In Korea the concept of social support was first used as a research concept in nursing and has not had much application in the clinical field. Another problem is that research on social support has used a direct translation of the words "social support" into Korean as "sawhejukjiji". Three questions were posed to direct the research. 1) Is there a concept of social support in Korean society? 2) if so, what words or expressions are used to describe it? 3) further, if so, how is social support structured and how does it function? In order to answer the research questions a three-step research methodology was used: The first step consisted of a literature review on research related to social support and on information on the background of, and the way of thinking related to interpersonal relations among Korean people. The second step, which was done to identify whether there is a concept of social support in korean society, involved interviewing a sample of the population. The third step involved a panel discussion that included the members of the research team and three consultants, a sociologist, a philosopher and a scholor in korean literature. A review of the literature on interpersonal relationships in traditional korean society identified a four cirole structure that explains interpersonal relationships. The first circle with "me" at the center is the family but here "me" disappears into the "we" that is essential for a cooperative agricultural society. In the second circle are those close to "me" but outside the family. The third circle includes those with whom "I" have infrequent but regular contact and with whom correct conduct is important. The last circle is all the people with whom "I" have nothing in common. They are excluded in interpersonal relationships. The literature on interpersonal relationships showed that within the traditional Korean society people lived in villages where most people were very familiar with each other. "Yun", the social network established the connection and "Jung", the feeling of affection increased with time as the connection was strengthened. In the traditional village psychological support was provided through "Mallaniki", "Pumashi" and "Kae" with the latter two also providing material support. In modern Korea there are more informal and formal social networks, like social services and community activities on the formal level and cultural and leisure groups along with "kae's on the informal level. But even with this modern variety of groups, most social support comes from informal networks that resemble the traditional "Pumashi", "Kai" and "Mallaniki". The six member research team interviewed 65 people in ordsr to identify whether there is a concept of social support and then analysed their responses. There were 20 different words describing the reception of the social support and these could be grouped into seven major categories: virtuous, fortunate, helped, supported, blessed, attached(re-ceiving affection) and receiving (grace) benevolence, there were 27 words describing the act of social support which could be categorized into seven major categories: love, looking after, affection(at-tachment), kindness (goodness), faith, psychological help and material help, for the meaning of social support translated as "sawhe juk jiji" there were a total of 14 different answers which could be categorized into 3 major categories: help, agreement, and faith. In third step, the results of the literature review and the answers to the questions were discussed in a pannel. The results of the discussion led to the following definition of social support in Korea which is shaped like a the four sided pyramid on a base. Social support is the apex of the pyramid and four sides are made up of: "do-oom"(both emotional and material help), "jung"(connectedness, or relationship bound by affection, regard or shared common experience), "midum"(faith or belief in), "eunhae" (kindness or benevolence). The research team identified "Yun"(the basic network of relationships) as the base of the pyramid and as such the foundation for the components of social support in Korean culture. On "Yun" rest the other four components of social support: "Jung", "Midum", "Do-oom", and "Eunhae", For social support to take place there must be "Yun". This is an important factor in social support. In private social network "Jung" is an essential facotr in social support. But not in the public social network. "Yun" is a condition for "Jung" and "Jung" is the manifestation of support.

Support has always been considered an important nursing concept. However, there is no agreement among nurse researchers as to a conceptual definition of supportive nursing or meaningful supportive behaviors. Clarification of the concept, supportive behaviors. Clarification of the concept, support in nursing, is necessary to promote communication among nurses on nursing behaviors that are effective in providing support and on understanding the relevant properties and characteristics of the concept, supportive nursing care. The objectives of the study were ; 1. to analyze the concept, support in nursing, in order to provide a definition of supportive nursing care and 2. to operationalize the definition of supportive nursing care and use it as an experimental nursing intervention for patients with low back pain. The first part of the study used to concept analysis approach developed by Walker and Avant(1983) to define to concept of supportive nursing care. The properties of supportive nursing care, defined by this analysis, included perception of supportive need, reciprocal interaction(Transaction), listening, providing empathy and information related to health, and confirmation of the patient's verbal and non-verbal response. The second part, the experimental part of the study, was done using King's(1970) Interpersonal Theory for Nursing. The concept, supportive nursing care, as defined in the concept analysis was operationalized and used as the experimental intervention. The experiment tested the effectiveness of the independent variable, supportive nursing care on the dependent variables, depression, mood and patient satisfaction, in the patients with low back pain in army hospitals. The instruments used to measure the dependent variables were Zung's(1965) Self-Rating Depression Scale, Ryman and Colleagues'(1974) Mood Questionnaire and LaMonica and Colleagues'(1986) Patient satisfaction Scale. The experimental design used for this study was a Solomon 4 group experimental design. This design has the strength of allowing for observation of the main effects of supportive nursing care and pretesting, and for observation of the interaction effects of pretesting and supportive nursing care. The design includes one experimental group and three control groups. The Subjects of this study were 150 young male patients with low back pain on Neuro-Surgical Wards in three general army hospitals. There were 35 in the experimental group, 39 in the pre-posttest control group, 36 in the treatment-posttest control group and 40 in the posttest only control group. Supportive nursing care, as operationalized by the researcher according to the concept analysis, was given to the patients in the experimental group and the treatment-posttest control group, individually for 30 minute sessions, every other day for 5 days. Data collection was done using a questionnaire. The data were collected in a pretest on week before the supportive nursing care sessions, a posttest immediately after the sessions and follow-up test one week later. Hypotheses testing was done using 2x2 factorial analysis of variance and Meta analysis(Stouffer's Z method). The results of this study are summarized as follows ; 1. Hypothesis I, "There will be a difference on depression level between the patients with low back pain who receive supportive nursing care and those who do not receive supportive nursing care", was supported(F=8.49, p<.05). 2. Hypothesis II, "There will be a difference on mood level between the patients with low back pain who receive supportive nursing care and those who do not receive supportive nursing care", was supported(Z meta=2.17, p<.05) 3. Hypothesis III, "There will be a difference on satisfaction level between the patient with low back pain who receive supportive nursing care and those who do not receive supportive nursing care", was supported(F=13.67, p<.05). 4. ANOVA, done to examine the interaction effect of history and maturation, showed no significant difference on the dependent variables between the observations of the pretest scores of the experimental group, the pretest scores of the pre-posttest control group and the posttest score of the posttest only control group. 5. To test for continuing effect of supportive nursing care, paired t-test was done to compare the scores for the dependent variables at the posttest and at the one week later follow-up test. No significant difference on the scores for the dependent variables was found between the posttest scores and the follows-up test scores for the groups that received supportive nursing care, the experimental group and the treatment-posttest control group. In conclusion, it was found that in the case of young soldiers with low back pain in army hospitals, their depression level was decreased, their mood state was changed positively and their satisfaction level was increased by receiving supportive nursing care. Further, the effectiveness of the supportive nursing care lasted for at least one week in this study. The significance of this study to nursing is in the analysis of the concept of supportive nursing care and the demonstration of the effectiveness of supportive nursing care as an intervention within the limits of the study.

PURPOSE: This cross-sectional study was designed to explore the relationship among social support, experienced stressful life events and health behaviors of Korean undergraduate students, and validate the mediator effect of social support. METHOD: One thousand four hundred fifty-three undergraduate students were randomly selected from five universities located in the middle area of Korea. RESULT: The health behaviors of Korean undergraduates tend to have unhealthy patterns. In the case of the students living without family, experiencing more stressful life events and perceiving lower social support, health behaviors are poor. The relationship between perceived social supports, the frequency of the experienced stressful life events and the score of health behavior patterns is statistically significant. After controlling the effect of social support, the correlation coefficient between the frequency of experienced stressful life events and the score of health behavior patterns was slightly lower. The score of health behaviors between the group with an extremely high score of social support and the group with an extremely low score were statistically significantly different. CONCLUSION: Future studies need to be pursued to develop various strategies such as a health education programs and counseling programs for health maintenance and health promotion of undergraduates.

The purpose of this study was to develop a curriculum for the oriental clinical nurse specialist program based on the understanding of Korean human beings so as to develop nursing as a profession and promote the client's health. The design of this study was based on literature review and nominal group study. The research was managed by East-West Nursing Research Institute of nursing science college at Kyung Hee University. The research team was composed of 17 professors of nursing departments of oriental medical colleges. We obtained opinions from Oriental Nurses Association, Oriental Nursing Research Association, and professors in oriental medical college. We reviewed articles, curriculums of other clinical nurse specialist programs, medical laws and the curriculum development plan for the oriental clinical nurse specialist program from Korean Nurses Association. We discussed a curriculum thoroughly in numerous meetings. We developed a following curriculum: 1. Educational philosophy was founded on the oriental human view which was based on Chun-In union theory. It was founded on the oriental health view which recognized health being in harmony with nature and the balance of body function with the harmony of Yin-Yang in the five elements. In addition, it was founded on oriental nursing view to promote these health states. 2. Educational goals were to train oriental clinical nurse specialists, oriental nursing educators and oriental nursing researchers who developed knowledge of oriental nursing theory, nursing practice and created a leadership. 3. Curriculum consisted of 48 credits, of which 36 credits are based on lectures and laboratory classes and 12 credits are based on clinical practice. 36 credits consisted of 5 general subject credits and 31 core subject credits. General subjects consisted of nursing theory, nursing research, law and ethics. Students who had earned master's degrees are not required to take the general subjects. Core subjects consisted of 11 subjects such as advanced physical examination and laboratory, oriental nursing theory, original text of oriental nursing, oriental medical nursing, oriental pediatric nursing, oriental gynecologic nursing, oriental gerontologic nursing, oriental pharmacology, oriental constitutional nursing, advanced nursing of channels and acupuncture points and laboratory and oriental rehabilitation nursing and laboratory. In addition, clinical practice in a hospital ward, out patient department, herb prepation room, department of physical therapy and health promotion center in oriental medical hospitals for 12 weeks. To admit this program, students should complete prerequisites of introduction to oriental nursing and nursing of channels and acupuncture points. 4. Course contents of each subjects were developed to include the course's goal and objectives and specific items. 5. Evaluation involved lecture, laboratory and in field practice. We applied various evaluation systems and methods that were based on both knowledge and skills of the students to ensure full credibility and validity.

This study was conducted to identify the attributes constituting Korean social support and to validate the results of the previous study 'Search for the meaning of social support in Korean Society.' The informants were 41 Korean middle-aged women in three cities : Seoul, Dagjun and Daeku. The data were collected through indepth interviews using the interview guide from Jun. 1994 to Jun. 1995. The interview guide was developed in the simulated situations of 'Stroke attack' which expected to be in need of social support. The women were asked to answer what they felt and the appropriated terms representing the situations. Data analysis were conducted by content analysis. consequently, the Koran social support pyramid was modified as follows ; Support is the apex of the pyramid. The four sides of the pyramid are made up of 'Jung'(Bound by ties of affection, regard or shared common experience, Connectedness), Do-oom(both emotional and material help), Mi-dum(Faith or belief in) and Sa-Rang(Love). The base of the pyramid is 'yun'(the basic network of relationships in Korean culture) that connote the meaning of Eunhae(Benevolence), Euimu(duty, responsibility) and Dori(obligation).