This study aimed to explore and compare the knowledge structure of pain management nursing research, between Korea and other countries, applying a text network analysis.

321 Korean and 6,685 international study abstracts of pain management, published from 2004 to 2017, were collected. Keywords and meaningful morphemes from the abstracts were analyzed and refined, and their co-occurrence matrix was generated. Two networks of 140 and 424 keywords, respectively, of domestic and international studies were analyzed using NetMiner 4.3 software for degree centrality, closeness centrality, betweenness centrality, and eigenvector community analysis.

In both Korean and international studies, the most important, core-keywords were “pain,” “patient,” “pain management,” “registered nurses,” “care,” “cancer,” “need,” “analgesia,” “assessment,” and “surgery.” While some keywords like “education,” “knowledge,” and “patient-controlled analgesia” found to be important in Korean studies; “treatment,” “hospice palliative care,” and “children” were critical keywords in international studies. Three common sub-topic groups found in Korean and international studies were “pain and accompanying symptoms,” “target groups of pain management,” and “RNs’ performance of pain management.” It is only in recent years (2016~17), that keywords such as “performance,” “attitude,” “depression,” and “sleep” have become more important in Korean studies than, while keywords such as “assessment,” “intervention,” “analgesia,” and “chronic pain” have become important in international studies.

It is suggested that Korean pain-management researchers should expand their concerns to children and adolescents, the elderly, patients with chronic pain, patients in diverse healthcare settings, and patients’ use of opioid analgesia. Moreover, researchers need to approach pain-management with a quality of life perspective rather than a mere focus on individual symptoms.

The purpose of this study was to develop a heart health diary to promote self-care ability among patients with heart failure (HF), and to identify the diary's effect on self-care adherence, self-efficacy, and physical activity.

A randomized control-group pretest-posttest design was adopted using block randomization. A calender-typed health diary was developed and it included a self-care checklist and education information on HF management. The experimental group were given guided counseling and education for 8 weeks and wrote a daily health diary during that period. Data were collected from the outpatient department of a tertiary medical center from February to April 2016. To verify the hypotheses, data for the experimental group (n=28) and control group (n=33) were analysed using the independent t-test with SPSS/WIN 21.0.

At the end of 8 weeks the experimental group had significantly higher scores for self-care adherence (t=-2.48, p =.016) and exercise related self-efficacy (t=-3.44, p =.001) compared to the control group.

The findings show that the application of a patient-directed heart health diary is an effective nursing intervention for improving HF patients' self-care adherence and exercise self-efficacy. Strategies to promote dietary self-efficacy are necessary along with further studies including repeated research with an increasing intervention period. Healthcare providers need to encourage the utilization of a health diary for HF patients as a tool for evaluation and for implementation that leads to self-care.

This paper was conducted to validate the Korean version of the Peer Group Caring Interaction Scale (PGCIS-K) that measures caring behaviors as experienced by nursing students.

Translation of the PGCIS-K was validated through forward-backward translation methods. Survey data were collected from 218 nursing students in a nursing school. Construct validity and criterion-related validity were evaluated. Internal consistency and the Guttman split-half coefficient were calculated to assess reliability.

The PGIS-K showed reliability except for 4 items (Cronbach's α=.91, Guttman split-half coefficient=.85), which were low (<.30) or negatively correlated with the total scale. A 12-item reduced form of the PGCIS-K was developed by item-analysis and construct validity evidence. Factor loading for the 12 items on 2 factors ranged from .47~.82, which explained 58.4% of the total variance. Two factors were named 'modeling and assistance (Cronbach's α=.87)' and 'communication and sharing (Cronbach's α=.82)'. Convergent validity, discriminant validity, and criterion validity were supported according to the correlation coefficients of the 2 factors with other measure.

The findings suggest preliminary evidence that the 12-item PGCIS-K can be used to measure nursing students' peer group caring interactions in Korea. Additional studies are recommended to continue the psychometric evaluation of this scale. Also, it can be extended to measure graduate nursing students or staff nurses' peer group caring interaction.

This study was designed to construct and test structural equation modeling on healthy menopausal transition in middle-aged women in order to identify variables affecting healthy menopausal transition.

Participants, 276 women, 45 to 60 years of age, with menopausal symptom score higher than 5 on the Korean version of Menopause Rating Scale, were recruited in three cities and one county of Gyeongnam Province. Research data were collected via questionnaires and analysed using SPSS version 18.0 and AMOS version 20.0.

After confirmatory factor analysis, one of the observed variables was excluded due to relatively low factor loading. The model fit indices for the hypothetical model were suitable for the recommended level: GFI=.93, CFI=.92, RMSEA=.05. Self-efficacy, self-differentiation, and menopausal symptoms explained 67.7% of variance in menopausal transition, and self-differentiation was the most influential factor for menopausal transition. Self efficacy and menopausal symptoms explained 9.6% of variance in menopausal management, although "menopausal symptoms" was not significant.

These results suggest that nursing interventions to improve self-differentiation, self efficacy, menopausal management and decrease menopausal symptoms are critical for healthy menopausal transition in middle-aged women. Continued development of a variety of community-based nursing interventions to facilitate healthy menopausal transition is suggested.

The purposes of this study were to explore the functional status of elderly residents and to analyze time use, and finally identify factors to predict nursing care needs in relation to functional status and health related variables. Methods: In this study a descriptive-correlational design was used. Functional status of participants was obtained through interviews, and nursing care time was examined using a 1 min time-motion study with a standardized instrument developed by Korea Long-Term Care Planning Committee (2005).

In this study a descriptive-correlational design was used. Functional status of participants was obtained through interviews, and nursing care time was examined using a 1 min time-motion study with a standardized instrument developed by Korea Long-Term Care Planning Committee (2005).

The mean total functional score was 65 (range 28-125) and mean total nursing care time was 144.15 min per day. There were significant positive relationships between total nursing care time, marital status, back pain, dementia, and vision impairment. Multiple regression analyses showed that a liner combination of number of illnesses, types of primary disease, ADL, IADL, cognitive function, nursing demand, and rehabilitation demand explained 42.8% of variance of total nursing time. ADL (β=-.533) was the most significant predictor of nursing service need.

Identifying factors that result in variations of service need has implications for adequate nursing service, estimation of optimum nurse to patient ratio, quality of care and patient safety.

The purpose of this study was to describe the current status of utilization and costs of home health nursing care by the levels of medical institutes in Korea.

A secondary analysis of existing data was used from the national electronic data information(EDI) of 148 home health agencies for 6 months from May to Oct 2005 in total.

The 148 agencies had multiple services in cerebral infaction, essential hypertension, sequela of cerebrovascular disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus, etc.. The highest 10 rankings of 76 categories of home health nursing services were composed of 96.4% of the total services, such as simple treatment, inflammatory treatment, urethra & bladder irrigation, inserting indwelling catheter etc., in that order. The highest 20 rankings of 226 categories of home examination services were composed of 77.0% of the total home examination services. In addition, the average cost of home health care per visit was 46,088 Won (≒48 $, 1 $=960 Won). The costs ranged from 74,523 Won (≒78 $, loss of chronic kidney function, N18) to 32,270 Won (≒34 $, other cerebrovascular diseases, I67).

Results suggest that client characteristics of hospital based HHNC are not different from community based HHNC or visiting nursing services for elderly. The national results will contribute to baseline data used to establish a policy for the home health nursing care system and education.