therapy ($3.65{\pm}0.37$) was higher than that of performance ($3.45{\pm}0.39$). There were positive correlations between perceived importance and performance (r=.576, p<.001). There were 180 (80.8%) errors in intravenous fluid therapy. Perceived importance and performance scores were higher in nurses who had not experienced medication errors in intravenous fluid therapy. Conclusion: The results indicate a need to develop appropriate strategies to improve perceived importance and performance and enhance safety management during intravenous fluid therapy for nurses in small-medium general hospitals.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.333-341
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• 2020

Purpose: This study aimed to determine the mediating effect of emotional intelligence on the relationship between the social support and job satisfaction of general hospital nurses. Methods: The data of 197 nurses in general hospitals located in three different cities were collected for analysis. Collected data were analyzed using the t-test, ANOVA, Scheffé test, Pearson's correlation coefficients, and hierarchical multiple regression with SPSS/WIN 23.0. Results: The social support of the subjects showed positive correlations with job satisfaction (r=.56, p<.001) and emotional intelligence (r=.42, p<.001). Emotional intelligence and job satisfaction were positively correlated (r=.54, p<.001). Emotional intelligence was found to perform the partial mediation in the relationship between social support and job satisfaction. Conclusion: To improve job satisfaction, an organizational culture which enhances social support may be required as an intervention strategy, and programs should be developed to induce positive emotional intelligence.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.431-444
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• 2007

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify nursing interventions performed by nurses working in small-medium sized hospitals. Method: Using NIC(3rd revision), the data were collected from 241 staff nurses working in 6 general hospitals. Result: Fourteen interventions were performed at least once a day. The physiological: basic and complex domain was most frequently performed. The most frequently performed intervention was medication: IV, and followed by medication-related interventions such as medication: IM, analgesic administration, IV therapy, and IV insertion. Fifty-five interventions were rarely performed. Most of them were in the family domain. ICU nurses performed interventions most often, while OBGY-pediatric units nurses performed them least. The ICU nurses performed the physiological: basic and complex, and the safety domain more often than medical and OBGY-pediatric units nurses. For the OBGY-pediatric units, the nurses were performed rarely the family domain, especially child bearing and rearing care. Conclusion: This survey has helped to figure out the nursing care in small-medium sized hospitals. These findings will help in building and improving of the standardized interventions for small-medium sized hospitals in located local provinces.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.55-64
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• 2017

Purpose: This study was performed for the effective management of nursing organization as surveyed choice motives and job satisfaction about nurses who changed to public hospitals. Methods: This study is a descriptive study. This study surveyed 214 nurses who changed jobs to public hospital in six Gyeonggi-do hospitals from October 23 to November 20, 2015. The collected data were analyzed for descriptive statistics, t-test, one-way ANOVA, sheffe test, multiple linear regression analysis using the SPSS/WIN 21.0 program. Results: Most of the nurses chose public hospitals due to benefits correspond to public officials. They had worked in general hospitals located on provinces and changed jobs due to a heavy workload and low benefits. Of the participants 84.1% were satisfied with changing jobs to public hospitals and the advantages of public hospitals of their choice were job stability and good employee benefits(guaranteed maternity and paternity leave, etc). On the other hand there were complaints about low salaries compared to the workload after changing jobs to public hospitals. Conclusion: Hospitals need to enhance job stability and provide nurses with good employee benefits to reduce turnover rate.

• Journal of Korean Academic Society of Home Health Care Nursing
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.67-77
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• 2018

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare the efficiency of general ward nurses in hospitals using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Methods: Participants were 30 nurses working at a general ward. Input variables were labor cost and time of direct nursing. Output variables were prevention rate of medication error and bedsores, and patient satisfaction. These variables were extracted using literature review and CVI of an expert group. Data were collected from September 18 to October 7, 2017. Data were analyzed using EMS 3.1 program for DEA and descriptive statistics. Results: The average efficiency score of 30 nurses was 0.986, which was very high over all. In the super-efficiency analysis of 11 nurses, their efficiency ranged from 1.0 to 1.047. In addition, when the current output was fixed, the labor cost of nurses did not affect efficiency. Conclusion: This study attempted a new approach concerning performance evaluation of nurses using DEA. This method was useful during appraisal of nurses. We suggest that various input and output variables that were not considered in this study should be added to develop a integrative performance analysis model for nurses.

• Journal of Korean Clinical Nursing Research
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.312-326
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• 2023

Purpose: This study attempted to analyze the staffing level and critical care nursing fees of intensive care units at tertiary and general hospitals and to provide a professional judgment-based recommendation on staffing level and critical care nursing fee schedules. Methods: Staffing grades and critical care nursing fee schedules for the first quarter of 2017~2020 and the fourth quarter of 2020~2022 were analyzed. A survey was conducted on nursing managers and nurses about the current and appropriate staffing levels. A total of 77 nurse managers and 708 nurses working in Intensive Care Unit(ICU)s at tertiary and general hospitals participated in the study. Results: Grade 1 staffing increased from 25.6% in 2017 to 92.1% in 2022 at tertiary hospitals and from 0.8% in 2017 to 28.4% in 2022 at general hospitals. The current staffing ratios of tertiary and general hospitals were 1:2.21 and 1:2.77, respectively. The appropriate staffing ratio according to nurse managers and nurses was 1:1.00 in patients with more than a ventilator application and 1:2.00 in patients without any ventilator application in tertiary hospitals, and it was 1:1.25 in patients with more than a ventilator application and 1:2.00 in patients without any ventilator application in general hospitals, respectively. Conclusion: The appropriate staffing level was suggested from 1:1.0 to 1:2.0. The new nursing fee schedules were suggested from 1:1.0 (Grade 1) to 1:3.0 (Grade 5) and recommended to be paid based on the staffing grade, minimum number of nurses, and standard annual working days. It is expected to increase staffing levels and provide a better nursing work environment.