This study examined the effect of hospitals’ family-friendly management on married female nurses’ retention intention. The focus was the mediating effects of the work-family interface (work-family conflict, work-family enrichment and work-family balance).

This study was a cross-sectional study. The participants were 307 nurses working at five public and five private hospitals with more than 200 beds in Seoul. Data were collected using structured questionnaires from September 10 to September 17, 2018 and analyzed with SPSS 24.0. Data were analyzed using an independent t-test, a one-way ANOVA, Pearson's correlation coefficients, and multiple regression following the Baron and Kenny method and Sobel test for mediation.

There were significant correlations among family-friendly management, the work-family interface, and retention intention. Work-family conflict showed a partial mediating effect on the relationship between family-friendly management and retention intention. Work-family enrichment showed a partial mediating effect on the relationship between family-friendly management and retention intention. Work-family balance showed a partial mediating effect on the relationship between family-friendly management and retention intention.

These findings indicate that both hospitals’ family-friendly management and nurses’ work-family interface are important factors associated with nurses’ retention intention. Therefore, hospitals should actively implement family-friendly management for nurses and establish strategies to enhance nurses’ work-family interface for effective human resource management.

This aim of this phenomenological study was to describe and understand the experience of spiritual conflict in hospice nurses by identifying the meanings and structures of the experience.

Participants were 12 nurses working for one year or more at hospice units of general hospitals in a metropolitan city and experiencing of spiritual conflict as hospice nurses. Over six months data were collected using individual in-depth interviews and analyzed with the method suggested by Colaizzi.

The experience of spiritual conflict in participants was organized into three categories, six theme-clusters, and 13 themes. The participants felt existential anxiety on death and a fear of death which is out of human control and skepticism for real facts of human beings facing death. They also experienced agitation of fundamental beliefs about life with agitation of the philosophy of life guiding themselves and mental distress due to fundamental questions that are difficult to answer. Also they had distress about poor spiritual care with guilty feelings from neglecting patients' spiritual needs and difficulties in spiritual care due to lack of practical competencies.

Findings indicate the experience of spiritual conflict in hospice nurses is mainly associated with frequent experience of death in hospice patients. The experience of spiritual conflict consisted of existential anxiety, agitation of fundamental beliefs and distress over poor spiritual care. So, programs to help relieve anxiety, agitation and distress are necessary to prevent spiritual conflict and then spiritual burnout in hospice nurses.

The purpose of the study was to identify and explain the essences and structures of maternal conflicts in Vietnamese married immigrant women in Korea.

A phenomenological methodology was used for the study. Eleven Vietnamese married immigrant women participated in the study. Verbatim transcripts were analyzed using Colaizzi's method.

Four categories, 10 clusters and 26 themes emerged from the data for the experience in maternal conflicts of Vietnamese married immigrant women. The four categories were 'An unprepared young motherhood in another culture', 'Feeling left out of the mother's place along the bands of Nap tai tradition', 'My image is like not-being able to stand alone/be independent' and 'Finding hope in motherhood despite of conflicts and stigmas'.

Vietnamese married immigrant women experienced not only the negative aspects but also sublimation of maternal conflicts. Based on the results, health professionals need to develop effective nursing interventions toward a positive maternal identity and approach with interculturalism for the Vietnamese married immigrant women in Korea.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects on immigrant couples' communication, intimacy, conflict and quality of life when using foot massage.

The research design consisted of pre-and-post test consecutive experimental design through a nonequivalent control group. Data were collected July 6, 2009 to February 27, 2010. The 36 couples were divided into two groups, experimental and control with 18 couples in each group. Foot massage was applied twice a week for 6 weeks by the couples in the experimental group.

There were statistically significant increases in communication (p=.011), intimacy (p<.001), quality of life (p=.017) between the couples in the experimental group compared to the control group. There was also a statistically significant decrease in conflict (p=.003) between the couples in the experimental group compared to the control group.

Foot massage can be applied as a nursing intervention for improvement of marital relationship in immigrant couples.

The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationships between the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) psychological type and marital satisfaction, divorce proneness, positive affect, and conflict regulation in couple visiting a clinic.

Couples (n=62) who visited "M" couple clinic participated in the study. Data were collected from March to June 2009 using the Marital Satisfaction Scale, Marital Status Inventory, Positive Affect Inventory, and Conflict Regulation Inventory.

The couples showed no significant differences in marital satisfaction, positive affect, and conflict regulation according to similarities between spouses in MBTI types. However, they showed significant differences in divorce proneness of husband according to a similarity in the Sensing/Intuition indicator. They also showed significant differences in divorce proneness, positive affect, and conflict regulation between the couples for ISTJ (Introversion, Sensing, Thinking, Judging) or ESTJ (Extraversion, Sensing, Thinking, Judging) types compared to other couples.

When nurses counsel couples, they should understand that differences in psychological type between spouses affects their marital relationship. In addition, nurses should educate couples on the characteristics of each type according to the couple's types and help them to understand each other, especially for couples where one spouse is the ISTJ/ESTJ type. These interventions will improve marital satisfaction and prevent the divorce in these couples.

This paper reports a randomized controlled trial to investigate the effects of a Marital-relationship enhancement program(MREP) for marital couples.

Volunteer couples from several well-being centers in Seoul were randomly assigned either to a treatment group (n=36), participating in a MREP based on Gottman's “sound marital house” theory, or to a control group (n=35) receiving no treatment. The content of the MREP was provided to the control group after the research was completed. Data was collected from December 2003 to May 2004 using modified versions of the inventories developed by Gottman on marital satisfaction, positive affect, conflict regulation, and communication barriers.

Participants in the experimental group showed significant improvements in marital satisfaction, positive affects, conflict regulation, and communication-barrier scores compared to the control group.

The present program for marital-relationship enhancement is helpful in enhancing marital relationships and regulating conflict between marital couples and, ultimately, may be useful to prevent divorce.