• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.67-76
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• 2006

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop education program for physicians who work at hospice palliative care settings in Korea, to practice abridged education program extracted from the full contents of the proposed education, and to improve the quality of hospice palliative care service. Methods: To develop the education program, questionnaire for hospice education need assessment (total 79 items) was distributed to 125 organizations practicing hospice service via mail and the data was collected from 1 Sep. to 10 Oct. 2004. Another questionnaire for hospice education importance assessment was asked to the palliative specialists from Sep. 23 to 17 Oct. 2004. Based on the analysis of the questionnaires, and reviewing various references and actual hospice palliative education programs of other countries, the education programs were developed. Results: Ore-day-Hospice education 2004 was conducted based on the suggested education program, and it was practiced four times on a national basis (2 times in Seoul, and once in Busan and Gwangju, respectively). 47 physicians attended the education program. The education program lasted about 7 hours, comprising 5 hours of common lectures for all attendants regardless of their professions and 2 hours of specific seminar for physicians only. Attendants positively responded to the contents of the education program. But they pointed out that the program should be offered on weekday and it should be more in-depth and more discussion based lesson. Conclusion: The suggested education program was not fully conducted yet. After practicing the abridged education program, more in-depth and discussion oriented rather than lecture-based education were suggested. It may be argued that the proposed education, which requires much longer period education, should also reflect the evaluation of the 1-day education program to successfully implement the proposed education program.

• Korean Journal of Hospice Care
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.34-54
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• 2003

Every one experiences death one day, however no one can knows exactly what it is because people can not experience death until it comes, it is therefore impossible to judge correctly on the phenomenon of the death. On the whole, man experiences indirect death through the mass communications such as TV drama, fiction, magazine etc because those methods can easily access by every one. In addition to this, people usually acquire the negative awareness of death through the dramatic change of story like dying of cancer for dramatic effect by giving scare and fear to the cancers. The purpose of this study is to provide basic information on the spiritual care that enables the facing death patients to accept death as a part of life and divert hope from scare about after death by comparing and analyzing of two aspects of death meaning I.e, Korean fiction and the end stage cancer patients. Additionally, for medical staff to understand the facing death cancer patients by making to aware patients correctly and provide the better quality of care. The study was performed from September 28, 2002 to February, 28 2003. The materials of this study were collected by direct data obtained from observation, interviews, note and diary of end stage of cancer patients and written materials acquired from Korean contemporary fiction. Participants of this study were 4 end stage cancer patients including 2 lung cancer patients, 1 liver cancer patient and 1 esophagus cancer patient. The methodology used in this study was divided into two types; Huberman & Miles methodology was used for fiction to find and categorize subject, and Colaizzi, one of phenomenological methodology was used for end stage cancer patients to find the major meaning, subject and categorization. 1.The death investigated in the fiction, was found as a progress of negative emotion, acceptance and sublimation, life related subjects in the negative emotion were tenacity for life, anxiety, lingering attachment, responsibility, abandonment and death related subjects were shock, isolation, fear, scare and rejection. Acceptance related subjects were acceptance, destiny, secularism, preparation and arrangement, and sublimation related subjects were sublimation through Christian and Buddhism. 2.The death showed in the participants was negative emotion, acceptance and sublimation, life related subjects were repentance, anxiety, responsibility and hopelessness, and death related subjects were dejection, solitude, anger, fear and scare. The acceptance was a type of religious acceptance that admitted instantly by reaching an understanding with the God, and death was accepted as a progress of preparation, arrangement, acceptance and hope. Sublimation related subjects were Christian sublimation and relief or destiny incurred from self-reflective sublimation through communications and thoughts. 3.The death in view of fiction and participants were positively accepted both death and negative emotion, and the study disclosed the fact that death was sublimated dependent on religion. 4.The progress of negative emotion, acceptance and sublimation was disclosed more complicated and various in the real end stage cancer patients and acceptance only found in the patients on the form of religious acceptance, according to the results compared with fiction and real end stage cancer patients. The death showed in the fiction was standardized, gradated and similar progress with psychological status of Kubler-Ross. However, death in the participants was showed complex and various feelings simultaneously, and sometimes they accepted death positively. The sublimation through religion was found in Buddhism and Christian in the fiction and mostly Christian in the participants due to a number of Hospice patients. It was found that negative emotion various types of death was more found in the participants than fiction. It is therefore necessary to study on the response of death in various types. In the participants death was incurred more systematic and variously, we knew that nursing practice focused on experience of participants is required and reality on death is much profound than we analyzed and presented, lots of situations and reactions should be premised because we can not completely rule out the negligence possibility of care mediation of participants. In caring for the facing death patients, we discovered and confirmed again through this study that the spiritual care should be needed as a mediation method.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.13 no.12
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• pp.5968-5975
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• 2012

The aim of this study was to reveal correlation between scope of practice and clinical paramedic properties. from April 9 to May 12, 2012, one hundred and eighty-one clinical paramedics filled out anonymously to the questionnaire which includes gender, academic background, clinical career, clinical practice and medical direction. To analyse the collected data, Pearson's r at ${\alpha}$=0.05 (two-tailed) was performed using IBM SPSS 19 (Chicago, IL, USA). One hundred and forty (77.4%) working at medical facilities, one hundred and four (57.5%) graduated from four-year colleges, seventy seven (42.5%) acquired paramedic certificate in 2010-2012, one hundred and twelve (61.9%) charted on nursing records, one hundred and sixteen (69.6%) had a good knowledge in scope of practice, one hundred and six (58.5%) thought of legal restriction & absence of direct medical direction leading to narrow clinical practice. Implementing practices and practices needed were thirty two. There were significant relationships in Likert scale 1-5 between paramedic competency and legal practice (p=0.039); implementing practice (p=0.006); practice needed (p=0.049); and overall (p=0.001). Also, between knowledge on scope of practice and implementing practice (p=0.003); overall (p=0.047); clinical career and legal practice (p=0.019); practice needed (p=0.002); and overall (p=0.002). However, these correlations were relatively low (r $$\leq_-$$ 0.238). The working condition of clinical paramedics was restricted by the Emergency Medical Services Systems Act, which requires a narrow scope of practice. This condition leads to the poor quality of emergency care, therefore the scope of practice in the act will be revised from specificism to generalism, from direct medical direction to indirect medical direction by means of quality management.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.45-55
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• 2015

While the influence of healthcare accreditation system to the quality improvement of hospitals has more increased, regarding the preparation costs for healthcare accreditation, it has never been empirically studied about the costs that are actually invested by hospitals. This study is going to determine the difficulties in the preparation process of accreditation and details of accreditation preparation costs for hospitals that participated in the healthcare accreditation system and acquired accreditation. The survey was performed in a self-reported form from February 28 to March 21 2014 for 189 acute hospitals accredited as a hospital from 2011 to February 2014. Of all questionaries of survey participants, 98 were recovered; the response rate was 51.9%. A total of 40 questionnaires were used except for 58 containing insincere answers. Main findings are followings: Firstly, findings showed that advanced general hospitals spent the most statistically significantly highest in terms of equipments and total costs among cost items for accreditation preparation. When accreditation preparation costs items were classified according to classification of hospitals, advanced general hospitals spent the most statistically significantly highest in the equipments and total costs. Also in terms of regional, Gyeonggi, Incheon regions were found to spend statistically significantly higher costs in the equipments costs. Secondly, as a result of the survey in the distribution of the total accreditation preparation costs, advanced general hospitals have disbursed the most out of all. However, the result in hospitals does not show significant difference to the expense of advanced general hospitals and that especially other regional hospitals spent higher costs. As such, all hospitals are under a heavy burden of higher costs on accreditation preparation, especially hospitals. The build-up of infrastructures by hospitals through an accreditation system consequently led to a higher initial investment; if the accreditation system is effective in improving the quality of health care and patient safety, appropriate responses are needed. In other words, financial support for investment costs needs to be given to allow hospitals to actively participate in the accreditation system.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.345-349
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• 2010

Good health-related quality of life is regarded as the goal of elderly residential care. Treatment for breast cancer produces side effects that diminish functional capacity and quality of life among survivors. Tai-Chi exercise offers the benefits of fitness and health. Tai-chi has been claimed to generate beneficial effects with respect to a wide range of diseases. The object of this research is to evaluate the effects of tai chi exercise on shoulder joint movement and cardiovascular function in elderly breast cancer patients. The subjects were 40 patients residing in B metropolitan city, who had undergone surgery for breast cancer within 2 months. They underwent post-operative radiotherapy and an anti-cancer chemical treatment. They practiced tai-chi exercise for 60 min a day, four times a week for 12 weeks under the direction of a special tai-chi instructor. Shoulder joint movement and heart rate, were measured before and after the experiment. The results were as follows; Shoulder joint movement, including flexion, extention, adduction and abduction, significantly increased (p<0.05) after treatment, and heart rates significantly decreased after treatment (p<0.05). From the results, Tai-Chi exercise was shown to be extremely effective in improving shoulder joint movement and heart rate in elderly breast cancer patients. Further study is needed in this area.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.525-534
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• 2018

This study evaluated the various qualifications that can be linked to employment similar to the medical laboratory technology major. The qualifications for employment outside the medical laboratory technology major are industrial health instructor, doping control officer, audiologist, sign language interpreter, health education specialist, claim adjuster, Korea life underwriter, administrative manager, hospital administrator, insurance review manager, and hospital coordinator. The qualifications for employment similar to the medical laboratory technology major include the clinical research coordinator, clinical research associate, anatomist, analytical chemistry analysts, hazardous materials industry engineers, biotechnologist, biosafety managers, biotechnology technicians, medical device quality officers, animal care nurse, industrial engineer hazardous material, bioprocess engineer, biosafety officer, certified technology consultant, director of medical device quality control, laboratory animal technician, animal nursing technician, and cruise medical manager. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct a social analysis survey of the various qualifications currently held by medical technologists. In addition, it will be necessary to investigate the current status of medical technologists working in other fields. In the future, medical technologists should expand the scope of their work through efforts to strengthen their individual work capacity, share cases, and strengthen their expertise.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.71-96
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• 2011

Within the traditional medical delivery system, patients residing in medically vulnerable areas, those with body movement difficulties, and nursing facility residents have had limited access to good healthcare services. However, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) provides us with a convenient and useful means of overcoming distance and time constraints. ICT is integrated with biomedical science and technology in a way that offers a new high-quality medical service. As a result, rapid technological advancement is expected to play a pivotal role bringing about innovation in a wide range of medical service areas, such as medical management, testing, diagnosis, and treatment; offering new and improved healthcare services; and effecting dramatic changes in current medical services. The increase in aging population and chronic diseases has caused an increase in medical expenses. In response to the increasing demand for efficient healthcare services, a telehealth service based on ICT is being emphasized on a global level. Telehealth services have been implemented especially in pilot projects and system development and technological research. With the service about to be implemented in earnest, it is necessary to study its overall acceptance by consumers, which is expected to contribute to the development and activation of a variety of services. In this sense, the study aims at positively examining the structural relationship among the acceptance factors for telehealth services based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Data were collected by showing audiovisual material on telehealth services to online panels and requesting them to respond to a structured questionnaire sheet, which is known as the information acceleration method. Among the 1,165 adult respondents, 608 valid samples were finally chosen, while the remaining were excluded because of incomplete answers or allotted time overrun. In order to test the reliability and validity of the assessment scale items, we carried out reliability and factor analyses, and in order to explore the causal relation among potential variables, we conducted a structural equation modeling analysis using AMOS 7.0 and SPSS 17.0. The research outcomes are as follows. First, service quality, innovativeness of medical technology, and social influence were shown to affect perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness of the telehealth service, which was statistically significant, and the two factors had a positive impact on willingness to accept the telehealth service. In addition, social influence had a direct, significant effect on intention to use, which is paralleled by the TAM used in previous research on technology acceptance. This shows that the research model proposed in the study effectively explains the acceptance of the telehealth service. Second, the research model reveals that information privacy concerns had a insignificant impact on perceived ease of use of the telehealth service. From this, it can be gathered that the concerns over information protection and security are reduced further due to advancements in information technology compared to the initial period in the information technology industry, and thus the improvement in quality of medical services appeared to ensure that information privacy concerns did not act as a prohibiting factor in the acceptance of the telehealth service. Thus, if other factors have an enormous impact on ease of use and usefulness, concerns over these results in the initial period of technology acceptance may become irrelevant. However, it is clear that users' information privacy concerns, as other studies have revealed, is a major factor affecting technology acceptance. Thus, caution must be exercised while interpreting the result, and further study is required on the issue. Numerous information technologies with outstanding performance and innovativeness often attract few consumers. A revised bill for those urgently in need of telehealth services is about to be approved in the national assembly. As telemedicine is implemented between doctors and patients, a wide range of systems that will improve the quality of healthcare services will be designed. In this sense, the study on the consumer acceptance of telehealth services is meaningful and offers strong academic evidence. Based on the implications, it can be expected to contribute to the activation of telehealth services. Further study is needed to assess the acceptance factors for telehealth services, such as motivation to remain healthy, health care involvement, knowledge on health, and control of health-related behavior, in order to develop unique services according to the categorization of customers based on health factors. In addition, further study may focus on various theoretical cognitive behavior models other than the TAM, such as the health belief model.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.101-113
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• 1994

Maternity means all the women who are capable to conceive. In the aspect of health and medical care. however. it means the women who are now in pregnancy or have already given birth to a baby or are in a period of being recoverd from physiological changes occurred by pregnancy. According to the rapidly changing social structure. both the Quality and Quantity of the capacity of childbirth experienced by women are changing. Our society. having established a great economical growth by virtue of the highly developing and growing industrialization and urbanization. stimulates the women's advance into society and thereby increasing the number of employed women. When the women's participation in society is increased. their age of marriage is also affected. Which means there are a decrease of the capacity of childbirth in terms of quantity and a trend for women to have less children and to deliver a baby in their old age in terms of quality. On the contrary. since the number of multipara who want to have a baby in their old age is increasing. as a counter functional effect to the political project of decrease of a birth rate. concern has been focussed on childbirth in old age in the present study. And also such kind of the childbirth may be danger to the health of both mother and baby. Therefore the present study intended to provide some basic data of health education in the part of the health management of both mother and baby in the general hospital. based on understanding the realities of childbirth in. old age and things related to them. To achieve such a purpose of the present study. an analytical study by means of SPSS. was done using the data of 269 clinical records on both the newborn .babies and their mothers who had been supported by public general hospitals located in Seoul for 3 years from Jan. 1. 1991 to Dec. 31. 1993. Some significant results from the analytic study are as follows: 1. It appeared that the average age of normal. natural delivery was 33.8 years old and the average age of delivery through the cesarean operation was 35.4 years old. 2. It appeared that danger factors to childbirth women were types of the delivery and placental extrusion and danger factors to newborn babies are not so outstanding. 3. It appeared that the variables of the childbirth capacity which showed a significant difference according to each age group of women were the number of pregnancy. number of still birth, and number of existing children. That is. the age group of 'more than 35 years' had more frequency of experience In all 3 variables than the age group of 'less than 35 years'. 4. It appeared that the variables of the childbrith capacity which showed a significant difference a according to the sex of a newborn baby were number of pregnancy, number of still birth, and number of existing children. That is, the age group of 'more than 35 years' had more frequency of experience in all 3 variables than the age group of 'less than 35 years'. 5. It appeared that the health index of newborn babies which showed a significant difference was only 5 minute APGAR. That is, the health index 9.46 in the age group of 'more than 35 years' was less than an index of 9.72 in the age group of 'less than 35 years'. 6. Since a counter correlation of -0.10, as Pearson Correlation Coefficient, was showed between the age of childbirth mothers and the weight of newborn babies, it indicated that the higher age of childbirth woman, the lesser the weight of newborn baby. 7. It appeared that the number of women who had confirmed the sex of their baby before their delivery were 45 women, $67.2\%$ of total 67 women who had delivered a baby. and the expected sex by women in childbed was male with $73.1\%$ of total childbirth women expecting male birth and with their expression of feeling of female delivery. very regretful' by $39.3\%$ of total childbirth women. The results as shown above may indicate that instead of the possibility of danger to both the mother delivering a baby in old age and the baby delivered, the expectation of getting a son motivates childbirth in old age. As a conclusion, in a dimension of general hospital as well as national reform. it is required that a program of health education for childbirth in late maternal age have to be developed in the part of the health management of both mother and baby in the near future.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.153-160
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• 2010

Purpose: The purpose of the present study was to investigate needs and satisfaction on the medical services of cancer patients in Jeju Special Self-Governing Province. Methods: Total 174 cancer patients, who visited at the clinic of Jeju National University Hospital, submitted informed consent and participated in this study from July 13 to July 30, 2009. Self questionnaire was used and data were analyzed with Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, Mann-Whitney U test, ANOVA, and Kruskal-Wallis test. Results: Participants expressed the needs of most economical support (3.38 out of 4), followed by counseling of treatment plan (3.22), information of disease (3.07), and disease management except cancer (2.97). Participants were satisfied most with religious counseling (3.41), followed by nursing service support (3.39), employment counseling (3.26), and counseling for family or interpersonal relationships (3.26). The satisfaction of economical support was the lowest (1.98). Satisfaction of men was higher than women, and needs in patients who were living with children was the highest. Patients who were living alone or with children showed the lowest satisfaction about the medical services. There were no significant differences in the general characteristics, however, participants who were older than 60 years of age or had higher income showed lower needs and higher satisfaction. There were no significant differences in the medical characteristics, however, thyroid cancer patients and patients who were treated with radiation therapy or transarterial embolization showed low satisfaction. Conclusion: Cancer patients seemed to need more economical support, information of treatment or disease, and symptom management. Furthermore, there were various needs about the services, depending on family formation or economical support of patients. Therefore, it is certain that patients who were suffering from other cancers, except the 5 major cancers, needed more services. In conclusion, continuous and systemic policy to consider patient's characteristics and needs are needed in community as well as health care system.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.513-522
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• 2002

This study investigated stress and the extent of climacteric symptoms in mid-life men, and examined their relationship in order to better understand the stress and climacteric symptom experiences of mid-life men, and thereby attempted to offer basic materials for the development of a health improvement program that may help increase the quality of life of mid-life men. Three hundred mid-life men whose ages were between 40 and 59 and resided in the Seoul area were subjects of this study. The data were analyzed with the SAS PC program using descriptive statistics to analyze subjects' general characteristics and variables of stress and the extent of climacteric symptoms of the subjects. The relationship between stress and climacteric symptoms were examined by the Pearson Correlation Coefficient, and stress and the extent of climacteric symptoms in relation to the general characteristics were analyzed by T-test and ANOVA. The study conclusions are as follows: 1. Subjects general characteristics The average, age of the subjects was 46 and 47.0% of them reported ages between 40 and 45. Of the subjects, 98% were married. In marriage satisfaction, those who were generally satisfied with their married life comprised 62.0% of the subjects. In terms of level of education, 95.7% were educated above the high school level. In occupational background, 59.7% had occupations related to technologies. As for religion, 42.7% had no religion. In number of children, 67.3% had 2 children. In residential status, 79,3% were living in their own homes. In terms of living arrangements, 87.7% of the subjects were living in the form of nuclear families. 2. Stress and the extent of climacteric symptoms The level of stress was scored as $2.94{\pm}0.74$, and considering that the overall examination score is $27.16{\pm}1.32$, the subjects' stress level was not viewed as particularly high. The average score of the extent of climacteric symptoms was $35.37{\pm}0.27$. The extent of sub-domains of climacteric symptoms included skeleton symptoms ($39.37{\pm}2.81$), joint pain ($39.16{\pm}3.66$), vasomotor symptoms ($35.39{\pm}3.01$), other symptoms ($36.99{\pm}3.02$), psychological symptoms ($34.68{\pm}3.01$), urogenic symptoms ($35.03{\pm}3.27$), and cardiovascular symptoms ($33.70{\pm}2.78$). 3. General characteristics in relation to the stress level The subjects' general characteristics that were significantly related to the level of stress were marriage status (F=4.38, p=.001), marriage satisfaction (F=4.56, p=.001), educational background (F=2.68, p=.012), and age (F=2.48, p=.033). 4. General characteristics in relation to the level of climacteric symptoms The subjects' general characteristics that were significantly related to the level of climacteric symptoms were educational background (F=3.26, p=.007), age (F=2.58, p=.027), marriage status (F=2.62, p=.025), and marriage satisfaction (F=2.78. p=.032). 5. The correlation between stress and climacteric symptoms The subjects' level of stress and climacteric symptoms were significantly related to each other (r=0.578, p=0.000). The subjects' level of stress was correlated with sub-domains of the climacteric symptoms including psychological symptoms (r=0.579, p=0.000), joint pain (r=0.479, p=0.000), skeleton symptoms (r=0.477, p=0.000), other symptoms (r=0.467, p=0.000), vasomotor symptoms (r=0.4615, p=0.000), cardiovascular symptoms (r=0.458, p=0.000), urogenic symptoms (r=0.401. p=0.000). In summary, the climacteric symptoms suffered by mid-life men are positively correlated with their level of stress. In addition, the climacteric symptoms were affected by the level of stress.