This study aimed to understand and describe the experiences of patients and their families who have received medical services from advanced practice nurses in tertiary general hospitals in Korea.

Data were collected through four focus group interviews with 20 patients and their families who had received medical services from advanced practice nurses for more than six months at four tertiary hospitals from November 29 to December 28, 2023. Verbatim transcripts were analyzed using qualitative content analysis.

The four themes extracted from the experiences of patients and their families were as follows: unfamiliar medical personnel encountered during the treatment process, healthcare professionals who exhibited excellence, companions to light my way through the tunnel of illness, and an advanced practice nurse system that must be activated urgently.

The study’s findings indicate that patients and their families view the care provided by advanced practice nurses as excellent, reliable, and holistic. Research suggests that advanced practice nurses are valuable healthcare professionals in team-based care. The findings suggest that hospitals should utilize an advanced practice nurse system to improve patient outcomes and ensure the quality of care.

The aim of this study was to identify the predictive validity of the Korean Triage and Acuity Scale (KTAS).

This methodological study used data from National Emergency Department Information System for 2016. The KTAS disposition and emergency treatment results for emergency patients aged 15 years and older were analyzed to evaluate its predictive validity through its sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value.

In case of death in the emergency department, or where the intensive care unit admission was considered an emergency, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of the KTAS were 0.916, 0.581, 0.097, and 0.993, respectively. In case of death in the emergency department, or where the intensive or non-intensive care unit admission was considered an emergency, the sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictive value, and negative predictive value were 0.700, 0.642, 0.391, and 0.867, respectively.

The results of this study showed that the KTAS had high sensitivity but low specificity. It is necessary to constantly review and revise the KTAS level classification because it still results in a few errors of under and over-triage. Nevertheless, this study is meaningful in that it was an evaluation of the KTAS for the total cases of adult patients who sought help at regional and local emergency medical centers in 2016.

This study aimed to explore the effects of a community-based first and third Intergenerational Exchange Program (IGEP) on older adults’ health-related quality of life (HRQoL), loneliness, depression, and walking speed, and on 4~5-year-old preschool children's learning-related social skills.

This study employed a non-equivalent control group pre-post-test design. The experimental group included 42 older adults and 42 children who participated in the IGEP for 8 weeks, and the control group included 39 older adults. The experimental group participated in the IGEP once a week for 8 weeks. It comprised a traditional play program based on the intergroup contact theory.

Compared to the control group, there was a significant increase in scores on the HRQoL-Visual analogue scale (VAS) and a decrease in loneliness and depression in older adults in the experimental group (p<.05). Children who participated in the IGEP showed an improvement in their learning-related social skills (p<.001).

These results confirm that the IGEP is an effective intervention to improve HRQoL-VAS, loneliness, and depression among older adults and learning-related social skills among preschool children in the community.

The current study was aimed to investigate the transformational experience of a female student nurse living with type 1 diabetes.

A case study of a 24-year-old diabetes patient was conducted, with interviews concerning the evolving process she had lived through during the period from her later high school years to her graduation from nursing college.

Followings were identified as 5-transformation process: With her diabetes-related limitation, the participant experienced ‘ conflict involving choosing a college and major’. The participant tried to be in charge of managing her diabetes and stepped forward to ‘ adaptation to college life as a new environment’, and she learned more about the process of ‘ evolving awareness of caring’ and developed herself further through the process of ‘ integration of the nurse identity into self-identity’, and finally through the process of ‘ progression and preparation for getting a job’ she achieved her goals, being positive about the future.

The results of the study can provide individuals with diabetes a way of self-management and help the patients and their families in diabetes education. Further research will be needed to refine the results of this study and to learn more about the experiences of patients with type I diabetes in college years.

This investigation examined the effect of PBL on the meta-cognition, critical thinking, and problem solving process.

The research design was pre-posttest with a nonequivalent control group design. Scenarios for PBL sessions were developed on the basis of textbooks and patients' charts and tested for content validity. Seventy six nursing students who took a ‘Nursing Process’ course from two nursing schools participated in the experimental group and control group. The experimental group performed PBL during the semester. Meta-cognition and problem solving processes were assessed by questionnaires which were developed using pedagogics. Critical thinking was measured by the CCTST(California Critical Thinking Skill Test) Form 2000. The data was analyzed by repeated measure (pretest-posttest) MANOVA, and correlation analysis.

PBL improved the participants' meta-cognition and problem solving process but not critical thinking. The relationship between meta-cognition and the problem solving process was supported but the relationship between critical thinking and problem solving was not supported.

These results suggest that PBL has a positive effect on nursing students' educational outcomes. To improve the problem solving ability of nursing students, PBL should be applied to more subjects in the nursing curriculum.

The aim of this study was to develop a Korean version of Night Eating Questionnaire (KNEQ) and test its psychometric properties and evaluate items according to item response theory.

The 14-item NEQ as a measure of severity of the night eating syndrome was translated into Korean, and then this KNEQ was evaluated. A total of 1171 participants aged 20 to 50 completed the KNEQ on the Internet. To test reliability and validity, Cronbach's alpha, correlation, simple regression, and factor analysis were used. Each item was analyzed according to Rasch-Andrich rating scale model and item difficulty, discrimination, infit/outfit, and point measure correlation were evaluated.

Construct validity was evident. Cronbach's alpha was .78. The items of evening hyperphagia and nocturnal ingestion showed high ability in discriminating people with night eating syndrome, while items of morning anorexia and mood/sleep provided relatively little information. The results of item analysis showed that item2 and item7 needed to be revised to improve the reliability of KNEQ.

KNEQ is an appropriate instrument to measure severity of night eating syndrome with good validity and reliability. However, further studies are needed to find cut-off scores to screen persons with night eating syndrome.

This study was done to develop an evidence-based incontinence care protocol through an adaptation process and to evaluate the effects of the protocol.

The protocol was developed according to the guideline of adaptation. A non-randomized controlled trial was used for testing the effects of the new Incontinence Care Protocol. A total of 120 patients having bowel incontinence with Bristol stool type 5, 6, and 7 and admitted to intensive care units were recruited to this study. The newly developed incontinence care protocol was used with patients in the experimental group and conventional skin care was given to patients in the control group. Outcome variables were incontinence-associated dermatitis (IAD) severity, pressure ulcer occurrence and severity.

The experimental group had significantly less severe IAD (t=6.69, p<.001), lower occurrence of pressure ulcers (χ²=7.35, p=.007), and less severity of pressure ulcers (Mann-Whitney=86.00, p=.009) than the control group.

Use of this incontinence care protocol has the effects of preventing pressure ulcers and inhibiting worsening of IAD and pressure ulcers. Therefore, this incontinence care protocol is expected to contribute to managing IAD and pressure ulcers.

This study was done to test structural equation modeling of health-related quality of life (QOL) of men with obstructive sleep apnea in order to identify parameters affecting QOL and provide guidelines for interventions and strategies to improve QOL in these patients.

Model construction was based on 'The conceptual model of patient outcome in health-related QOL' by Wilson and Cleary, using the variables; age, physiological factors, social support, cognitive appraisal, symptoms and QOL. Participants were 201 adult male patients recruited at a tertiary university hospital in Seoul. Data were collected via questionnaires, polysomnography, and clinical records.

Age and symptoms directly influenced QOL. Social support and cognitive appraisal about sleep did not have a direct influence on QOL, but indirectly affected it via symptoms. QOL was lower in patients who were younger and had more severe symptoms. Symptoms were more severe for patients with lower social support and more dysfunctional cognitive appraisal. When social support was lower, cognitive appraisal was more dysfunctional.

These results suggest it is necessary to not only manage symptoms, but also apply interventions to increase social support and cognitive appraisal about sleep in order to increase QOL in patients with obstructive sleep apnea.

The purposes of this study were to develop a Minimal Insomnia Screening Scale for Korean adults (KMISS) and to evaluate psychometric properties and discriminant ability of the developed scale.

Data from a cross-sectional survey of 959 Korean adults were analyzed to develop the summated insomnia scale, which was evaluated in terms of reliability, validity, and discriminant ability by receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve analysis.

Item-total correlations ranged between .71-.79 and Cronbach's α was .87. Adequate validity was also evident. ROC-curve analysis showed area under ROC was .87 (95% CI: .84-.90) and identified the optimal cut-off score as ≤ 20 (sensitivity, .83; specificity, .75; positive/negative predictive values, .40/.95). Using this cut-off score, the prevalence of insomnia in the study sample was 26.3% and most frequent among women and the oldest group.

Data supports the psychometric properties of KMISS as a possible insomnia screening instrument. KMISS also shows promise as a convenient ultra-short screening measure of insomnia for adults and epidemiological studies in community health care settings.

This study was done to investigate factors affecting preparation stage to quit smoking in men.

Based on data from the Community Health Survey conducted in Chungbuk Province in 2008, we estimated rates and odds ratio (OR) of smoking cessation intention for 2,639 men who were current smokers. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to identify factors affecting preparation stage to quit smoking.

Among current male smokers, the rate of smoking cessation intention was 17.1%. The OR of factors affecting smoking cessation was as follows: Compared to men with middle school education, the OR for rate of smoking cessation intention in men with high school education was 1.47 (p=.018), and for college or higher, 1.55 (p=.017). Compared to being single, the OR for cohabitation after marriage was 1.61 (p=.011) and living alone after marriage, 2.23 (p=.005). The OR for attempt to quit smoking, exposure to secondhand smoke and participation in smoking education were 6.80 (p<.001), 1.32 (p=.020) and 1.69 (p=.005), respectively.

Results of this study show that it is necessary to decrease exposure to secondhand smoke and to increase participation in smoking cessation education targeting current smokers to move them from precontemplation or contemplation stage to preparation stage.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of pre-warming on body temperature, anxiety, pain, and thermal comfort.

Forty patients who were scheduled for abdominal surgery were recruited as study participants and were assigned to the experimental or control group. For the experimental group, a forced air warmer was applied for 45-90 min (M=68.25, SD=15.50) before surgery. Body temperature and anxiety were measured before and after the experiment, but pain and thermal comfort were assessed only after the surgery. Hypotheses were tested using t-test and repeated measured ANOVA.

The experimental group showed higher body temperature than the control group from right before induction to two hours after surgery. Post-operative anxiety and pain in the experimental group were less than those of the control group. In addition, the score of thermal comfort was significantly higher in the experiment group.

Pre-warming is effective in maintaining body temperature, lowering sensitivity to pain and anxiety, and promoting thermal comfort. Therefore, pre-warming can be recommended as a preoperative nursing intervention.

The aim of this study was to compare the relation between differently measured sports activities (metabolic equivalent [MET] and peak strain score) and distal radius bone mineral density in college-aged women.

Lifetime sports activity was scored in two different ways: 1) a sports activity score by multiplying the intensity (METs) and duration and 2) a sports activity score by adding up physical strain scores based on the ground reaction force of each sports activities. Bone mineral density was measured using dual energy x-ray densitometry (DTX-200) in the distal radius site.

In stepwise multiple regression analysis, body weight and sports activities during the college period were significant positive predictors for distal radius bone mineral density. The explained variance of sports activity measured with a peak strain score (8.8%) for distal radius bone mineral density was higher than one measured with the MET score (3.3%).

It can be concluded that sports activity scores based on MET and peak strain scores during college are very important for determining the bone mineral density in the distal radius site in women under 30.