The purpose of this study was to investigate the stress response of nurses working on psychiatric wards (psychiatric nurses) compared with that of nurses working on general wards (general nurses) in order to provide assessment data for intervention of the stress response. The Symptoms of Stress Inventory was used to measure the stress response. Data were collected by a direct survey method using a questionnaire and were collected from March first to March 30, 1995. A sample of 200 nurses working in three psychiatric hospitals and psychiatric wards in four university hospitals in Seoul and Kangwon province were selected and 200 nurses working on general wards from two general hospitals in Seoul were also selected for a total sample of 400 nurses. Nurses who had experienced more than one of the major life events in the last two years were excluded from the total number in the samples, so the final sample was 161 psychiatric nurses, and 169 general nurses. The Scores for the total stress response, scores of the SOS subscales, stress response by sociodemographic characteristics of the nurses working on the psychiatric wards were compared with those of nurses working on the general ward. The results of this investigation are as follows 1. The mean total SOS score for the psychiatric nurse was 0.81(SD=0.48) and that of the general nurses was 0.90 (SD=0.53). 2. The Mean score for peripheral manifestation, central-neurological symptoms, gastro-intestinal symptoms, muscle tension, habitual patterns, depression, anxiety, anger and cognitive disorganization for the general nurses showed a tendency to be higher than those of the psychiatric nurses. Mean score for cardiopulmonary symptoms for the general nurses was significantly higher than that of the psychiatric nurses. 3. The mean scores for the sixteen SOS items for the general nurses was significantly higher than for the psychiatric nurses. The 16 items were flushing of the face, sweating excessively even in cold weather, thumping of the heart, rapid breathing, dry mouth, a choking lump in the throat, hoarseness, muscle tension in hands or arm, muscle tension in leg, working tiring one out completely, severe aches and pain make it difficult to do the work, severe nervous exhaustion, worrying about health, feeling weak and faint, so upset that one wants to hit something, unable to keep thoughts from running through one's mind. The mean score of only SOS item were significantly higher for the psychiatric nurses. 4. Stress responses between psychiatric nurses and general nurses were significantly different according to the following demographic characteristics; marriage, duration of work, position, accommodation, planning to move into another working site, working ward, education in psychiatric nursing.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the burdent on families who live with an elderly person suffering from senile dementia, and the degree of their depression. There were 400 participants in this study, staying in the Seoul and Kyonggi areas from August, 1, 1997 to February 28, 1998. Among the group, 100 participants took care of their patients at home, and another 300 participants left 100 patients at a day-care center, 100 sanatorium for senile dementia(asylum for helpless elderly people), 100 an infirmary for elderly people. Eventually 242 subjects out of the 400 were selected for the data analysis. The Zarit(1980) tool was employed to measure the degree of burden and Zung's(1965) "Self-Rating Depression Scale" was employed for the data analysis. The data was analyzed, and the percentage, t-test, ANOVA, and Pearson's Correlation Coefficient were calculated. The results are as follows. 1. The average degree of burden that care-giving families felt was 49.13, which is somewhat high. 2. The average degree of depression that-giving families felt was 51.95, which is relatively high. 3. The degree of burden was directly affected by the relation with the patient(F=2.48, P<.05), and the socio-economic status of the family(F=5.17, P<.05). It's also affected by the patient's educational status(F=2.17, P<.05). 4. The degree of depression of the family was significantly dependent on sex(t=-2.05, P<.05), age(F=2.99, P<.05), the relationship with the patient(F=3.65, P<.01), socio-economic status(F=7.74, P<.001), occupation(t=2.82, P<.01), health status(F=4.42, P<.01), and the place of residence(F=4.30, P<.01). The patient characteristics was significantly dependent on his/her educational status(F=3.85, P<.01), the period of suffering from senile dementia(F=2.47, P<.05), and smoking habit(F=6.17, P<.001). 5. The relationship between the degree of burden and that of depression reads r=0.43, which is statistically positive correlation in the high significant level. Upon analyzing the entire summation, most care-giver for elderly patients suffering from senile dementia lack time in caring for themselves. They also experience chronic fatigue and mental discomfort caused by the isolation from society, curtailment of certain activities, a sense of responsibility of certain activities, a sense of responsibility for their patients, and limits of their endurance in taking care of their patients over time. In conclusion, this study emphasizes the necessity for the following propositions : 1. In order to measure the degree of burden that Korean care-giving families undergo, a new tool must be developed on the basis of Korean culture. 2. An educational program based on the demands that care-giving families undergo must e developed, and its clinical effect also has to be examined.