• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.687-691
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• 2010

Workload assessment is one of the important elements of the human factors evaluation for the nuclear power plants in operation. This paper describes a further study upon the additional elements of the workload which elements should be considered in the subjective workload assessment. We have tried to predict the burden of the work and to improve the work through a comparison of the objective workload and the subjective workload in the previous studies in nuclear power plants. However, there is a restriction to perform a precise assessment because of the limitations of the method itself. The objective workload assessment is performed by relative comparison using the quadrant analysis with objective workload and subjective workload because there were no clear criteria of objective workload assessment. And the subjective workload assessment is performed by NASA-TLX (NASA Task Load Index) which includes six evaluation dimensions of subjective workload. NASA-TLX is difficult to grasp the other aspects that could influence on the subjective workload because the analysis relies on predetermined assessment items. We conduct a factor analysis between the factors that affect the workload and the assessment adopted from ISO 10075 and NASA-TLX. At the same time, this study suggests other evaluation elements which can be added for subjective workload assessment except for evaluation elements of NASA-TLX.

• Journal of Korean Clinical Nursing Research
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.296-311
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• 2023

Purpose: This study aimed to identify factors related to the workload of intensive care unit nurses through a systematic literature review and meta-analysis to provide basic data to explore the direction of development of nursing staffing standards. Methods: This study involved quantitative studies about nurses working in intensive care units related to nursing workload published in English or Korean since 2000. Search terms included 'intensive care unit', 'nursing workload', and their variations. Databases such as RISS, DBpia, MEDLINE(PubMed), CINAHL, PsycINFO, and Web of Science were utilized. Quality assessment was conducted using the Joanna Briggs Institute's Critical Appraisal Checklist for Analytical Cross-Sectional Studies. JAMOVI software facilitated the analysis of effect sizes, employing a meta-analysis approach for 7 studies with correlational or regression data. Results: From 16 studies on the workload of intensive care unit nurses, a total of 20 patient and nurse-related factors were identified. Patient-related factors included severity of illness, length of stay, and age. Meta-analysis was conducted for three patient-related factors: age, severity of illness measured by SAPS 3, and length of stay. Only severity of illness measured by SAPS 3 was significantly associated with nurse workload (Zr=0.16, p<.001, 95% CI=0.09-0.24). Conclusion: In previous studies, the characteristics of intensive care units and patients varied across studies, and a variety of scales for measuring workload and severity of illness were also used. Sustained research reflecting domestic intensive care unit work environments and assessing the workload of intensive care unit nurses should be imperative.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.579-587
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• 2017

Objective: The purpose of this study is to measure the workload of Korea coastal ship crew members, to investigate whether they are following work-break time regulations and to identify the main causes of their workload. Background: According to the US Coast Guard, about 33% of human casualties are reported to be due to fatigue, and 30% of marine casualties reported by the British Marine Accident Investigation Agency (MAIB) are attributed to crew fatigue. But the coastal ship are not managed for business hours and breaks despite the harsh environment. Method: The workload of duty crew members on the 100 domestic coastal vessels was measured. It was also investigated whether they are following domestic and international work-break time regulations. Finally, the marine accidents resulted from the fatigue of the crew was analyzed. Results: As a result of workload analysis, the workload on the 42~62% of the vessels exceeded the standard of working time on the related regulation. The workload increased with the number of inbound and outbound ports. Especially, in the system where there are two seafarers, the workload exceeded the working time requirement. As a result of the marine accidents analysis on 100 vessels, it was found that collision and grounding occurred due to fatigue, workload and drowsiness in 7 marine accidents out of 30 marine accidents. Conclusion: It is necessary for the shipping companies to introduce an operation management manual for the management of the crews' workload and reasonable crew arrangement. It is also required for crew members to easily record work times and for shipping companies to manage the record. It would be possible to prevent many marine accidents by providing adequate rest to the crews and flexibly adjusting their working hours. Application: The results of this study can be used as fundamental data to manage crews' fatigue and to make job management manuals.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.328-335
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• 2011

For human factor engineering and wearable robot design, the quantitative assessment of physical workload is needed. Through measuring the surface EMG (sEMG) and analysis, the physical workload in overhead lifting posture is presented in quantitative manner. By normalizing sEMG activities with maximal voluntary contraction (MVC), the inter-subject variability is reduced. In all muscles, %MVC increased as the weight of lifting object increases. In anterior deltoid muscle, the %MVC was 3-4 times higher than the other muscles which imply that this muscle performs the major role in the overhead lifting posture. In fatigue analysis, %MVC and the mean frequency in muscle of anterior deltoid changed markedly when compared with other muscles. Through the suggested procedures and analysis, the physical workload for a specific posture can be represented in quantitative way but the clinical meaning for the value should be investigated further.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2022.06a
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• pp.492-499
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• 2022

A large number of employees shifted to Work from home (WFH) due to the COVID-19 pandemic, including the construction workforce. The changes in workload and productivity due to WFH impact the work performance and economic outputs of companies. However, there are mixed results about the impacts of WFH on workload and productivity. In particular, limited studies focused on specific types of work of different occupations in the construction workforce. This study aims to explore the impacts of WFH on workload and productivity considering different types of work for the construction workforce in the U.S. After identifying three main occupations and five types of work, an online survey (N = 69) was distributed. Descriptive analysis showed that participants had less workload (0.82 hours/week) and lower productivity (9.69%) during WFH. Three occupations had varied changes due to the different types of work. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) indicated that there was no significant difference in workload, while productivity was decreased during WFH. In particular, the productivity of project-related work and communication and documentation decreased significantly. Overall, participants finished 2.85% less workload per week during WFH. The findings provide an insight into WFH in the construction workforce, which improves future remote or hybrid work arrangements in the construction industry.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.427-433
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• 2018

Background: The purpose of this study was to identify the influence of workers' perceived workload, accident experiences, supervisors' safety leadership, and an organization's safety climate on the cognitive and emotional risk perception. Methods: Six hundred and twenty employees in a variety of manufacturing organizations were asked to complete to a questionnaire. Among them, a total of 376 employees provided valid data for analysis. To test the hypothesis, correlation analysis and hierarchical regression analysis were used. Statistical analyses were conducted using IBM SPSS program, version 23. Results: The results indicated that workload and accident experiences have a positive influence and safety leadership and safety climate have a negative influence on the cognitive and emotional risk perception. Workload, safety leadership, and the safety climate influence perceived risk more than accident experience, especially for the emotional risk perception. Conclusion: These results indicated that multilevel factors (organization, group, and individual) play a critical role in predicting individual risk perceptions. Based on these results, therefore, to reduce risk perception related with unsafe behaviors and accidents, organizations need to conduct a variety of safety programs that enhance their safety climate beyond simple safety-related education and training. Simultaneously, it needs to seek ways to promote supervisors' safety leadership behaviors (e.g., site visits, feedback, safety communication, etc.). In addition, it is necessary to adjust work speed and amount and allocate task considering employees' skill and ability to reduce the workload for reducing risk perception.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.163-170
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• 2013

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to provide analysis of physiological, biomechanical responses occurring from the operation to lifting or twist lifting task appears frequently in agricultural work. Methods: This study investigated the changes of physiological factors such as heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV) and biomechanical factors such as physical activity and kinetic analysis in the task of twisting at the waist while lifting. Results: Heart rates changed significantly with the workload. The result indicated that the workload of 2 kg was light intensity work, and the workload of 12 kg was hard intensity work. Physical activity increased as the workload increased both on wrist and waist. Besides, stress index of the worker increased with the workload. Dynamic load to herniated discs was analyzed using inertial sensor, and the angular acceleration and torque increased with the workload. The proposed measurement system can measure the recipient's physiological and physical signals in real-time and analyzed 3-dimensionally according to the variety of work load. Conclusions: The system we propose will be a new method to measure agricultural workers' multi-dimensional signals and analyze various farming tasks.

• Journal of Drive and Control
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.29-35
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• 2022

In this paper, we developed a workload index for monitoring the durability test using operation information of an excavator. First, the acceleration and cylinder pressure were selected as load factors by analyzing operation data. Through load correlation analysis according to each load factor, Root Mean Square (RMS) and Work Load Range (WLR) were respectively derived as a load feature representing mechanical load. In addition, the workload index was used to quantify load features. For applying the workload index to monitoring, a real-time monitoring system consisting of sensors and embedded controller was installed on the excavator and the system was integrated with a remote monitoring environment using a wireless network. Results of load monitoring and analysis verified that the developed workload index was effective from the viewpoint of the relative comparison of the workload.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.2-13
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• 2022

Purpose:This study aimed to identify the effect of work interruption that influenced workload and perception of patient safety culture on ward nurses. Methods: Participants were 184 ward nurses, with more than 12 months of work experience, from two tertiary hospitals in S city. A descriptive correlational study design was used. Collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis test, Pearson's correlation, and hierarchical multiple regression analysis via SPSS version 27.0. Results: The results showed that general wards nurses had a higher degree of work interruption (t=5.632, p<.001) and workload (t=3.603, p<.001) compared to comprehensive nursing care service wards nurses. More interruption in nursing work caused more burden on work (γ=.440, p<.001) and led to lesser perception of patient safety culture (γ=- .199, p=.007). Finally, the regression analysis showed that work interruption had a statistically significant relevance on nurses' workload (F=20.582, p<.001) and perception of patient safety culture (F=8.792, p<.001). Conclusion: To alleviate ward nurses' work interruption and decrease the negative effect on workload and perception of patient safety culture, it is necessary to mediate nurse staffing level and the number of assistants and utilize the environment.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.47-58
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• 2002

The similarity of shape of shape of interface between human cognitive map and real product is the important factor to determine the human performance. Nevertheless, the degree of similarity between these has not been defined quantitatively in recent studies. Therefore, in this study, the cognitive map and the mental workload were measured by SMM(Sketch Map Method) and RNASA-TLX(Revision of NASA-Task Load Index). And the numerical expression of the accuracy point was suggested for the quantitative calculation of relative positional similarity between cognitive map and real product. In the experiment, nine subjects were participated and two kinds of vehicles were used. Mental workload was mental workload was measured immediately after the road test. The result of analysis on the relationship between accuracy and mental workload shows that the negative correlation exists on each vehicle, and the lower score of mental workloads id measured on the vehicle that has the higher score of accuracy between two vehicles.