• Journal of Korean Clinical Nursing Research
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.45-53
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• 2024

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of preoperative patient-controlled analgesia(PCA) education program on older patients with spine surgery. Methods: A quasi-experimental research with a non-equivalent control group pretest-posttest design was conducted to investigate the impact of a PCA education program before surgery on postoperative pain, pain knowledge and attitudes, and frequency of additional analgesic use. The sample size for experimental and control group was 55 respectively. Results: The experimental group, which underwent the PCA education program, had lower postoperative pain scores compared to the control group. Furthermore, the experimental group exhibited a higher level of knowledge on PCA (p<.001) and more positive attitudes toward analgesic use (p<.001). While there was a significant difference in the use of opioid analgesics for additional pain relief between two groups (p<.001), there was no significant difference in the use of non-opioid analgesics. Conclusion: The implementation of the PCA education program was found to increase knowledge and positive attitudes on the use of PCA. Moreover, it significantly alleviated pain, particularly during physical activity, within initial 48 hours after spinal surgey in older patients. Therefore, the findings of this study supported that the PCA education program could be used as a preoperative intervention to alleviate postoperative pain for older patients with spinal surgery.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.168-176
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• 2020

Objectives : Loneliness and poor sleep quality are common phenomena in old age and are associated with negative physical and mental health. However, little is known regarding the relation between loneliness and sleep quality. The aim of this study was to examine the association of loneliness and sleep quality among the elderly living alone. Methods : This is a cross-sectional study that enrolled 1,090 subjects who are the community-residing elderly living alone. Sociodemographic status, medical condition, cognition, mood disorder, sleep quality and levels of loneliness were collected using a self-administered questionnaire and a specific semi-structured interview conducted by trained nurses. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze data regarding sociodemographic variable and loneliness. Univariate and Multivariate regression analyses were applied to examine the association between loneliness and sleep quality after adjustment for multiple confounding variables. Results : The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) mean score of "lonely group" (9.2±4.2) was significantly higher than that of "not lonely group" (7.3±3.7) (student-t test, p<0.001). Loneliness was significantly associated with PSQI (standardized β=0.065, p=0.025), sleep disturbance (standardized β=0.086, p=0.005), use of sleep medication (standardized β=0.065, p=0.034) after adjustment for possible confounding variables including sex and mood disorder. Conclusions : Loneliness was associated with sleep disturbance and this finding implied negative impact of loneliness on sleep quality of older adults. Public health promotion efforts to reduce loneliness may improve sleep quality and mental health in the elderly living alone.

• Korean Journal of Cleft Lip And Palate
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.85-92
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• 2006

Korean Cleft Lip and Palate Association (KCLPA) was founded in 1996. The first overseas charity operation was in Karachi, Pakistan, 2002 and our association has visited fourteen times in six countries for the free cleft surgery: Pakistan, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Jordan and Vietnam. The cumulated number of operated patients reaches to 280. Before our association, many Korean oral and maxillofacial surgeons have performed charity operations individually since 1964. It was started from Vietnam but the activity is now carried on in Africa, middle-east Asia, south-east Asia, China, and Korea as an official team. LG electronics, a Korean company helped to propagate our team's activity to middle-east Asia to Africa. This paper is a report concerning about the results of our association's charity activities especially in Kenya, east Africa. We provided free cleft surgery for 30 patients in 2004 and 27 patients in 2005, in Nairobi. As the blood test for HIV of the cleft patients was not allowed before and during surgery, our surgeons and nurses were cautious about every movement during the surgeries. Thus the operation time for each patient was longer than any other time. The attitude of the local hospital and the doctors seemed to be accustomed to this situation. They helped us in case of needle injuries. Safety of medical staff and patients is more important than the number of the patients operated in charity operation. This belief should be approached being parallel and multidisciplinary as an international cooperation, focusing on international funding for medical support and continuous education for local doctors who are willing to devote to their people.

• The Journal of the Korean dental association
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• v.53 no.10
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• pp.688-695
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• 2015

Purpose: The institutionalized elderly have placed the most vulnerable state, and the report about the oral health status of the institutionalized elderly was scarce. The aims of the current study were to investigate the oral health status of institutionalized elderly. Materials and methods: The survey of the oral health status was carried out on 487 institutionalized elderly from 4 longterm care facilities of Seoul metropolitan city, Gyunggi province, and Gangwon province in Korea. Results: The prevalence of dental caries, root caries, and dental calculus of the institutionalized elderly was 19.2%, 15.3%, and 23.7%, respectively. The percentage of edentulism among the institutionalized elderly was 26.2%. Those who had poor oral hygiene and tongue coating were 43.9% and 90.5%, respectively. The percentages wearing complete and removable partial denture on maxilla were 12.8% and 3.3%, respectively. The percentages wearing complete and removable partial denture on mandible were 7.8% and 5.6%, respectively. The percentages of institutionalized elderly needing complete and removable partial denture on maxilla were 29.7% and 27.2%, respectively. The percentages of institutionalized elderly needing complete and removable partial denture on mandible were 24.5% and 30.9%, respectively. Conclusion: The oral health stuatus of institutionalized elderly was poor. For the oral health promotion of elderly in longterm care facilities, it is essential to educate nurses and caregivers about the importance of the oral health and oral hygiene method.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.13 no.12
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• pp.900-909
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• 2013

This study purposed to analyze the determinants of length of stay for patients having alzheimer dementia in geriatric hospitals. Sample data was collected from the National Patient Sample (NPS) produced by the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service (HIRA) in 2009. Total 538 alzheimer inpatients over 65 years were used in the analysis. Patients were classified into 5 risk groups to represent the case-mix differences of patients. Organizational characteristics of geriatric hospitals such as number of beds, doctors, and nurses were included in the analysis model. In multivariate regression analysis, hospital variables were not statistically significant in explaining the length of stay. Two risk group were statistically significant in analysis, However, their signs of relationship with the dependent variable were opposite to the expectations. These results suggest that the characteristics of patients and hospitals did not have impacts on the length of stay. There will be needs to test the effects of other factor such as social needs which represents the socio-economic status of the family for the patients.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.14 no.8
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• pp.156-171
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• 2014

The purpose of this exploratory study is to examine if the application of smart technology(ST) would assist adjustment to the nursing home facilities in the elderly. Since there is not much previous research on this subject, we generated survey questionnaires on our own. Data were collected from the survey of 127 employees at 6 nursing homes including geriatric care workers, social workers and nurses who provide direct as well as indirect care services. Results showed that the utilization of ST would benefit the areas of family relationship support, health support, leisure support, and physical environment adjustment. As for physical environment adjustment, study participants reported that ST would help elders familiarize employees and find directions for specific space the most. As for health support, ST would be best utilized as a security sensor and program alarm system. As for support for family relationship, ST was expected to be utilized as looking at family pictures and playing with self pictures/videos. As for leisure support, ST was expected to assist elders to listen to music and watch movies/TV. These results were different according to the characteristics of the participants and the smartifacts. These results of the study will show the direction for more in-depth studies on application of smart technology for the elderly in the future.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.480-494
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to develop a nursing activity cost calculation program based on Lee's doctoral dissertation using TD-ABC. The developed program has been supplemented with data storage, print out, and graph conversion functions to expand the application possibility. The development of the program consisted of three steps: program requirements analysis, program design and development, and program validation. This program was designed not only to do the cost calculation, but also to compare the cost-effectiveness and cost consumption trends. Consequently, this program is meaningful in that the nursing manager can obtain the cost information necessary for nursing unit management and extend the utilization so that the cost management strategy can be established based on the cost information. Therefore, we propose that the cost-management capacity of clinical nurses should be strengthened and the nursing performance measurement research should be expanded by applying it to various actual clinical nursing management settings. It is suggested that this program should be used as a training medium to strengthen nurse cost management capacity by combining nursing management curriculum at undergraduate level.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.13 no.8
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• pp.314-323
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• 2013

This study analyzed the relationship between the level of hospital caseloads and length of stay for the delivery patients. The differences of hospital caseloads were measured by the Internal Herfindahl Index, which measured the concentration of delivery patient in a hospital. And the structure variables of hospitals such as the number of bed, the number of treatment, and the number of doctors and nurses per 100 beds were included as control variables. And average length of stay of delivery patients was used as the dependent variable. Concentration status of delivery patients was measured in two models: (1) first model represents the concentration level of delivery patient in all hospital patients, (2) second model represents the concentration level of delivery patient in all obstetrics and gynecology patients. In regression analysis, patient concentration index was not statistically significant in explaining the variation of average length of stay in two models. But the number of delivery patients and number of beds were statistically significant. The number of delivery patient variable showed negative regression coefficient with average length of stay and the number of beds showed positive coefficient with average length of stay. This study result indicated that the volume of delivery patients in a hospital will play a significant role in reducing the length of stay of delivery patients. Patient volume could contribute in improving the efficiency of patient care in a hospital.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.298-306
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• 2014

This study aims to investigate the awareness and needs of patients as consumers and therapists as providers on the introduction of home physical therapy in the long-term care insurance. The survey participants were 96 patients and 132 physical therapists to a questionnaires, we analyzed for frequency of each questionnaire about awareness and necessity. As a result of the test, they considered that physical activity support services provided by nurse and nurses aid ware not specialized enough(pt 60,4%, PT 75,4%) and quality therapy should be available through a home physical therapy(pt 47.9%, PT 59.2%). Also, patients responded that the priorities to improve long-term care insurance were given to lowering expenses(35,4%) and expanding coverage of subjects(32.3%) while the physical therapists responded that professionals should be expanded(73.8%) and diverse rehabilitation services(20.2%) and a rehabilitation team should be introduced. They responded that the reasons of home physical therapy were needed that it was hard for patients to visit medical centers(PT 30.0%) themselves and it would be improvable for them to get physical function in elderly(pt 47.1%) through the service. In conclusion, as most patients as well as physical therapists responded that home visit therapy services should be introduced and their awareness of it was very high, it is suggested that the service should be quickly introduced as soon as possible.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.351-360
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• 2016

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the nursing needs of elderly patients who got a surgical operation under regional anesthesia(spinal, epidural, nerve block). Methods: The participants were 126 elderly patients who completed a questionnaire. The data were collected October 1 and October 31, 2012, and analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test and ANOVA, $Scheff{\acute{e}}$ test. Results: The mean score for the nursing needs of elderly patients administered regional anesthesia during surgery was $3.08{\pm}0.38$, The scores for specific nursing needs were as follows: educational needs ($3.47{\pm}0.50$), spiritual needs ($3.37{\pm}0.78$), physical needs ($3.31{\pm}0.46$), emotional needs ($2.72{\pm}0.50$), and environmental needs ($2.51{\pm}0.47$). There were significant differences in nursing needs relative to gender, religion, and spouse status. Additionally, there were significant differences in nursing needs according to surgery department, the length of time the surgery, and the ASA(American Society of Anesthesiologists) physical classification. of the operation-related characteristics. Conclusion: When caring for elderly patients during the surgery, nurses must provide adequate information about the surgery and anesthesia. Further studies are needed to develop and evaluate nursing interventions to provide quality surgical care for the elderly patients.