• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.331-393
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• 2010

Psychiatrists who treat violent or potentially violent patients may be sue for failure to control aggressive outpatients and for the discharge of violent inpatients. Psychiatrists may be sued for failing to protect society from the violent acts of their patients if it was reasonable for the psychiatrists to have known or should have known about the patient's violent tendencies and if the psychiatrists could have done something that could have safeguarded in public. The courts of a number of jurisdictions have imposed a duty to protect the potential victims of a third party on persons or institutions with a special relationship to that party. In the landmark case of Tarasoff v Regents of University of California, the California Supreme Court held that the special relationship between a psychotherapist and a patient imposes on the therapist a duty to act reasonably to protect the foreseeable victims of the patient. Under Tarasoff, when a therapist has determined, or under applicable professional standards should determine, that a patient poses a serious threat of violence to another, he incurs an obligation to use reasonable care to protect the intended victim against such danger. In addition to a Tarasoff type of action based on a duty to warn or protect foreseeable victims of psychiatric outpatients, courts have also imposed liability on mental health care providers based on their custody of patients known to have violent propensities. The legal duty in such a case has been stated to be that where the course of treatment of a mental patient involves an exercise of "control" over him by a physician who knows or should know that the patient is likely to cause bodily harm to others, an independent duty arises from that relationship and falls on the physician to exercise that control with such reasonable care as to prevent harm to others at the hands of the patient. After going through a period of transition, from McIntosh, Thompson and Brady case, finally, the narrow rule of requiring a specific or foreseeable threat of violence against a specific or identifiable victim is the standard threshold or trigger element in the majority of states. Judgements on these kinds of cases are not enough yet in Korea, so that it may be too early to try find principles in these cases, however it is hardly wrong to read the same reasons of Tarasoff in the judgements of Korea district courts. To specific, whether a psychiatric institute was liable for violent behavior toward others depends upon the patients conditions, circumstances and the extent of the danger the patients poses to others; in short, the foreseeability of a specific or identifiable victim. In this context if a patient exhibit strong violent behavior toward others, constant observation should be required. Negligence has been found not exist, however, when a patient abruptly and unexpectedly attack others or unidentifiable victim. And the standard of conduct that is required to meet the obligation of "due care" is based on what the "reasonable practitioner" would do in like circumstances. The standard is not one of excellence or superior practice; it only requires that the physician exercise that degree of skill and care that would be expected of the average qualified practitioner practicing under like circumstances. All these principles have been established in cases of the U.S.A and Japan. In this article you can find the reasons which you can use for psychotherapist's liability for failure to protect third person in Korea as practitioner.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.8-13
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• 2016

Purpose: Specialized general trauma surgeons play an important role in the care of trauma patients. Hemoperitoneum is a severe, but representative, condition following a life-threatened trauma. The objective of this study was to compare the outcomes for polytrauma patients with hemoperitoneum between the periods during which a trauma surgeon was available and that unavailable. Methods: Thirty-one trauma patients with hemoperitoneum who were treated at Korea University Guro Hospital over a period of 4 years were included in this study, and their case records were analyzed retrospectively. The patients were divided into two groups, the 2011 and 2012 group and the 2013 and 2014 group corresponding, respectively, to the periods that a trauma surgeon was not and was working. Vital signs on admission, scores on the injury severity scale and, Glasgow coma scale, elapsed time to diagnostic, and therapeutic, and/or operative interventions were studied. The effects on intensive care unit and hospital lengths of stay, as well as mortality, were also studied. Results: The study population consisted of 16 and 15 patients in group 1 and 2, respectively. The patients in both groups had six unstable hemodynamic on admission. The time to the main procedure (intervention, operation etc.) was longer during the periods when a trauma surgeon was not working than it was during the period when working. This difference did not reached statistical significance. The mortality rates for the two groups were not statistically different either (18.75% vs 26.67%; p=0.928). Conclusion: Having at least one specialized general trauma surgeon on duty may reduce the time to intervention and surgery for severe trauma patients with hemoperitoneum, but appears to have no effect on the mortality rates. In conclusion, having only one trauma surgeon on duty does not improve the quality of care for trauma patients.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.3-58
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• 2024

It has become a general idea today that the characteristics of medicine should be considered as a basis when discussing a medical personnel's duty of care and whether or not it has been violated, and when discussing its duty of explanation and whether or not it has been fulfilled in medical practice. However, in the discussion of its characteristics, some shortcomings still exist, so the need for a re-discussion has been raised. Firstly, existing discussions on characteristics have failed to comprehensively grasp and explain the characteristics of medical practice. Secondly, in some researchers' arguments, there are discrepancies between the terms used to express characteristics and their conceptual definitions or content. Thirdly, the lack of exemplified cases that reflect the characteristics of medicine - especially Supreme Court precedents - has led some to think negatively about the recognition and reflection of certain characteristics. In my early writings, I have described five characteristics of medical practice: 'conflict in medical goals', 'initiating appropriate medical actions (progression of illness)', 'dynamics of medical intervention (diversity of symptoms)', 'diversity of medical effects', 'inherent risk of medical treatment (invasiveness)'. In this paper, keeping in mind the reasons for the need for reconsideration, I aim to analyze the characteristics of medicine in detail and cite key parts of representative Korean Supreme Court precedents that reflect each characteristic. The characteristics of medicine extracted from this paper are; There are ten factors, including the legitimacy of the essence of medical practice, timeliness of medical execution, dynamics of medical progress, diversity of medical effects, risk of medical invasion, non-uniformity of medical methods, limitations of medical capabilities, intervention of the medical subject, high degree of medical standards, and maldistribution of medical data.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.215-234
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• 2007

The mission of the doctors is to take care of human life, body and health through the medical behaviors such as diagnosis and treatment. Under this job propensity, the doctors have care duty to take the best actions required to prevent the risk according to the patients' specific disease status. Such care duty of the doctor may be evaluated based on the medical behavior level at the medical institution and clinical medical study field. Such medical level should be understood in the normative level, considering the treatment environment, condition and specialty of the behavior, because it means the medical common sense known and acknowledged to the normal doctors. While the criminal suit requires the evidence for no doubt conviction, the civil suit requires more eased different standard. The results between the criminal and civil sentence may be different, because the confirmed former case may lead to long-term imprisonment and even death penalty, while the latter case puts only monetary penalty on the defeated party.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.281-313
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• 2013

A physician has to do his best for the better treatment of his patiensts. But, if a physician cannot remedy his patients because of the lack of hospital facilities, the lack of medical knowledge and etc., the physician must transfer his patients to another suitable hospital immediately. This is called the duty of interhospital transfer of patients. The necessity of interhospital transfer of patients is primarily ocurred in emergency medical care situations. The Supreme Court Decision 2010DO7070 delivered on April 29, 2010 is one of the important decisions related to the duty of interhospital transfer of patients. The Supreme Court ruled that there were the physician's medical malpractice and the causation between the physician's medical malpractice and the death of patient, as the physician has left the patient without due observations for 1 hour and 30 minutes after the caesarean operation inspite of mass bleeding during the operation, and has transferred the patient to another suitable hospital later. And the Supreme Court ruled that the transferring physician has to explain the situation of the patient in detail to the physician being transferred. I agree with the Supreme Court Decision. As decided by the Supreme Court, physicians will treat their patients more carefully and in case of necessity for transfer, physicians will transfer their patients with more caustion. However, the study for this issue should be continued hereafter because concrete standards are not given to lawers and physicians just by the Supreme Court Decisions itself.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.57-66
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• 1982

This study was undertaken to delineate the relationship between numerical score and the amount of nursing hours required in the nursing process. Score was a numerical description of the patients functional nursing needs. Therefore this study focused on standard nursing hours required by patient's self-care status. This study observed the 62 patients and 15 R.N. in H. university hospital from Aug. 7, 1982 to Aug. 13, 1982. 1. For the first time, each head nurse assessed self-care status by Schoening's self-care score-Minimal care patient (self-care score: 23, 24) was placed in Group Ⅰ, intermediate care patient (self-care score: 11∼22) was Group Ⅱ, and special care score: 0∼10) was Group Ⅲ. 2. We observed and recorded the nursing care received from nurses according to patient's group. (8AM∼4PM) 3. And, We observed and recorded the activities of nurses in order to determine standard nursing hours required. (8AM∼4PM) 4. If we apply the content of paragraph 3 to paragraph 2, we will predict the number of patient that nurse can care during day time by self-care status. The following results were obtained: 1) Patient's mean self-care score were Group I : 23.9 score Group Ⅱ：17.8 score Group Ⅲ : 1.6 score 2) Nursing hours required by patient's physical function(self-care status) status were Group I : 35 min. Group Ⅱ: 47.5 min. Group Ⅲ : 104.6 min. 3) Nurse's nursing time and distribution required in nursing activities during day duty were A.D.L. : 84.3min. (17.56％) Functional nursing activities : 279.9min. (58.31 ％) Education ＆ Emotional support : 11.3min. (2.35%) Task unrelated patients : 54min. (11.25%) Non Productive nursing care : 50. 5min. (10.52％) 4) Mean nursing hours required by each patient and the number of patient that nurse can rare during day duty by self-care status were Group I : 38.6min. 11.1 patients/1 nurse Group Ⅱ : 51.1min: 8.4 patients/1 nurse Group Ⅲ： 108.2min. 4 patients/1 nurse It seems reasonable that this could be done effectively as each-unit has an established standard for hours required, This not only allows time for planning of staff but helps to avoid the very human inclination to predict excessive staffing requirements by placing the majority of patients in high care group.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.77-86
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• 1999

The purpose of this study is to look into nurse's legal duty and to analyze influencing factors, by reading through precedents in nursing-related malpractice cases. 157 clinic nurses and 40 head nurses who were working in 3 university hospitals in the area of Seoul and KyongKi province were surveyed with pre-set questionnaires which were based on 20 cases and to compare precedents with nurses' attitudes. Independent variables were demographic characteristics, job characteristics, experience and education, and personal characteristics. Dependent variables were the extents of understanding in their duty. To analyze the extent of duty understanding t-text. ANOVA, and multiple regression were performed according to the characteristics of each study subject. Main findings are as follows; 1. $X^2$ test was performed for each hospitals and job category. The existence of religion and job-related advisers were significantly different according to hospitals and job categories. The existences of the orientation for nursing, education, and meeting were significantly different according to hospitals. 2. The extent of duty understanding according to the subject characteristics was assessed by means of median. Each case was given the median. 12 cases(46%)out of 26 cases demonstrated the median of more than 6 showing high extent of understanding. 3. When $X^2$ test was performed. the extent of duty understanding was significantly different in the areas of marriage status. the existence of meetings. and the experience of having dispute. When multiple regression(stepwise method) was performed, above variables were not statistically significant. 4.As result of comparative analysis on precedents and nurse's attitudes. it is 4 cases that nurse's attitudes is more active than precedents and it is 9 cases that nurse's attitudes is more passive than precedents and it is 4 cases that nurse's attitudes is parallel with precedents. This study does not present statistical model which can integrate all the cases. The significance of this study is in that it generalized and assessed the nurses' understanding of duty based on nursing -care which was legally disputed and compared nurse's attitude with precedents.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.1067-1080
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• 2017

Objectives: This study analyzed the perception towards clinical practice education content held by dental hygiene students in dental institutions and their perceived importance of dental hygienists' clinical duties. Methods: The subjects of this study were 182 dental hygienists who were working at dental institutions in Seoul, Gyeonggi, and Chungcheong areas. A survey was conducted with a self-administered questionnaire. In the questionnaire, the clinical practice contents were classified into observation, preparation, and performance, and the importance of clinical duty was measured with a 3-point scale. For the clinical practice contents and the importance of duty, descriptive statistics and chi-square test were performed, and the study results were analyzed using STATA 11.0. Results: With regard to clinical practice contents, observation was mainly performed in oral & maxillofacilal radiology, preventive dentistry, periodontal medicine and oral medicine. In primary care and infection control, practice and observation were mainly performed. In the department of orthodontics and pediatric dentistry, observation and preparation were mainly conducted, while in oral surgery, conservative dentistry observation, preparation and practice were all conducted. With regard to clinical practice contents according to the dental institution, there were statistically significant differences in the type of dental institution and the duty (p>0.05). In terms of the importance of dental hygienist's duty, infection control, toothbrushing education for each patient, removal of plaque, and patient education after surgery were considered important. Conclusions: For clinical practice of the dental hygiene department, the education contents should be standardized in accordance with the importance of the dental hygienist's duty, a protocol for operation of practice should be developed, and a method of standardization of evaluation should be sought in the future.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.61-75
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• 2007

This study defined awareness of professionalism and job stress in 353 child-care teachers of children with special needs and analyzed the relative contribution of professional awareness to job stress. Teachers showed high awareness of 'ethics' and 'enthusiasm enhancing professionalism', and this awareness correlated highly with professionalism in the 'specialized knowledge and skills' sub-factors. Teachers showed high levels of stress in the 'general duty' and the 'guidance of children with special needs' categories, and this correlated highly with stress caused by 'child-care center management.' The results of canonical correlation analysis indicated that of professionalism sub-factors only the awareness of 'social services' contributed positively to job stress.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.221-246
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• 2012

This study was conducted in order to develop an aptitude test for child care teachers (ATCCT) and to analyze it in terms of both validity and reliability. The main participants in this study consisted of 710 pre-service child care teachers. The results of factor analysis identified 7 factors and 56 items which were selected from 121 items in the original scale. The seven factors were as follows; interpersonal relationship management abilities, receptiveness and responsiveness to children, creativity and personal development, the ability to form close relationships with children, the ability to supervise child safety, the sense of duty, and positive emotions. The four factors were related to social relationship. Criterion-related validity was established by using correlations between the ATCCT and the TSES (Teacher Self-efficacy Scale). The internal consistency was found to be relatively high (Cronbach's ${\alpha}$ = .94) and test-retest reliability was also established (r = .53). In addition, there were differences among pre-service child care teacher groups according to both relative levels of education and courses taught.