• The Journal of Korean Academic Society of Nursing Education
• /
• v.27 no.4
• /
• pp.347-358
• /
• 2021

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the experiences of nurses who have suffered from hurt feelings in their relationships with medical personnel in intensive care units (ICUs). Methods: Data were collected from May 2019 to August 2020 through individual in-depth interviews with 8 ICU nurses. Verbatim transcripts were analyzed using the MAXQDA program, employing a phenomenological method designed by Colaizzi. Results: Four theme clusters and nine themes were identified. The themes cluster that emerged were as follows: high-handedness from a lack of understanding and consideration, not being respected as a professional, having to endure sadness alone, and strategies for accepting pain. Conclusion: In ICUs, nurses are being emotionally wounded, resulting in a variety of hurt feelings, not only by doctors, but also by other nurses. Nurses were heavy-hearted because they wanted the participants to do their part and care for critically ill patients proficiently. However, they did not treat ICU nurses as specialized professionals. The participating nurses said they felt pressure, fear, and intimidated. In addition, they felt lonely because their head nurses, seniors, or colleagues did not protect or support them. This study helped develop a program to decrease the nurses' emotional distress and create a safe work environment where they respected and cared for each other without undergoing anguish.

• Korean Journal of Family Social Work
• /
• no.54
• /
• pp.263-296
• /
• 2016

This study aimed to understand the child rearing burden of mothers of youth with developmental disabilities and mothers' inner growth through their rearing experiences. The researchers conducted focus group interviews using the 'photovoice' method and individual interviews with a mothers' group of an orchestra whose members are youth with developmental disabilities. The data were qualitatively analyzed applying systematic content analysis. The results revealed that the lives of mothers of children with developmental disabilities were framed as 'keeping walking, even it's invisible', and their experiences were summed up by the phrase 'coming together and growing with their children.' Although the mothers of children with developmental disabilities experienced distress and difficulties, they also experienced joy and growth while parenting their children. Their children's participation in the orchestra were associated with changes in the mothers' perceptions of their children as well as their self-perceptions as caregivers, and the relationships with the support systems. Based on these findings, the implications of this study for social welfare practice were discussed.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
• /
• v.42 no.4
• /
• pp.5-34
• /
• 2011

There have been increasing incidents of natural and social disasters that claimed many lives and caused financial calamities worldwide, which call for an attention to mental health issues affecting disaster victims. This study reviewed the findings of the empirical research on the effects of disaster on the victims, the prevalence and determinants of the mental health problems. The disaster tends to disproportionately affect the socio-economically disadvantaged population and their mental health problems and recovery seemed to be heavily influenced by post-disaster experiences such as restoration of physical environment, prospect of economic recovery and resumption of normalcy in their lives, opportunities for participation in decision-making that affect their lives. Such findings suggest that the disaster mental health should shift from its traditional approach that focuses on short-term clinical interventions to alleviate acute mental distress for the victims to a public health approach that involve medical, social and economic interventions as well as community empowerment to prevent chronicity of the mental health problems and to improve the general quality of life of the individuals and the community adversely affected by the disaster. Implications for the social work research, policy making, education and practice were discussed.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
• /
• v.21 no.3
• /
• pp.195-211
• /
• 2004

Stress is a primary health promotion issue in worksite research because psychological distress is closely related not only to workers' health status but also to their job performance. This study identified the significant health behaviors affecting workers' job-related stress in Korean manufacturing industry with the national survey data conducted by the Korean Occupational Safety and Health Agency in 2003. A total of 7,818 factory workers in 1,562 manufacturing companies participated in the Korean nation-wide occupational health survey and 3,390 workers answered that they had any stressors in their workplace among the 7,818 workers finally participated in the analysis. Participants were selected by the stratified proportional sampling process by manufacturing industry classification, company size, and company locations (8 metropolitan and 8 non-metropolitan regions) in Korea. Trained interviewers visited the target companies and interviewed the factory workers randomly selected in each company. Smoking, drinking, weight control, exercise, sleeping, break time at work, and perceived fatigue were included in the health behavior construct. Stress symptoms was consisted of physical and psychological stress with 8 items. All survey responses were anonymously coded into the SPSS statistical program and testified using stepwise multiple regression analysis. Male workers were 73.5% and the 30s were 40.0% among the age groups. The married and the high school graduate were majority with 52.1% and 61.8% each. Current smokers were 44.7% and More than 50% of the participants drank alcohol sometimes. No exercise group was 59.3% and the participants who dissatisfied with their daily sleeping hours were 43.5%. In t-test and analysis of variance, the significant general characteristics associated with physical and psychological job stress were young age (p<0.001), single marital status (p<0.001), and short working period at the present company (p<0.001). The health behaviors related to physical job stress were current smoking, weight change during the past one year (p<0.001), weight control effort (p<0.001), exercise (p<0.001), daily sleeping dissatisfaction (p<0.001), break time, and perceived fatigue (p<0.001). All 10 health behavior factors were significantly associated with psychological job stress (p<0.05). Weight change, weight control effort, exercise, daily sleeping dissatisfaction, little break at work, and high perceived fatigue were significant factors affecting job stress. Daily sleeping dissatisfaction, little break at work, little exercise, weight change for the past one year and young age were selected as the significant health behavior and general factors affecting physical job stress symptoms in stepwise multiple regression analysis. The five factors explained 18.9% of the physical stress score variance. Six factors were selected as the significant health behaviors affecting psychological job stress: daily sleeping dissatisfaction, little exercise, frequent drinking alcohol, high perceived fatigue, little break at work, and little weight control effort. The six factors explained 10.6% of the psychological stress score variance.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
• /
• v.42 no.2
• /
• pp.82-88
• /
• 2009

Objectives : Our objective was to examine and evaluate the psychological health of the residents of Taean during the cleanup of the Hebei Spirit(HS) oil spill and to review some factors associated with the results. Methods : A community survey of 71 men and women was conducted 8 weeks after the HS oil spill. Questionnaires used were the PWI(Psychological Well-being Index) scale for psychosocial distress, the CES-D(Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression) scale for depressive symptoms, and a questionnaire created to assess suicidal impulses. Results : The overall prevalence of high-risk psychosocial distress among the study group was 64.2%. The percentages of respondents with scores on the CES-D Scale above 16 and above 21 were 77.6% and 62.7%, respectively. The percentage of respondents categorized as having suicidal impulses was 18.3%. When compared with unexposed groups in the general population taken from various sources, the residents of Taean were 6.5 times as likely to have high stress and 9.4-9.7 times as likely to be depressed. No significant difference in the rate of suicidal impulse was found between the residents of Taean and the general population. Factors associated with high stress, depression, and suicidal impulses were age, a change in income, educational level, number of days working on the cleanup, and positive responses to questions about "affected daily activity" and "hospital visit due to work on cleanup". Conclusions : The results suggest that the HS oil spill had a significant impact on the psychological health of residents of Taean, but the comparability of the unexposed groups is a limitation of the study.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
• /
• v.23 no.4
• /
• pp.105-116
• /
• 2020

The purpose of this study is to progress the limitations and disadvantages of existing safety clothing by applying high technology to current safety clothing that is produced and distributed only with fluorescent fabrics and retroreflective materials. Therefore, the industrial suspender-type safety belt and engineering technology are introduced, designed, and fabricated to help save a life in an emergency. First, the suspender-type safety belt to be developed is designed to emit light by LED attached to the film, and the body of the belt-wearer is recognized from a distance through retroreflection from the flashing LED. It aims to support people's safety by preventing accidents during roadside work, rescue activities, and sports activities at night. Second, with the development of advanced devices when the user is in an unconscious state due to distress or falls into an unconscious state due to distress or accident, the tilt sensor of the control unit attached to the belt automatically detects the angle of the human body and generates light and sound. It is intended to further enhance the utilization by mounting a sensing and signaling device that generates a distress signal and shaping it in the form of a belt attached to a vest that can be easily detached from the outside of the garment. When the wearer falls due to an accident, the tilt sensor of this belt detects the angle change and then the controller generates a high-frequency sound and repeated LED blinking signals at the same time. In the case of conventional safety vests, it is almost impossible to detect that the person is wearing a vest when there is no ambient light, but in case of the safety belts in this study, the sound and light signals of the safety belt enable us to find the wearer within 100 meters even when there is no ambient light.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
• /
• v.11 no.2
• /
• pp.181-208
• /
• 2010

Maternity services is often perceived as a troublesome business and obstetric litigation is on the increase in Western countries. Overall, the number of claim and cost of litigation to the NHS Litigation Authority (NHSLA) from maternity services in the UK is increasing every year. Maternity services account for 60-70% of the total sum paid. This has widespread implications for both the individual practitioners and the institutions where they work, due to increasing malpractice insurance premiums. Fear of litigation is also attracting fewer medical graduates into the specialty, leading to a recruitment crisis in obstetrics and gynaecology. The litigation process can cause pain, suffering and distress to clinicians as well as to the patients and their families. Litigation in maternity services is the result of a complex of events when malpractice (presumed or real) impacts on the attitude of pregnant women and their environment. In such complexity, information is mandatory but may often be misinterpreted. If messages are not tailored to the receiver's capacity, communicating well with the pregnant patient becomes crucial. Therefore, to reduce medicallegal issues in obstetrics, increasing attention and an applicable standard of obstetric care to avoid negligence and medical errors should go along with other measures. Considering UK's experiences, NHS redress scheme make it easier to pursue small claims and birth related claims, without necessarily reducing the number of claims processed through the conventional legal system and perhaps encouraging even more of them. The task of dealing with the greater number of inquiries into their practice would inevitably create an added burden for clinicians and hospital managers. Thus further proposals are required to limit the cost of processing inflated claims and to consider whether clinicians should be given some protection from litigation alleging a failure to prevent birth related impairment.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.1-10
• /
• 2003

This paper summarizes the results of the fatigue test of four composite bridge decks in extreme temperatures (-30$^{\circ}C$ and 50$^{\circ}C$ ). The work was performed as part of a research program to evaluate and install multiple FRP bridge deck systems in Dayton, Ohio. A two-span continuous concrete deck was also built on three steel girders for the benchmark tests. Simulated wheel loads were applied simultaneously at two points by two servo-controlled hydraulic actuators specially designed and fabricated to perform under extreme temperatures. Each deck was initially subjected to one million wheel load cycles at low temperature and another one million cycles at high temperature. The results presented in this paper correspond to the fatigue response of each deck for four million load cycles at low temperature and another four million cycles at high temperature. Thus, the deck was subjected to a total of ten million cycles. Quasi-static load-deflection and load-strain responses were determined at predetermined fatigue cycle levels. Except for the progressive reduction in stiffness, no significant distress was observed in any of the composite deck prototypes during ten million load cycles. The effects of extreme temperatures and accumulated load cycles on the load-deflection and load-strain response of FRP composite and FRP-concrete hybrid bridge decks are discussed based on the experimental results.

• Anxiety and mood
• /
• v.5 no.1
• /
• pp.36-41
• /
• 2009

Objectives : The purpose of this pilot study was to investigate the potential clinical benefits a single group session of cognitive behavioral therapy in the treatment of patients with panic disorder. Methods : The study participants were 18 patients (14 males, 4 females; mean age=38.9 years), all of whom were assessed as meeting the DSM-IV-TR criteria for panic disorder. All participants attended one two-hour session of structured group cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Clinical symptoms was assessed before and eight weeks after the single therapy session using the Panic Disorder Severity Scale (PDSS). Results : Eight weeks after a single session of group CBT significant improvements were found in panic attack frequency, distress during panic attacks, severity of anticipatory anxiety, agoraphobic fear/avoidance, panic-related sensation fear/avoidance, impairment in work functioning, impairment in social functioning. Conclusions : One session of group CBT appears to be an effective treatment of panic disorder by reducing the severity of all symptoms assessed on the PDSS. An attempt should be made to replicate the findings of this pilot study in a larger and controlled, comparative clinical trial.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.16 no.15
• /
• pp.6331-6334
• /
• 2015

Background: The main purpose of this study was to survey the education and training of certified gynecologic oncologists and fellows in Thailand. A secondary objective was to study the problems in fellowship training regarding palliative care for gynecologic cancer patients. Materials and Methods: A descriptive study was conducted by sending a questionnaire regarding palliative care education to all certified gynecologic oncologists and gynecologic oncology fellows in Thailand. The contents of the survey included fellowship training experience, caring for the dying, patient preparation, attitudes and respondent characteristics. Statistics were analyzed by percentage, mean and standard deviation and chi-square. Results: One hundred seventy completed questionnaires were returned; the response rate was 66%. Most certified gynecologic oncologists and fellows in gynecologic oncology have a positive attitude towards palliative care education, and agree that "psychological distress can result in severe physical suffering". It was found that the curriculum of gynecologic oncology fellowship training equally emphasizes three aspects, namely managing post-operative complications, managing a patient at the end of life and managing a patient with gynecologic oncology. As for experiential training during the fellowship of gynecologic oncology, education regarding breaking bad news, discussion about goals of care and procedures for symptoms control were mostly on-the-job training without explicit teaching. In addition, only 42.9 % of respondents were explicitly taught the coping skill for managing their own stress when caring for palliative patients during fellowship training. Most of respondents rated their clinical competency for palliative care in the "moderately well prepared" level, and the lowest score of the competency was the issue of spiritual care. Conclusions: Almost all certified gynecologic oncologists and fellows in gynecologic oncology have a positive attitude towards learning and teaching in palliative care. In this study, some issues were identified for improving palliative care education such as proper training under the supervision of a mentor, teaching how to deal with work stress, competency in spiritual care and attitudes on responsibility for bereavement care.