The main purpose of this study is to observe patterns of pain of surgical patients following surgery. The postoperative pain was checked with the interval of every 2 hours from 6 hours to 80 hours after surgery. Graphic rating scale from unidimensional concept of pain and sensory intensity scale and unpleasantness scale from two dimensional concept of pain were used for pain measurement. Thirty two patients were participated in this study in which 22 were undergone upper abdominal surgery, 7 thyroid or neck surgery and 3 other surgeries. The findings obtained from this study were as follows: 1) In all cases of using 3 different pain measurement tools, postoperative pain was markedly decreased since 36 hours after surgery. In case of patient's less cooperation, either sensory intensity scale or graphic rating scale may be chosen for the measurement of pain. 2) Pain amounts measured by sensory intensity scale were highly correlated with those measured by unpleasantness scale in all situations except several situations having few cases included. Unpleasantness scale may be separately used for the measurement of affective response due to pain. 3) Almost 90% of total amount of analgesics used for relief of pain were used within 36 hours after surgery. 4) Mean frequency of analgesics used by every patient during 80 hours following surgery was 0.84.

The purpose of this research was to uncover the expertise of ICU nursing in Korea, and to describe nurses' practice based on the degree of skill acquisition. A total of 18 ICU nurses participated in the study. The data was collected through individual in-depth interviews and it was managed using the NUDIST 4.0 software program. The data was analyzed using interpretive phenomenology suggested by Benner. Four properties of expertise of ICU nursing were identified. These are 1) concern and love toward patients; 2) knowledge; 3) skill, and 4) abilities in interpersonal relationships. And the characterisitcs of four levels of skill acquisition, that is advanced beginner, competent, proficient, and expert, were described with exemplars. The results of this study might help nurse researchers clarify and elaborate on the concept of expertise in ICU nursing, and enable them to understand how the process of skill acquisition occurs in the ICU setting. They might also help nurse managers establish educational goals for ICU nursing for student or novice nurses.