A study on work environments for dental hygienists: - focusing on kind of workplace. career and service area (치과위생사의 근무환경 연구 -근무기관·경력·지역을 중심으로-)
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- Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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- v.7 no.2
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- pp.135-151
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- 2007
The purpose of this study was to examine the work environments of dental hygienists, to find out about what problems there were with their work environments and ultimately to help improve their work environments. It's basically intended to pave the way for furthering the welfare and interests of dental hygienists. The subjects in this study were dental hygienists who were selected by random sampling from among the members of Korean Dental Hygienists Association. Approximately 20 percent of the members each were selected from every region across the nation, and their work environments were investigated in consideration of the kind of their workplaces, service area, career and field of duties. As for the demographic characteristics of the dental hygienists investigated, there were differences between those who worked in the field of health care and the clinical workers. More of the former were older and married, and the former was ahead of the latter in career and education as well. Regarding working hours and leave of absence by kind of workplace, the number of regular average holidays was different according to their place of employment. Dental hospitals(6.66 days) and dental clinics(6.81 days) gave their employees less days off on the whole, whereas public dental clinics(19.29 days) granted the dental hygienists the longest leave of absence. Also, there was a broad gap in the number of regular average holidays among different regions in the nation. The dental hygienists who worked in Gangweon province enjoyed the longest holidays(10.88 days), while those on Jeju Island took the shortest vacation(4.46 days). Concerning monthly mean pay by place of employment, those who worked in public dental clinics were paid the best, and the dental hospital employees received the smallest pay. Their monthly mean pay significantly varied with the kind of their workplaces. As to connections between service area and pay level in the event of the dental hygienists with a four-year career, those who served in Seoul were paid the best(1,820,800 won), followed by Gyeonggi province(1,795,800 won), Gyeongsang province(1,604,200 won), metropolitan cities(1,424,800), Gangweon province(1,300,000 won) and Jeolla province(1,016,700 won). In regard to the starting pay in the different areas, the starting pay was largest in Seoul(1,501,800 won) and smallest in Jeolla province(904,000 won). Concerning work environments by place of employment, the dental hygienists in public dental clinics, general hospitals and university hospitals were far older than the others, and the career of the former was much larger than that of the latter. As to the number of regular leave of absence, public dental clinics, general hospitals and university hospitals were different from dental hospitals and clinics in that regard as well. Concerning monthly pay, public dental clinics paid their employees the best, and dental hospitals and clinics were ahead in terms of pay raise. But the reason seemed that public dental clinics and general hospitals increased the pay of their employees based on a fixed wage system and according to a fixed rate at the same time. As for relations between career and work environments, the pay of the dental hygienists differed with their career. The amount and rate of pay raise were largest for those whose career was between four years and less than six years, and smallest for those whose career was between seven years and less than nine years. The above-mentioned findings of the study suggested that in order to give dental hygienists better treatment, pay and welfare benefits should urgently be improved, and that it's required to take actions to boost their job satisfaction. Besides, they should be given more chances to receive education or to take training courses in pursuit of self-development, and how to narrow gaps in work environments among different regions or fields should carefully be considered.
The 「Act on Remedies for Injuries from Medical Malpractice and Mediation of Medical Disputes」(hereinafter referred to as 'the Act on Mediation of Medical Disputes') provides that the state should compensate the victims of medical accidents occurred irresistibly in childbirth despite that health and medical service personnel fulfilled their duty of care for their damage within the range of its budget(Article 46 of the Act on Mediation of Medical Disputes). Given that victims of medical accidents could expect demage recovery only through lawsuits thus far, this act can be said to be a groundbreaking act. However, However, as 30% of the costs for such medical accident compensation projects are borne by those who have records of childbirth among the founders of health and medical institutions (Article 21 of the Act on Mediation of Medical Disputes), there has been a question about whether doctors are held responsible despite that the accidents such as the deaths of mothers and newborn babies occurred irresistibly without doctors' fault. However, recently, the Constitutional Court ruled that 'the range of founders of health and medical institutions' and 'share ratios of finances for compensation' in Article 46 (3) of the Act on Mediation of Medical Disputes' related to the imposition of the share of costs are institutional (Constitutional Court ruling dated April 26, 2018, 2015Heonga13, hereinafter referred to as 'the ruling in the case'). Although the ruling in the case was made based on only the principle of statutory reservation and the principle of ban on comprehensive authorization, this paper added a practical judgment. This paper proved that the share of costs in this case has the nature of burden charges in pursuit of study and does not infringe on the property rights of the founders of health medical institutions even in light of the principle of proportionality because there is a legitimate reason for imposing the burden charge. The imposition of the share of costs in the system for compensation for medical accidents occurred irresistibly is against the principle of liability with fault in part. However, the medical accident compensation projects are rational a national policy for the victims of medical accidents and the medical world clearly gains some benefits from the effect to terminate medical disputes. The expansion of finances for compensation through the payments of the share of costs will reduce the suffering and misunderstanding of victims of medical accidents occurred in the process of childbirth and will be very helpful to the construction of stable treatment environments of medical workers by quickly establishing the medical accident compensation projects as such.
Two field experiments were carried out to assess the applicability of a central composite design (CCD) in determining optimum culture condition of an early rice cultivar, Unbongbyeo in southern Korea. A central composite design with two replicates was applied to five levels of five factors such as the number of hills per 3.3m2, the number of seedlings per hill, the levels of nitrogen, the transplanting date and the seedling age (Experiment 1). The levels of planting density were ranged from 30 hills to 150 hills per 3.3m2 ; the number of seedlings per hill from 1 seedling to 9 seedlings per hill; the levels of nitrogen application from 1 kg/l0a to 21 kg/l0a; the transplanting date from June 15 to July 5; the seedling age from 25 days to 45 days. A fractional factorial design was applied to three levels of five factors tested in CCD (Experiment 2). Yield per hill and per unit area were examined and the results obtained from both experiments were compared. The benefits from the central composite design were discussed. Maximum yield of brown rice per unit area was obtained at the combination of the central levels of one of five factors when the other four factors were fixed at central point. Furthermore, brown rice yield per unit area affected by interaction of two factors was maximized at the central point when the remain three factors being fixed at the central level. The responses of five factors to brown rice yield per hill and unit area were found to be a saddle point in both designs. Actual values of the stationary points were 107 hills per 3.3 m2, 4 seedlings per hill, 10 kg nitrogen per l0a, transplanting date of rice on June 26 and 33 days of seedling age in the central composite design. Brown rice yield per unit area at the stationary points were estimated 439 kg/l0a in the central composite design and 442 kg/l0a in the fractional factorial design. Considering the number of experimental treatment combinations, the central composite design was rather convenient in reducing the number of treatment combinations for similar information. It was more convenient for an experimenter to present the results from the central composite design than those from the fractional factorial design. Considering the optimum yields of brown rice per unit area at the stationary points being verified as saddle points in both designs. inter-heterogeneity of each of the factors should be avoided in setting up factors in pursuit of inducing unidirectional response of the factors to yield. Even though both the lower and higher levels in the central composite design being beyond the region of an experimenter's interest. they were considered highly valued in interpretation of the results. Conclusively. the central composite design was found to be more beneficial to optimize culture condition of paddy rice even with several levels of various factors were involved.
Much has teed changed in the field of hospital administration in the It wake of the rapid development of sciences, techniques ana systematic hospital management. However, we still have a long way to go in organization, in the quality of hospital employees and hospital equipment and facilities, and in financial support in order to achieve proper hospital management. The above factors greatly effect the ability of hospitals to fulfill their obligation in patient care and nursing services. The purpose of this study is to determine the optimal methods of standardization and quality nursing so as to improve present nursing services through investigations and analyses of various problems concerning nursing administration. This study has been undertaken during the six month period from October 1971 to March 1972. The 41 comprehensive hospitals have been selected iron amongst the 139 in the whole country. These have been categorized according-to the specific purposes of their establishment, such as 7 university hospitals, 18 national or public hospitals, 12 religious hospitals and 4 enterprise ones. The following conclusions have been acquired thus far from information obtained through interviews with nursing directors who are in charge of the nursing administration in each hospital, and further investigations concerning the purposes of establishment, the organization, personnel arrangements, working conditions, practices of service, and budgets of the nursing service department. 1. The nursing administration along with its activities in this country has been uncritical1y adopted from that of the developed countries. It is necessary for us to re-establish a new medical and nursing system which is adequate for our social environments through continuous study and research. 2. The survey shows that the 7 university hospitals were chiefly concerned with education, medical care and research; the 18 national or public hospitals with medical care, public health and charity work; the 2 religious hospitals with medical care, charity and missionary works; and the 4 enterprise hospitals with public health, medical care and charity works. In general, the main purposes of the hospitals were those of charity organizations in the pursuit of medical care, education and public benefits. 3. The survey shows that in general hospital facilities rate 64 per cent and medical care 60 per-cent against a 100 per cent optimum basis in accordance with the medical treatment law and approved criteria for training hospitals. In these respects, university hospitals have achieved the highest standards, followed by religious ones, enterprise ones, and national or public ones in that order. 4. The ages of nursing directors range from 30 to 50. The level of education achieved by most of the directors is that of graduation from a nursing technical high school and a three year nursing junior college; a very few have graduated from college or have taken graduate courses. 5. As for the career tenure of nurses in the hospitals: one-third of the nurses, or 38 per cent, have worked less than one year; those in the category of one year to two represent 24 pet cent. This means that a total of 62 per cent of the career nurses have been practicing their profession for less than two years. Career nurses with over 5 years experience number only 16 per cent: therefore the efficiency of nursing services has been rated very low. 6. As for the standard of education of the nurses: 62 per cent of them have taken a three year course of nursing in junior colleges, and 22 per cent in nursing technical high schools. College graduate nurses come up to only 15 per cent; and those with graduate course only 0.4 per cent. This indicates that most of the nurses are front nursing technical high schools and three year nursing junior colleges. Accordingly, it is advisable that nursing services be divided according to their functions, such as professional, technical nurses and nurse's aides. 7. The survey also shows that the purpose of nursing service administration in the hospitals has been regulated in writing in 74 per cent of the hospitals and not regulated in writing in 26 per cent of the hospitals. The general purposes of nursing are as follows: patient care, assistance in medical care and education. The main purpose of these nursing services is to establish proper operational and personnel management which focus on in-service education. 8. The nursing service departments belong to the medical departments in almost 60 per cent of the hospitals. Even though the nursing service department is formally separated, about 24 per cent of the hospitals regard it as a functional unit in the medical department. Only 5 per cent of the hospitals keep the department as a separate one. To the contrary, approximately 12 per cent of the hospitals have not established a nursing service department at all but surbodinate it to the other department. In this respect, it is required that a new hospital organization be made to acknowledge the independent function of the nursing department. In 76 per cent of the hospitals they have advisory committees under the nursing department, such as a dormitory self·regulating committee, an in-service education committee and a nursing procedure and policy committee. 9. Personnel arrangement and working conditions of nurses 1) The ratio of nurses to patients is as follows: In university hospitals, 1 to 2.9 for hospitalized patients and 1 to 4.0 for out-patients; in religious hospitals, 1 to 2.3 for hospitalized patients and 1 to 5.4 for out-patients. Grouped together this indicates that one nurse covers 2.2 hospitalized patients and 4.3 out-patients on a daily basis. The current medical treatment law stipulates that one nurse should care for 2.5 hospitalized patients or 30.0 out-patients. Therefore the statistics indicate that nursing services are being peformed with an insufficient number of nurses to cover out-patients. The current law concerns the minimum number of nurses and disregards the required number of nurses for operation rooms, recovery rooms, delivery rooms, new-born baby rooms, central supply rooms and emergency rooms. Accordingly, tile medical treatment law has been requested to be amended. 2) The ratio of doctors to nurses: In university hospitals, the ratio is 1 to 1.1; in national of public hospitals, 1 to 0.8; in religious hospitals 1 to 0.5; and in private hospitals 1 to 0.7. The average ratio is 1 to 0.8; generally the ideal ratio is 3 to 1. Since the number of doctors working in hospitals has been recently increasing, the nursing services have consequently teen overloaded, sacrificing the services to the patients. 3) The ratio of nurses to clerical staff is 1 to 0.4. However, the ideal ratio is 5 to 1, that is, 1 to 0.2. This means that clerical personnel far outnumber the nursing staff. 4) The ratio of nurses to nurse's-aides; The average 2.5 to 1 indicates that most of the nursing service are delegated to nurse's-aides owing to the shortage of registered nurses. This is the main cause of the deterioration in the quality of nursing services. It is a real problem in the guest for better nursing services that certain hospitals employ a disproportionate number of nurse's-aides in order to meet financial requirements. 5) As for the working conditions, most of hospitals employ a three-shift day with 8 hours of duty each. However, certain hospitals still use two shifts a day. 6) As for the working environment, most of the hospitals lack welfare and hygienic facilities. 7) The salary basis is the highest in the private university hospitals, with enterprise hospitals next and religious hospitals and national or public ones lowest. 8) Method of employment is made through paper screening, and further that the appointment of nurses is conditional upon the favorable opinion of the nursing directors. 9) The unemployment ratio for one year in 1971 averaged 29 per cent. The reasons for unemployment indicate that the highest is because of marriage up to 40 per cent, and next is because of overseas employment. This high unemployment ratio further causes the deterioration of efficiency in nursing services and supplementary activities. The hospital authorities concerned should take this matter into a jeep consideration in order to reduce unemployment. 10) The importance of in-service education is well recognized and established. 1% has been noted that on the-job nurses. training has been most active, with nursing directors taking charge of the orientation programs of newly employed nurses. However, it is most necessary that a comprehensive study be made of instructors, contents and methods of education with a separate section for in-service education. 10. Nursing services'activities 1) Division of services and job descriptions are urgently required. 81 per rent of the hospitals keep written regulations of services in accordance with nursing service manuals. 19 per cent of the hospitals do not keep written regulations. Most of hospitals delegate to the nursing directors or certain supervisors the power of stipulating service regulations. In 21 per cent of the total hospitals they have policy committees, standardization committees and advisory committees to proceed with the stipulation of regulations. 2) Approximately 81 per cent of the hospitals have service channels in which directors, supervisors, head nurses and staff nurses perform their appropriate services according to the service plans and make up the service reports. In approximately 19 per cent of the hospitals the staff perform their nursing services without utilizing the above channels. 3) In the performance of nursing services, a ward manual is considered the most important one to be utilized in about 32 percent of hospitals. 25 per cent of hospitals indicate they use a kardex; 17 per cent use ward-rounding, and others take advantage of work sheets or coordination with other departments through conferences. 4) In about 78 per cent of hospitals they have records which indicate the status of personnel, and in 22 per cent they have not. 5) It has been advised that morale among nurses may be increased, ensuring more efficient services, by their being able to exchange opinions and views with each other. 6) The satisfactory performance of nursing services rely on the following factors to the degree indicated: approximately 32 per cent to the systematic nursing activities and services; 27 per cent to the head nurses ability for nursing diagnosis; 22 per cent to an effective supervisory system; 16 per cent to the hospital facilities and proper supply, and 3 per cent to effective in·service education. This means that nurses, supervisors, head nurses and directors play the most important roles in the performance of nursing services. 11. About 87 per cent of the hospitals do not have separate budgets for their nursing departments, and only 13 per cent of the hospitals have separate budgets. It is recommended that the planning and execution of the nursing administration be delegated to the pertinent administrators in order to bring about improved proved performances and activities in nursing services.