• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration
• /
• v.4 no.1
• /
• pp.247-275
• /
• 1998

The purpose of this study was to offer the results of content analysis and qualitative study that explored the perceptions about quality nursing care of patients and families as consumers and to identify the implications of this study for quality nursing care management and research. The data was collected from 12 adult patients and 9 families who were admmitted at medical and surgical nursing unit of one university hospital in Seoul from October, 1996 to January, 1997. Research participants were asked to response "what do you think quality nursing care?" and similar questions during the interviews was performed. Data were analyzed using open coding and content analysis with frequencies and percents of attributes of quality nursing care. Attributes of quality nursing care and meaning of quality nursing care that patients and families perceived were explored. 1. The attributes of quality nursing care that patient and families perceived were categorized into 56 attributes. The highest response rate among the attributes was 'one's heart at ease' (76.2%), and the next high response rates were ranked in order 'consideration' , 'care about' (each 61.9% 'expert skill' (57.1%), 'deal with problem promptly' , 'information offer' (42.9%), 'intimate feeling' (38.1%), 'smile' 'service spirit' , 'do one's best' (each 33.3%), 'frequent visit' (23.8%), 'observe the time' (23.8%), 'direct nursing care' , 'speaking warmly' , give a hope' , 'address kindly' , 'a sense of duty' , 'good facilities' (each 19.0%), 'inquire after a patient health' , 'patient-centered nursing care' , 'showing an example' , 'professional knowledge' , 'careless moraly patient' , 'give encourage to patients' , 'good answer a question' (each 14.3%), 'do not imprudently' , 'do not disregard' , 'broad knowledge' , 'emergency treatment skill' , 'dependability' ,'consolation' giving a sense of security' , 'a self sacrificing spirit' , 'a sense of responsibility' 'hard - working', 'enough disposition of nursing staff (each 9.5%), 'improve patient's pride' and the rest attributes exhibited 4.7%, respectively. 2. The attributes that were identified in patients' data only were 8 categories, 'service sprit' (58.3 %) 'expert knowledge' , 'good answer a question' (each 25.0%), 'hard working' (16.7%), 'a warm character', 'professional attainments', 'do without reserve', 'satisfaction' (each 8.3%), 3. The attributes were identified to families' data only were 31 categories, 'speaking warmly' , 'direct nursing care', 'adress kindly', 'patientcentered nursing care', 'showing an example' (each 33.3%). 'do not imprudently' , 'do not disregard' , 'consolation', 'giving a sense of security', 'broad knowledge' , 'emergency treatment skill', 'dependability' ,'a self - sacrificing spirit', 'a sense of responsibility' (each 22.2%), 'improve patient's pride' , 'without discrimination' , 'show kindness' , 'individual nursing care', 'being with patient' , 'helping' , 'accuracy' , 'without any mistake' , 'love' , 'self - confidence', 'self possession', 'a self - denying spirit' , 'a sense of duty' , 'tighten discipline' , 'disposed room with similar patient to diagnosis', 'compensatory relationship between me dical team' , 'role of connection' (each 11.1 %). 4. The attributes of quality nursing care were integrated into 11 categories that they were 'patientcentered nursing care' (25.1%), 'expertise' (22.1%), 'caring'(18.1%), 'kindness'(11.1%L 'nurse attainments(10.1%), 'sincerity' (7.5%), 'good environment' (2.0%), 'effective organizational management', 'coordination', 'enough nursing staff' ( each 1.0%), 'satisfaction' (0.5%) were showed in the order of the highest rate. 5. The concept of quality nursing care were defined as 'give a satisfaction to patients by patientcentered care based on professional skill and caring with kindness and sincerity'. The description of the meaning of quality nursing care provided by this research participants, patients and families can provide important information for quality nursing care management, medical marketing, education and researches of this field. On the basis of the above findings the following recommendations are made: to suggest to utilize this results for patient care in practice setting, development of quality assessment tool in nursing care, repeat study by the same subjects and method, and to a comparative study by the same method to nurse.

• Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• /
• v.9 no.1
• /
• pp.82-90
• /
• 1998

This study is attempted to examine Korean teachers’ perceptions of mental health problems in students and their attitudes towards psychiatric consultations through a questionnaire survey. The results of this study are as follows. 1) Teachers thought that 5.3% of their students had mental health problems, 1.9% of students required psychiatric evaluation, and 1.2% of students were referred or recommended psychiatric evaluation by their teachers. 2) The most frequent mental health problems in students discovered by teachers were distractibility and inattention, lack of academic skills, and language difficulties in elementary schools；distractibility and inattention, conduct problems, and lack of academic skills in middle schools；and conduct problems, distractibility and inattention, physical symptoms, and substance abuse in high schools. 3) Teachers thought the mental health problems in students were caused by the family environment, psychological factors, the educational system, and a lack of mental health services. 4) Teachers desired smaller classes, improvement of the school environment, more time, regular mental health education, a special program for students with mental health problems, and the counseling staffs or consultants for the school mental health. 5) Teachers consulted with other teachers, the parents of the students, the counseling teachers, the health care teachers, the counseling institutes, the psychiatric clinics, and the principals in descending order to handle the hard case problems. The frequent reasons for failing in psychiatric consultations were the prejudice of parents against psychiatric services, the teachers’ sense of superiority in dealing with the problems of students, the prejudice of teachers themselves against psychiatric practice, and inaccessible professional consultation. 6) About 20.4% of teachers reported they had proposed psychiatric consultations or had recommended their students to receive psychiatric evaluations.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
• /
• v.14 no.2
• /
• pp.158-166
• /
• 2014

This study is trying to grasp the stress of the male high school students and the correlation between the stress according to the oral health important cognitive and self-rated oral health status and number of brushing, emphasizing the need for the education of oral health important, providing the basic data in order to accomplish correctly until the enhance of oral health-related quality of the oral health correct behavior. From May to July 2013, a self administered survey was conducted by the selected by convenience sampling from subjects of two high school located in Chungcheongnam-do 1, 2 grade. The SPSS PASW Statistics 18.0 and Amos 5.0 program had been used for the statistical data analysis. The study results were as follow: 1) Among five areas of stress, the stress of school life was the highest as 2.11 points and the stress of home problem was the lowest as 1.51 points; 2) The significance analysis results between the five areas of stress according to the stress of latent variable and the oral health-related quality of life all showed the significant difference (p<0.001). 3) Oral health-related quality of life was higher as oral health important and self-rated oral health status positive. Furthermore oral health-related quality of life was higher as number of brushing increased; 4) Fit Measures test result of stress, academic level, and family economic level model all showed more than 0.9 in goodness of fit index (GFI), adjusted GFI, normed fit index and root mean square residual and root mean square error of approximation values is all estimated less than 0.1, so it showed good model. From this study, it can be concluded that there is the correlation between stress and oral health-related quality of life.

• Journal of Home Health Care Nursing
• /
• v.3
• /
• pp.53-66
• /
• 1996

Home Health Care is one part of the total health care system. It includes health care services that link the hospital to the community. While it is important for early discharge patients, home care is also important for people with chronic illnesses or handicapping conditions. In 1989 the Korean government passed a law that opened the way for formal development of home health care services beginning with education programs to certify nurses for home care, and then demonstration home care services. Part of the mandate of the demonstration projects was evaluation of home care services. This study was done in order to provide basic data that would contribute to the development of records that could be used for evaluation through a retrospective audit and to examine the care that had been given in Home Care at Wonju Christian Hospital over a twenty year period from 1974 to 1994. The purposes of the study were : to identify to characteristics of the clients who had received home care, to identify the reasons for client referrals, to identify the nursing problems of these clients, to identify the nursing care provided to these clients, and to identify differences in these areas over the twenty year period. The study was a descriptive study involving a retrospective audit of the client records. Demographic data on all clients were included : 4,171 clients from 2,564 families. Data on referrals, nursing diagnosis and nursing interventions were from even numbered records which had a patient problem list included in the record, 2,801 clients, Frequencies and ANOVA were used in the analysis. The results of the study showed that the majority of the clients were from Wonju city /county. There were more women than men related to the high number of postpartum clients(1,300). The high number of postparttum clients and newborns was also evident in the age distribution. An the number of maternal-child clients decreased over the 20 years, the mean age of the clients increased significantly. Other factors also contributed to this change ; as increasing number of clients with brain injuries or with cancer, and fewer children with burns, osteomyelitis and tuberculosis. There was a decrease in the mean number of visits and mean length of coverage, reflecting a movement towards a short term acute care model. The number of new clents dropped sharply after 1985. The reasons for this are : the development of other treatment alternatives for clients, the establishment of an active wellbaby clinic, many more options plus a decreasing number of new cases of Hansen's Disase, and insurance that allows people with burns to be kept in hospital until skin grafts are healed. Socioeconomic changes have resulted in an increase in the number of cases of cancer, stroke, head injuries following car accidents, and of diabetes. Of the 2,801 client records, 2,541(60.9%) contained a written referral but for 1,802 it contained only the medical diagnosis. The number of records with a referral requesting specific nursing care was 739(29.1%). Many family members who were identified as in need of nursing care had no written referral. Analysis of the patient problem list showed that 41.9% of the enteries were nursing diagnoses. Others incuded medical diagnosis, symptoms, and plans. The most frequently used diagnoses were alteration in nutrition, less than body requirements(115 entries), alteration in skin integrity(114), knowledge deficit(111), pain(78), self-care deficit(66), and alteration in pattern of urinary elimination(50). These are reflected in the NANDA categories for which the highest number of diagnosis was in the Exchanging pattern(446), followed by Moving(178), Feeling(136) and Knowing (115). Analysis of the frequency of interventions showed that exercise and teaching about exercise was the most frequent intervention, followed by teaching concering the need for follow-up care, checking vital signs, managing nutritional problems, managing catheters, giving emotional support, changing dressings, teaching about medication, teaching (subject not specified), teaching about diet, IM and IV medications or fluid, and skin care, in that order. Recommendations included: development of a record that would allow for efficient recording of frequently used nursing diagnoses and nursing interventions: expansion of the catchment area for Home Care at Wonju Christian Hospital ; expansion of the service to provide complication prevention, rehabilitation services, and support to increase the health maintenance /health promotion of the people being served as well as providing client dentered care ; and development of a clinical record that will allow efficient data collection from records, even though the recording is done by a variety of health care providers.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
• /
• v.11 no.1
• /
• pp.13-30
• /
• 2002

Industrial shift workers feels suffer mental stresses which are caused by unfamiliar day sleep, noisy environment, sleeping disorder by bright light, unusual contacts with family, difficulty in meeting with friends or having formal social meetings and other social limitations such as the use of transportation. Such stresses influence health of the workers negatively. Thus the health promotion policy for shift workers should be made considering the workers' ways of living and shift work specially. This study attempted to provide basic information for development of the health promotion program for industrial shift workers by examining predictive factors influencing health promotion behaviors of those workers. In designing the study, three power generation plants located in Pusan and south Kyungsang province were randomly selected and therefrom 280 workers at central control, boiler and turbine rooms and environmental chemistry parts whose processes require shift works were sampled as subjects of the study. Data were collected two times from September 17 to October 8, 1999 using questionnaires with helps of safety and health managers of the plants. The questionnaires were distributed through mails or direct visits. Means for the study included the measurement tool of health promotion behavior provided by Park(1995), the tool of self-efficacy measurement by Suh(1995), the tool of internal locus of control measurement by Oh(1987), the measurement tool of perceived health state by Park(1995) and the tool of social support measurement by Paek(1995). The collected data were analyzed using SPSS program. Controlling factors of the subjects were evaluated in terms of frequency and percentage ratio Perceived factors and health promotion behaviors of the subjects were done so in terms of mean and standard deviation, and average mark and standard deviation, respectively. Relations between controlling and perceived factors were analyzed using t-test and ANOVA and those between perceived factors and the performance of health promotion behaviors, using Pearson's Correlation Coefficient. The performance of health promotion behaviors was tested using t-test, ANOVA and post multi-comparison (Scheffe test). Predictive factors of health promotion behavior were examined through the Stepwise Multiple Regression Analysis. Results of the study are summarized as follows. 1. The performance of health promotion behaviors by the subjects was evaluated as having the value of mean, $161.27{\pm}26.73$ points(min.:60, max.:240) and average mark, $2.68{\pm}0.44$ points(min.:1, max.:4). When the performance was analyzed according to related aspects, it showed the highest level in harmonious relation with average mark, $3.15{\pm}.56$ points, followed by hygienic life($3.03{\pm}.55$), self-realization ($2.84{\pm}.55$), emotional support($2.73{\pm}.61$), regular meals($2.71{\pm}.76$), self-control($2.62{\pm}.63$), health diet($2.62{\pm}.56$), rest and sleep($2.60{\pm}.59$), exercise and activity($2.53{\pm}.57$), diet control($2.52{\pm}.56$) and special health management($2.06{\pm}.65$). 2. In relations between perceived factors of the subjects(self-efficacy, internal locus of control, perceived health state) and the performance of health promotion behaviors, the performance was found having significantly pure relations with self-efficacy (r=.524, P=.000), internal locus of control (r=.225, P=.000) and perceived health state(r=.244, P=.000). The higher each evaluated point of the three factors was, the higher the performance was in level. 3. When relations between the controlling factors(demography-based social, health-related, job-related and human relations characteristics) and the performance of health promotion behaviors were analyzed, the performance showed significant differences according to marital status (t=2.09, P= .03), religion(F=3.93, P= .00) and participation in religious activities (F=8.10, P= .00) out of demography-based characteristics, medical examination results (F=7.20, P= .00) and methods of the collection of health knowledge and information(F=3.41, P= .01) and methods of desired health education(F=3.41, P= .01) out of health-related characteristics, detrimental factors perception(F=4.49, P= .01) and job satisfaction(F=8.41, P= .00) out of job-related characteristics and social support(F=14.69, P= .00) out of human relations characteristics. 4. The factor which is a variable predicting best the performance of health promotion behaviors by the subjects was the self-efficacy accounting for 27.4% of the prediction, followed by participation in religious activities, social support, job satisfaction, received health state and internal locus of control in order all of which totally account for 41.0%. In conclusion, the predictive factor which most influence the performance of health promotion behaviors by shift workers was self-efficacy. To promote the sense, therefore, it is necessary to develop the nursing intervention program considering predictive factors as variables identified in this study. Further industrial nurses should play their roles actively to help shift workers increase their capability of self-management of health.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.17-26
• /
• 2009

As the lifestyle of consumers changes and the need for various products increases, new products are being developed in the market. Each household owns various home appliances which are purchased through the choice of a decision maker. These appliances include not only large-sized products such as TV, refrigerator, and washing machine, but also small-sized products such as microwave oven and air cleaner. There exists latent correlation among possession of home appliances, even though they are purchased independently. The purpose of this research is to analyze the effect of demographic factors on the purchase and possession of each home appliances, and to derive some relationships among various appliances. To achieve this purpose, the present status on the possession of each home appliances are investigated through consumer survey data on the electric and energy product. And a multivariate probit(MVP) model is applied for the empirical analysis. From the estimation results, some appliances show a substitutive or complementary pattern as expected, while others which look apparently unrelated have correlation by co-incidence. This research has several advantages compared to previous literatures on home appliances. First, this research focuses on the various products which are purchased by each household, while previous researches such as Matsukawa and Ito(1998) and Yoon(2007) focus just on a particular product. Second, the methodology of this research can consider a choice process of each product and correlation among products simultaneously. Lastly, this research can analyze not only a substitutive or complementary relationship in the same category, but also the correlation among products in the different categories. As the data on the possession of home appliances in each household has a characteristic of multiple choice, not a single choice, a MVP model are used for the empirical analysis. A MVP model is derived from a random utility model, and has an advantage compared to a multinomial logit model in that correlation among error terms can be derive(Manchanda et al., 1999; Edwards and Allenby, 2003). It is assumed that the error term has a normal distribution with zero mean and variance-covariance matrix ${\Omega}$. Hence, the sign and value of correlation coefficients means the relationship between two alternatives(Manchanda et al., 1999). This research uses the data of 'TEMEP Household ICT/Energy Survey (THIES) 2008' which is conducted by Technology Management, Economics and Policy Program in Seoul National University. The empirical analysis of this research is accomplished in two steps. First, a MVP model with demographic variables is estimated to analyze the effect of the characteristics of household on the purchase of each home appliances. In this research, some variables such as education level, region, size of family, average income, type of house are considered. Second, a MVP model excluding demographic variables is estimated to analyze the correlation among each home appliances. According to the estimation results of variance-covariance matrix, each households tend to own some appliances such as washing machine-refrigerator-cleaner-microwave oven, and air conditioner-dish washer-washing machine and so on. On the other hand, several products such as analog braun tube TV-digital braun tube TV and desktop PC-portable PC show a substitutive pattern. Lastly, the correlation map of home appliances are derived using multi-dimensional scaling(MDS) method based on the result of variance-covariance matrix. This research can provide significant implications for the firm's marketing strategies such as bundling, pricing, display and so on. In addition, this research can provide significant information for the development of convergence products and related technologies. A convergence product can decrease its market uncertainty, if two products which consumers tend to purchase together are integrated into it. The results of this research are more meaningful because it is based on the possession status of each household through the survey data.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
• /
• v.45 no.4
• /
• pp.23-34
• /
• 2017

This study focused on a planned site located in Gosangol Village in Daegu Metropolitan City that aims to build an urban agricultural park combining urban agriculture and urban park for the sustainable realization of urban agriculture. Accordingly, this study has significance in two perspectives: firstly, suggesting development strategies to be considered when building an urban agricultural park as a theme park, and secondly, presenting guidelines for spatial programs and facilities to be introduced for actual applications. The results are as follows. Firstly, building an urban agricultural park fills a role as a local community space prompted by the demand-oriented evolution of urban parks, and agricultural behaviors to be incorporated in the theme. In this context, 'building an urban agricultural space focusing on sustainability', 'constructing green space systems focusing on agricultural landscape', and 'structuring leisure spaces for communications in the community' are presented as development strategies. Secondly, key functions that an urban agricultural park should have include production and trade of agricultural products on the production side, soil preservation, resource cycling and green space provision on the environmental side, leisure and experience, community vitalization, education, and social security on the social and cultural side, and entertainment functions, ecological functions, and protective functions as urban park functionality. Thirdly, key facilities needed when building an urban agricultural park include urban agricultural facilities other than park management facilities, landscape facilities, recreational facilities, sports facilities, educational facilities, and convenient facilities, and family gardens as the key facility of the urban agricultural park should be scaled in consideration of various purposes and behaviors of their use. This study has a limitation that the subject site was limited to a specific area but has significance in that it presented a planning model for the spatial structuring of park-type urban agriculture.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
• /
• v.40 no.3
• /
• pp.283-291
• /
• 1993

Background: Long-term low flow oxygen therapy not only increases survival, but also improves the quality of life in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) with chronic hypoxemia. For the assessment and improvement of the status of home oxygen therapy, we analyzed clinical experience of 26 patients who have been administered low flow oxygen at home. Method: Twenty-six patients (18 men and 8 women) who have been received long-term oxygen therapy (LTOT) at home were examined. We reviewed physical characteristics, clinical history, pulmonary function test, ECG, arterial blood gas analysis, hemoglobin and hematocrit, types of oxygen devices, inhalation time per day, concentration of administered $O_2$, duration of $O_2$ therapy, and problems in the home oxygen therapy. Results: The underlying diseases of patients were COPD 14 cases, far advanced old pulmonary tuberculosis 9 cases, bronchiectasis 2 cases, and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis 1 case. The reasons for LTOT at home were noted for cor pulmonale 21 cases, for dyspnea on exertion and severe ventilatory impairment 4 cases, and for oxygen desaturation during sleep 1 case. The mean values of aterial blood gas analysis before home oxygen therapy were $PaO_2$ 57.7 mmHg, $PaCO_2$ 48.2 mmHg, and $SaO_2$ 87.7%. And the mean values of each parameters in the pulmonary function test were VC 2.05 L, $FEV_1$ 0.92 L, and $FEV_1$/FVC% 51.9%. Nineteen patients have used oxygen tanks as oxygen devices, 1 patient oxygen concentrator, 2 patients oxygen tank and liquid oxygen, and other 4 patients oxygen tank together with portable oxygen. The duration of oxygen therapy was below 1 year in 3 cases, 1~2 years in 15 cases, 3~5 years in 6 cases, 9 years in 1 case, and 10 years in 1 case. All patients have inhalated oxygen with flow rate less than 2.5 L/min. And only 10 patients have inhalated oxygen more than 15 hours per day, but most of them short time per day. Conclusion: For the effective oxygen administration, it is necessary that education for long-term low flow oxygen therapy to patients, their family and neighbor should be done, and also the institutional backup for getting convenient oxygen devices is required.

• Journal of muscle and joint health
• /
• v.5 no.1
• /
• pp.57-71
• /
• 1998

This study purports to examine sociodemographic characteristics and those factors associated with osteoarthritis in women experiencing the disease in order to make suggestions for the prevention and management of osteoarthritis in women. The subjects were 143 women who were diagnosed to have osteoarthritis and under follow-up care at an outpatient department of a university-affiliated hospital. The data were collected through personal interviews by using the structured questionnaire between October 6 and October 24, 1997. The degree of daily living activities was measured with 24 items, which were made based upon Katz Index, Barthel Index and Functional Status Index. Each item has 4 response categories : (1) being able to do alone with any difficulty, (2) being able to do alone with some difficulty, (3) being able to do alone with the help of a person or an instrument, (4) not being able to do at all. The data was analyzed with correlation analysis, t-test, ANOVA, and regression analysis. The results are summarized as follows : 1. As for the age of the subjects, 59.4% were between 45 and 64 years, while 28% were 65 years and above. The subjects having religion were 71.7% and 44.1% of the subjects were protestants. The educational level was low : 31.5% graduated from elementary school, while 30.1% had no formal education. Those married subjects were 72%. Fifty nine percent of the subjects evaluated their economic status as middle class. 2. Those people from whom the subjects currently receive some help were spouses in 35.8% of the subjects. Likewise, 50% of the subjects indicated spouse as the people from whom they want to receive help. 3. The score of the ability of daily living activities ranged between 48 and 96, with the mean of 78.94. Those means of physical activity, ADL(activities of daily living) and IADL(instrumental activities of daily living) were 14.89, 13.97 and 50.09, respectively. Except for the items of carrying heavy stuff and of washing clothes in the sitting position the subjects showed independence in more than 90% of the items, where Independence is defined as being able to do alone or with the help of a person or an instrument. 4. The increase in age was a significant predictor of the decrease in the ability of daily living activities. Those graduated from middle school and above showed a significantly higher degree in the ability of daily living activities than those with less educational level. The married women revealed significantly higher scores in physical activity, ADL, and IADL than the unmarried ones. The ability of daily living activities was not significantly related to having religion, economic status and living with family. 5. The average duration of experiencing osteoarthritis was 4 years and 7 months. Regarding the site of the onset, 65% of the subjects indicated knees. The women with osteoarthritis for less than 3 years were 65%. The ability of daily living activities was significantly different by the duration of illness : the longer the duration of illness, the less the ability of activities. The above findings suggest the need for developing those programs for prevention disabilities in performing daily living activities and for managing diseases targeting the women of middle and old age, with low educational level, and with unmarried status. In addition, there should be developed an instrument for measuring the ability of daily living activities which reflects daily lives of Korean women with osteoarthritis in order to examine comprehensive effects of osteoarthritis on women's daily lives in this country.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.309-341
• /
• 2009

According to a case of Supreme Court's Sentence No. 2009DA17417 (May 21, 2009), the Supreme Court judges that 'the right to life is the ultimate one of basic human rights stipulated in the Constitution, so it is required to very limitedly and conservatively determine whether to discontinue any medical practice on which patient's life depends directly.' In addition, the Supreme Court admits that 'only if a patient who comes to a fatal phase before death due to attack of any irreversible disease may execute his or her right of self-determination based on human respect and values and human right to pursue happiness, it is permissible to discontinue life-sustaining treatment for him or her, unless there is any special circumstance.' Furthermore, the Supreme Court finds that 'if a patient who is attacked by any irreversible disease informs medical personnel of his or her intention to agree on the refusal or discontinuance of life-sustaining treatment in advance of his or her potential irreversible loss of consciousness, it is justifiable that he or she already executes the right of self-determination according to prior medical instructions, unless there is any special circumstance where it is reasonably concluded that his or her physician is changed after prior medical instructions for him or her.' The Supreme Court also finds that 'if a patient remains at irreversible loss of consciousness without any prior medical instruction, he or she cannot express his or her intentions at all, so it is rational and complying with social norms to admit possibility of estimating his or her own intentions on withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment, provided that such a withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment meets his or her interests in view of his or her usual sense of values or beliefs and it is reasonably concluded that he or she could likely choose to discontinue life-sustaining treatment, even if he or she were given any chance to execute his or her right of self-determination.' This judgment is very significant in a sense that it suggests the reasonable orientation of solutions for issues posed concerning withdrawal of meaningless life-sustaining medical efforts. The issues concerning removal of medical instruments for meaningless life-sustaining treatment and discontinuance of such treatment in regard to medical treatment for terminal cases don't seem to be so much big deal when a patient has clear consciousness enough to express his or her intentions, but it counts that there is any issue regarding a patient who comes to irreversible loss of consciousness and cannot express his or her intentions. Therefore, it is required to develop an institutional instrument that allows relevant authority to estimate the scope of physician's medical duties for terminal patients as well as a patient's intentions to withdraw any meaningless treatment during his or her terminal phase involving loss of consciousness. However, Korean judicial authority has yet to clarify detailed cases where it is permissible to discontinue any life-sustaining treatment for a patient in accordance with his or her right of self-determination. In this context, it is inevitable and challenging to make better legislation to improve relevant systems concerning withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment. The State must assure the human basic rights for its citizens and needs to prepare a system to assure such basic rights through legislative efforts. In this sense, simply entrusting physician, patient or his or her family with any critical issue like the withdrawal of meaningless life-sustaining treatment, even without any reasonable standard established for such entrustment, means the neglect of official duties by the State. Nevertheless, this issue is not a matter that can be resolved simply by legislative efforts. In order for our society to accept judicial system for withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment, it is important to form a social consensus about this issue and also make proactive discussions on it from a variety of standpoints.