• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.15-23
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• 2011

Long-term care Insurance system for the Elderly was started to respond to the aged society on July 2008 in Korea. So responsibility of the care for the old is being changed from the family to the society. The introduction of that insurance system has brought the growth of demand for care service. To improve the level of quality for care service providers in long-term care, the role of care worker in providers is recognized as important. But welfare system for the care worker seems to be poor. So the Seoul Metropolitan Council is preparing an ordinance for the care worker and the purpose of this study is for the ordinance as well. Questionnaires, interviews, documentary surveys were used to carry out this study. The results of this study are summarized as follows. The job stability is the most important thing for the care worker, so local government has to make efforts to promote the job stability of care worker. A welfare center for care workers is needed for the health for care workers in the local government. And the local government has to supervise service providers more strictly and evaluate them in treatments of care worker.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.3276-3283
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to ascertain whether some socio-economic characteristics affect the service users' perception on the change of social condition in healthcare services. The research target for this study was fixed on the sample members in national sample design and the data of this study was used 37,648 effective samples collecting using Probability Proportional to Size. The results of this study using the causal relationships model are as follows: The variables including type of female, age, years of schooling show positive signs on the service users' perception on the social condition change of healthcare. And the variables including household income, temporary worker, casual worker, urban residents show negative signs on the service users' perception on the social condition change of healthcare. In conclusion, the socio-economic characteristics affect the service users' perception on the social condition change of healthcare. And the service user's perception on the social condition change of healthcare was affected positively on the beneficiary side.

• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.37-44
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• 2018

Purpose: This study investigates the influences of coughing direction and healthcare worker's location on the transport characteristics of coughed particles in airborne infection isolation room (AIIR), which is commonly called negative pressure isolation room, with a downward ventilation system. Methods: Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) was used to simulate the airflow and for tracing the behavior of particles. Results: The results show that the airflow pattern and coughing direction have a significant influence on the characteristics of particle dispersion and deposition. When healthcare workers are in the isolation room with the patient who is lying on the bed, it is recommended to be located far from the anteroom to reduce the exposures from infectious particles. And when the patient is lying, it is more effective in removing particles than when the patient is in Fowler's position. Although it is an isolation room that produces unidirectional flow, coughing particles can spread to the whole room and a large number of particles can be deposited onto patient, bed, side rails, healthcare worker, ceiling, floor, and sidewall. Implications: Following the patients' discharge or transfer, terminal cleaning of the vacated room, furniture, and all clinical equipment is essential. Also, it is necessary to establish detailed standard operating procedure (SOP) in order to reduce the risk of cross-contamination.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.245-253
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• 2015

Objectives: One aim of the study is to compare filtering facepiece masks for healthcare workers between Korea and other countries. The other is to emphasize the importance of fit testing for these masks using an analysis of previous research. Materials: An extensive literature review was performed by searching a number of websites and existing studies. Results: KF94 and KF99 masks certified by the Korean CDC are suitable for healthcare workers as filtering facepiece masks. The standards for these respirators are similar to FFP2 and FFP3 of EN 143 and 149. The performance, such as filtering efficiency, is almost the same between KP94 and N95. It was found that fit testing of respirators for healthcare workers was important to reduce infection risk. Conclusions: KF94 should be emphasized as filtering facepiece masks for healthcare workers rather than N95. Even though Korea has no fit testing regulations, implementing fit testing in healthcare settings is strongly recommended to decrease infection risk.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.1-11
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• 2019

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify relationship between work unstability and personal medical expenditure ratio focusing on wage workers' contract period. Method: This study analyzed 2015 yearly data beta version of Korea Health Panel, co-managed by Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs and National Insurance Corporation for data analysis. When executing linear regression, Household income was applied with equivalized income, and the proportion of personal medical expenditure was naturally logged to perform linear regression and the demographic and socioeconomic factors were taken into account. The demographic and socio-economic factors were also considered. Findings: As a result of reviewing the used factors, it was found that the more unstable work status, the higher personal medical expenditure ratio. This result corresponds to 'The Theory of Fundamental Causes' by Link & Phelan. Conclusion : It indicates that policy efforts should be made to improve the working environment and health level of socially unstable workers.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.243-257
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• 2013

This study was conducted in order to survey in healthcare worker's recognition of diagnosis related group(below; DRG) effect from July 1, 2012, to examine their recognition, expectation of the DRG system, and to provide the basic data necessary for the enforcement of the settlement. The subjects of this study were workers at clinics and hospitals sampled from hospital with DRG applying 7 diseases in Busan and Kyung-nam. A questionnaire of survey was conducted with the subjects working at clinics and hospitals from July, 25, 2012 to September 7, 2012, and the subjects were limited to doctors, officers, nurses, medical technicians and nurse assistants, and a total of 618 subjects were enrolled in this study. In the result of this study, generally, the healthcare workers recognized the DRG system. But their knowledge about that was not clear. Expanding enforcement DRG system at the present time, to provide accurate information to the healthcare consumer, workers need to know about DRG system clearly. To this end, for national health policy and medical institutions, workers should be educated constantly about providing medical service as well as the duty of enough explanation about the healthcare consumer's right to know.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.135-140
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• 2023

Introduction: With recent higher awareness of the necessity of improving healthcare workers' wellbeing, we aimed to overview systematic reviews dealing with interventions on well-being, occupational health, and aging of healthcare workers. Methods: From three databases (PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science), a scoping review of systematic reviews was carried out to determine current knowledge on interventions focused on the well-being or aging of healthcare workers. Only systematic reviews were considered, with appropriate extraction and quality evaluation. Results: Of the total of 445 references identified, 10 systematic reviews were included, mostly published since 2019. Nurses were the most frequent targets of interventions, and mental health was the main outcome described. The overall level of quality was also heterogenous, with high to low-quality reviews. Conclusions: Workers' mental health well-being was the major outcome targeted by intervention, with varying level of evidence. Further studies are needed with integrative approaches on global health and life course perspectives, with a focus on the plurality of settings, worker types, and women.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.185-192
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• 2023

Background: The turnover rate of nurse aides in Taiwan is high. However, the predictors of turnover behavior in the newly employed are still unclear. Objective: To examine the predictors of turnover behavior in newly employed licensed nurse aides. Methods: A longitudinal study design was used and subjects were newly employed certified nurse aides from a nurse aid training association in Taiwan. A total of five questionnaire surveys were conducted. The questionnaire was mainly used to collect information on turnover behavior, personal socioeconomic background, workplace psychosocial hazards, worker health hazards, and musculoskeletal disorders. Results: A total of 300 participants were recruited in the study. Cox regression analysis results showed that short working experience (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.21, p < 0.01), work as non-home nurse aides (HR = 0.58, p = 0.01), low monthly salary (HR = 0.68, p < 0.01), high work mental load (HR = 1.01, p = 0.01), low workplace justice (HR = 0.97, p < 0.01), high workplace violence (HR = 1.60, p < 0.01), high burnout (HR = 1.01, p = 0.04), poor mental health (HR = 1.06, p = 0.04), and high total number of musculoskeletal disorder sites (HR = 1.08, p = 0.01) contribute to a higher risk of turnover. Conclusion: The results indicated that employment period, work as a home nurse aide, monthly salary, work mental load, workplace justice, workplace violence, work-related burnout, mental health, and total number of musculoskeletal disorder sites are predictors of turnover behavior in newly employed certified nurse aides.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.229-236
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• 2023

Background: In workers with moderate to severe work-related traumatic brain injury (wrTBI), this study aimed to investigate the effect of the timing of rehabilitation therapy initiation on the length of hospital stay and the factors that can influence this timing. Methods: We used data obtained from the Republic of Korea's nationwide Workers' Compensation Insurance. In the Republic of Korea, between the years 2010 and 2019, a total of 26,324 workers filed a claim for compensation for moderate to severe wrTBI. Multiple regression modeling was performed to compare the length of hospital stay according to the timing of rehabilitation therapy initiation following wrTBI. According to the timing of the initiation of rehabilitation therapy following TBI, the proportions of healthcare institutions that provided medical care during each admission step were compared. Results: The length of hospital stay for workers who started rehabilitation therapy within 90 days was significantly shorter than that for workers who started rehabilitationment were first admitted to tertiary hospitals. Approximately 39% of patients who received delayed rehabilitation treatment were first admitted to general hospitals, and 28.5% were first admitted to primary hospitals. Conclusions: Our findings demonstrate the importance of early rehabilitation initiation and that the type of healthcare institution that the patient is first admitted to after wrTBI may influence the timing of rehabilitation initiation. The results of this study also emphasize the need to establish a Worker's Compensation Insuranceespecialized rehabilitation healthcare delivery system.

• Journal of Home Health Care Nursing
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.206-215
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• 2016

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the level of cultural competence, intercultural communicative competence, and multi-cultural job stress among healthcare workers and to explore factors that are related to their cultural competence. Methods: The study subjects were 142 healthcare workers at a general hospital. Data were collected using a questionnaire on cultural competence, intercultural communicative competence, and multi-cultural job stress. A t-test, ANOVA Pearson's correlation coefficient, and multiple regression analysis were conducted using SPSS. Results: Cultural competence was significantly related to the necessity of multi-cultural education, and intercultural communicative competence was significantly related to age, a vocational career, communication in foreign languages, and having multi-cultural neighbors. Moreover, multi-cultural job stress was significantly related to religion. In multiple regression results, cultural competence was found to be related to intercultural communicative competence and multi-cultural job stress. Conclusion: Healthcare workers who are set to care for multi-cultural patients should improve intercultural communicative competence and reduce multi-cultural job stress.