The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of a cognitive-behavioral nursing intervention on anxiety and depression of patients with breast cancer undergoing radiotherapy.

A nonequivalent control group design was used for the study. The research participants were patients with breast cancer (N=71; experimental group=35, comparison group=36) who received radiotherapy at P university hospital. The experimental group received a 6-week cognitive-behavioral nursing intervention (2 hr/week), which included nursing counseling, education about treatment choices for breast cancer and possible side effects and management strategies during radiotherapy, and rehabilitation exercise.

Following the intervention, the experimental group showed significantly lower levels of anxiety (Experimental group=34.60±6.35, Comparison group=44.63±9.93, t=3.552, p<.001) and depression (Experimental group=10.20±6.61, Comparison group=17.81±10.85, t=3.542, p<.001) than the comparison group.

The findings from this study showed that cognitive-behavioral counseling applied by nurses is very effective to reduce anxiety and depression among patients with breast cancer. Therefore, providing nursing counseling to broader spectrum of patients with cancer should be considered. Further research would warrant future clinical application of nursing counseling.

The purpose of the study was to identify functional structure and patterns of dialogue sequence in conversations between elderly patients with dementia and nurses in a long-term care facility.

Conversation analysis was used to analyze the data which were collected using video-camera to capture non-verbal as well as verbal behaviors. Data collection was done during February 2005.

Introduction, assessment, intervention, and closing phases were identified as functional structure. Essential parts of the conversation were the assessment and intervention phases. In the assessment phase three sequential patterns of nurse-initiated dialogue and four sequential patterns of patient-initiated dialogue were identified. Also four sequential patterns were identified in nurse-initiated and three in patient-initiated dialogues in the intervention phase. In general, "ask question", "advise", and "directive" were the most frequently used utterance by nurses in nurse-initiated dialogue, indicating nurses' domination of the conversation. At the same time, "ask back", "refute", "escape", or "false promise" were used often by nurses to discourage patients from talking when patients were raising questions or demanding.

It is important for nurses to encourage patient-initiated dialogue to counterbalance nurse-dominated conversation which results from imbalance between nurses and patients in terms of knowledge and task in health-care institutions for elders.

The purposes of this study were to examine the relationships among activities of daily living, self-efficiency, nursing home care quality and nursing home adaptation, and to identify the influencing factors of nursing home adaptation in nursing home residents.

The study employed a descriptive correlational design. The data were collected from 148 older adults without dementia by interview from six nursing homes in three cities from February 1, 2008 to February 28, 2008.

Levels of nursing home adaptation in older adult residents were different by type of decision maker of nursing home admission, reason of nursing home admission, type of payment and length of nursing home stay. The nursing home adaptation was significantly correlated with self-efficiency and nursing home care quality. The strongest predictor of nursing home adaptation was type of decision maker of nursing home admission followed by the self-efficiency.

The study suggested that during the decision making period of nursing home admission, older adults should have enough time and careful considerations of their families to decide by themselves in positive ways. Nursing home staff should be able to identify reasons of nursing home admission and demands or expectations of older adults and their families.

This study was done to investigate nurses' knowledge of, and compliance with the multidrug-resistant organism (MDRO) infection control guidelines.

A survey questionnaire was developed based on the institutional and national guidelines and was administered to a convenience sample of 306 nurses in a university hospital.

The mean score for knowledge was 33.87 (percentage of correct answers: 82.61%). The percentages of correct answers for basic concepts, route of transmission, hand washing/protective devices and environment management were 74.27%, 94.29%, 92.90% and 75.54% respectively. The mean compliance score was 4.15 (range: 1-5). The compliance scores for education, communication, contact precaution, disinfection, surveillance culture, and hand washing were 3.29, 4.05, 4.20, 4.50, 4.40 and 4.48 respectively. Nurses indicated "lack of time (30.06%)", "lack of means (10.78%)" and "lack of knowledge (9.48%)" as reasons for noncompliance.

While most educational programs have focused on hand washing or use of protective devices to prevent transmission of MDRO in acute care settings, hospital nurses' knowledge of the basic concepts of MDRO and environmental management has remained insufficient. Nurses are relatively non-compliant to the guidelines in the areas of education (staff, patient, family) and communication. Comprehensive educational programs are needed to decrease hospital infection rates and to improve the health of patients.

The purposes of this study were to identify the prevalence of postprandial hypotension (PPH) and risk factors for PPH in Korean elderly people.

A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted with community dwelling and nursing home residents. The blood pressure of 162 adults aged 65 yr or older was measured before meal as a baseline and then at 15 min intervals from immediately after the meal through 90 min after the meal. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression with the SPSS WIN 14.0 program were used to analyze the data.

The prevalence of PPH was 29% and the PPH occurred immediately after the meal continuously through 90 min after the meal. The biggest drop in systolic blood pressure occurred at 45 min after the meal. Risk factors for PPH were age, base line systolic blood pressure, and presence of cardiovascular disease.

To prevent side effects of PPH such as falls and syncope, nurses should provide careful management of PPH and prohibit activities until at least 90 min after a meal. We also recommend that risk of PPH should be included in fall prevention guidelines for elderly people.

The purposes of this study was to analyze the effects of a health education program using problem-based learning on health related knowledge, behavior, and quality of life in elderly people.

The participants included 44 elders, of whom 23 took the health education program and 21 did not. All participants were over 60 yr of age and were selected from residents of nursing homes or participants in activities of social welfare facilities in Jeju Province. Elders in both groups completed pre- and post-tests. Elders in the education group participated in 5 weekly sessions, 100-120 min/session of problem-based learning on health education. Data were analyzed using SPSS WIN 12.0.

Scores for health knowledge, health behavior, and quality of life for the education group were significantly higher than those of the control group.

A problem-based learning health education program can be recommended as a method to promote the health of the elders. Indirectly, the results seem to indicate that proper assessment and support should be provided simultaneously in the management of elders' health. Finally, future study is needed to examine whether problem-based learning is more helpful compared to traditional education.

Guided by Newman's theory of health as expanding consciousness, this study was done to explore the health experience of adolescents having depression.

The researcher engaged in six to eight in-depth interviews with six adolescents. To begin the dialog, the researcher asked each participant to recount the first important memory he/she had. All the narrative and diagram sharing between the researcher and participants were summarized according to recognized patterns and later elaborated in following interviews based on Newman's praxis methodology.

The significant individual pattern of early health experience was during the binding stage. At the turning point, individual patterns for participants revealed a personal journey of self-discovery and then emergence of reflecting behaviors. After the turning point, the participants changed as they evolved from the initial period of disruption and disorganization to organization at a higher level. The results suggest that adolescents who are depressive find new ways of relating to friends, family, healthcare providers, and the community by expanding their consciousness.

Newman's praxis methodology is a good way of helping and studying adolescents with depression because it emphasizes participant-nurse/researcher partnership and pattern recognition as nursing practice.

This study was a secondary analysis to verify the mediating role of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) between organizational justice (OJ) and organizational effectiveness (OE) in nursing organizations.

The RN-BSNs and their colleagues in Seoul and Busan were subjects. The data was collected for 20 days between September 13 and October 2, 2004. Two hundred eighty three data sets were used for the final analysis. The fitness of models were tested using AMOS 5.

The fitness of hypothetical model was moderate. Procedural Justice (PJ), Interaction Justice (IJ) and Distributive Justice (DJ) had direct effects on Job Satisfaction (JS), Organizational Commitment (OC) and Turnover Intention (TI) in OE, and indirect effects on JS, OC and TI mediated by OCB. The modified model improved with ideal fitness showed the causal relations among OE. In modified model, PJ, IJ and DJ had direct positive effects on OCB and JS and OC in OE, and indirect effects on JS and OC mediated by OCB. JS and OC in OE had a direct negative effect on TI.

OCB mediated the relationship between OJ and OE, so the nursing managers should enhance OCB of the nurses in order to improve OE.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the experience of urinary incontinence (UI) for elderly Korean women using a narrative approach.

The data were collected using individual in-depth interviews with 15 community-dwelling elderly women who had UI for at least 1 yr. The narratives of the life stories of these women were analyzed from the actor's perspective, motivation and purpose of actions, and action toward goal achievement. Also the narratives on UI were analyzed according to cognition, behavior, and evaluation of UI.

Three major types of the life stories emerged from the analysis. First, the conquest narrative type reflects active characteristics of narrators within the circumstances of the sociocultural context. Second, the patience narrative is characterized as having flexibility between self determination for goal achievement and the boundary of the sociocultural context. Lastly, the compliance narrative reflected characteristics of narrators who easily adapt their way of life to circumstances. In terms of UI, the narrators in all three types lacked awareness of UI as an illness condition. Three different reasons are specifically identified according to the narrative types.

The results of this study indicate that the concept and the illness behaviors related to UI in elderly Korean women with UI were closely related to the way of women's lives within the sociocultural and historical context.

The purpose of this study was to develop a multimedia learning program for patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) diet education using standardized patients and to examine the effects of the program on educational skills, communication skills, DM diet knowledge and learning satisfaction.

The study employed a randomized control posttest non-synchronized design. The participants were 108 third year nursing students (52 experimental group, 56 control group) at K university in Seoul, Korea. The experimental group had regular lectures and the multimedia learning program for DM diet education using standardized patients while the control group had regular lectures only. The DM educational skills were measured by trained research assistants.

The students who received the multimedia learning program scored higher for DM diet educational skills, communication skills and DM diet knowledge compared to the control group. Learning satisfaction of the experimental group was higher than the control group, but statistically insignificant.

Clinical competency was improved for students receiving the multimedia learning program for DM diet education using standardized patients, but there was no statistically significant effect on learning satisfaction. In the nursing education system there is a need to develop and apply more multimedia materials for education and to use standardized patients effectively.

The aim of this study was to develop a breast feeding adaptation scale (BFAS) to evaluate adaptation to breastfeeding for breastfeeding mothers and their infants and to test the validity and reliability of the instrument.

The study was conducted as follows: application of the conceptual framework, identification of the content domains, items generation, and test of validity and reliability. In order to test validity and reliability, two panels of experts reviewed items and subcategories of the preliminary questionnaire and then data were collected from 329 mothers who were up to 4 weeks postpartum and breastfeeding. Descriptive statistics, t-test, factor analysis, and Cronbach's alpha were used to analyze the data.

The conceptual framework was based on the Roy adaptation model. The content domains were developed via literature review, review of instruments, and data acquired from the interviews of breastfeeding mothers and nurses. A total of 69 items belonging to 8 domains were generated. A reduction to 44 preliminary items was accomplished through content validity analysis. Factor analysis extracted 8 factors with a total of 27 items on a 5-point Likert scale. Content validity, construct validity, criterion validity, and reliability of the BFAS were established.

The newly developed BFAS is a reliable and valid instrument with which the adaptation of breastfeeding mothers and their infants to the breastfeeding behavior can be evaluated.

This study was performed to find out the effects of lidocaine or 8.4% sodium bicarbonate mixed with rocuronium on mean arterial pressure, heart rate and withdrawal movement.

Data collection was performed from December 15, 2006 through May 31, 2007. Seventy-five patients with American Society Anesthesiologist (ASA) physical status I & II, under general anesthesia, were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 groups: R group (RG) received rocuronium 0.6 mg/kg; RL group (RLG), rocuronium 0.6 mg/kg mixed with 2 mL of 2% lidocaine; RS group (RSG), rocuronium 0.6 mg/kg with the same volume of 8.4% sodium bicarbonate. Mean arterial pressure, heart rate and withdrawal movement were observed from its injection until 5 min after endotracheal intubation.

The incidence of withdrawal movement with its corresponding injections was 72%, 40% and 4% in RG, RLG and RSG, respectively (p<.001). Score of withdrawal movement was the lowest in RSG of all groups (p<.001). While mean arterial pressure (p=.011) in RSG decreased significantly, and heart rate (p=.003) in RG increased more with its injection than before induction of anesthesia.

Administration of the equivalent volume of 8.4% sodium bicarbonate with rocuronium is more effective than that of lidocaine with rocuronium compared with rocuronium only, in preventing withdrawal movement and in stabilizing mean arterial pressure and heart rate.

The purpose of this study was to develop an antepartum-postpartum breast-feeding program titled "Breast-feeding Empowerment Program" and to measure the effects of this program on breast-feeding empowerment and the rate of exclusive breast-feeding.

The study design was a nonequivalent control group design with repeated measures.

The scores for breast-feeding empowerment of the experimental group (EG) were higher than those of the control group (CG) at week 1, 4, 8, 12. The rates for exclusive breast-feeding of the experimental group were also higher than those of the control group: 86.4% in the EG and 40.9% in the CG at week 1; 100% vs 42.9% at week 4; 86.4% vs 38.1% at week 8; 95.5% vs 38.1% at week 12; 94.7% vs 31.6% at 6 months; 89.5% vs 26.3% at 12 months.

The study provided evidence that raising consciousness and strengthening mother's will and skills for exclusive breast-feeding helps them to achieve successful breast-feeding by themselves. In addition mothers need to be empowered to breast-feed starting before delivery and continuing after delivery. This approach could make long-term exclusive breast-feeding successful.

This study was done to evaluate the mean venous velocity (MVV) response with knee and thigh length compression stockings (CS) versus intermittent pneumatic compression (IPC) devices in immobile patients with brain injuries.

We carried out a randomized controlled study. We analyzed both legs of a randomly chosen sample of 43 patients assigned to one of 4 groups (86 legs). The patients were sequentially hospitalized in the intensive care unit (ICU) in "S hospital" from November 2005 to December 2006. The base line and augmented venous velocity was measured at the level of the common femoral vein. We applied leg compression 42 times over 7 days (for 2 hours at a time at 2 hour intervals).

There was a statistical difference among the 4 groups. The difference for the "IPC" group was more significant than the "CS" group.

These results indicate that the application of IPC can be considered as an effective method to prevent deep vein thrombosis for immobile patients with brain injury.

To develop a web-based program on blood-borne infection control and to examine the effect of the newly developed program on perceived threat of diseases, knowledge, preventive health behaviors for blood-borne infections, and incidence rates of accidental needle sticks and other sharp object injuries in nurses.

The program was developed through the processes of analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation. The research design involved a nonequivalent control group for pretest and posttest experiments. The setting was a 745-bed general hospital located in Korea.

The program was designed and developed after consulting previous studies. After development of the program was completed, it was evaluated and revised by a panel of experts. The total score for perceived threat of diseases, knowledge, preventive health behaviors in the experimental group was significantly higher compared to the control group (p<.05). The incidence rates for needle sticks and other sharp object injuries in the experimental group were significantly lower compared to the control group (p<.05).

Application of a Web-based, blood-borne infection control program is effective, and can be expanded to other healthcare workers who also have a high risk of blood-borne infections.