This paper reviewed the concept of the environ merit in Korean traditional thought according to Shamamism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism. The differences in the views of the environment between Korean traditional thought and Western thought were compared according to the ontological point of view. This study attempted to investigate the concept of environment, one of the four metaparadigm(hu-man, environment, health, nursing)as it is experssed in Korean traditional thought. However, it was difficult to find the concept of environment separated out in the traditional thought pattern. Instead, environment concepts are represented in the natural views and universal views. Even though the four traditional thought patterns (Shamaism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism) represent some difference in their view of nature, the combination of natural and human, harmony, anti-dichotomy and so forth are emphasized in common in four thought patterns. Korean traditional thought includes a more comprehensive meaning than the unitary-transformative perspective discussed in modern Westen thought patterns. Environment has been dealt with in narrow view until now. Now we avoid this narrow view and must regard environment as an integrated concept with person. Through this research, it is hoped that a contribution will be made to the development of nursing knowledge suitable to Korean culture.

The purpose of this study was to identify patients' perceptions of health professionals' unkind behavior and the effects of this unkind behavior using a phenomenological research methodology. Understanding of this phenomena should enlighten nurses to interaction and relationship problems between patient and health professionals and thus lead to further research toward enhancing these interaction and relationships. The subjects were 40 adult patients hospitalized in a university hospital in Seoul. They were form 20 to 65 years old and hospitalized at IM, GS, OS, NS, OB/GY ward. Their hospital days were from 4 to 72. Data were collected from July 29 to August 9, 1991 and from January 6 to 17, 1992. The research questions were "What behavior on the part of health of health professionals you perceive as unkind and what effect does such behavior have in you?". Responses to the non-structured open-ended questions were audio-recorded during the interviews done by two nurses researchers. Data were analyzed using the phenomenological method of Colazzi. The validity was enhanced by confirmation of the analysis by two nursing clinical researchers, and professor of psychology, and philosophy, all knowledgable of phenomenological research. From the protocols, 146 significant statements about unkind behavior were organized into 38 formulating meanings which then grouped into six clusters of themes. Perceived health professional' unkind behavior as being cold, insincere, unconcerned, disregardful, lacking in technical skill, and failing to provide a therapeutic environment. From the protocols, 65 significant statements about the influence of such behavior on patient care were organized into 18 formulating meanings which were then grouped into four clusters of themes. Patients perceived these unkind behavior influencing then emotionally, physically and having negative effects on their compliance with medical and nursing care. The study points to the need for health professionals to understand how their may be perceived by their patients as unkind behavior. Patients perceptions of health professionals' unkind behavior may suggest the opposite desire, that professionals have excellent medical knowledge and skill and that they be sincere, concerned, respectful and warm emotionally toward their patients.

This study was designed to measure the physical, mental-emotional and social health status of elderlies according to rural areas, medium-small cities, and large city environment. Data collection was done from July 18 to August 17, 1990. The subjects were a convenience sample after their place of residence was stratified into large, medium-small cities and rural areas. Those who attended elderly centers in Seodaemun, Mapo, and Kangnam districts in Seoul were considered to be residents of a large city and interviewed by trained research assistants and student nurses. Elderlies living in Chungju, Jinju, Chuncheon, and Jeonju cities were coded as resident of medium-small cities and were interviewed by professors of nursing college. Rural residents were interviewed by the community health practioners working in community health practioners working in community health clinics in North and South Kyongsang, North and South Jeolla, and Kyonggi provinces. The tool used in this study was the health assessment tool developed by Choi, Young Hee in 1990. This tool was organized into 20 physical health status, 17 mental-emotional health status, and 37 social health status items. Physical health status items consisted of six factors-personal hygiene activity ability, external activity utilizing traffic, mass media, and spare time ability, sexual ability, digestive system related ability, sexual ability, sensory ability, and elimination ability. Mental-emotional health status items consisted of two factors-mental health factor and emotional health factor. Social health status items consisted of seven factors-grandparental role ability, parental role ability, spoused role ability, friendship role ability, kinship role ability. Data Analysis included frequencies, percentage mean, standard deviation, ANOVA, and chi-square test. The results of the analysis are as follows : 1. The mean physical health status score for large city residents was 4.1132, for rural residents 4.0787, and for medium and small city residents 3.9565. There were significant differences according to residential area for personal hygiene activity ability, external activity ability, sexual ability, and digestive system related ability items 2. The mean mental-emotional health status score for rural residents was 3.8291, for medium and small city residents 3.7967, and for large city residents 3.7807. There was a significant difference according to residential area in the mental health ability item. 3. The mean social health status score for medium and small city residents was 3.0000, for rural residents 2.9362, and for large city residents 2.8960. There were significant differences according to residential area for kinship role ability and religious believer role ability items. The following conclusion was derived from the above results : 1. The physical health status of elderlies residing in medium-small cities and in rural areas was lower than that of those residing in Seoul, a large urban area. Therefore, more medical facilities are needed in rural area so as to monitor their health, prevent disease, and promote their health. 2. The mental-emotional status and social health status of elderlies residing in the large city were lower than the of those residing in medium-small cities and rural areas. This may reflect weakening of the strong traditional family bond that may happen with urbanization. Continued support for elderly parents is essential and education should emphasize the traditional cultural norm and value of filial piety. 3. Facilities and programs for elderly are needed so that they may spend their time more valuably in their urban environment.

This paper was done to verify the use of the Profile of Mood States (POMS) which was developed by McNair, Lorr, and Droppleman(1992) with modifi cations so that it is appropriate for Korean elders. Through the modified tool, it is possible to examine the mood of Korean elders and to contribute to the welfare of elders. The subjects were 370 elderly persons over 60 years old and the data for 319 persons(86%) were analyzed. The research tool was the POMS translated by Yun(1993) and corrected by the researcher. Data were collected between February 12 and April 9 in 1996 and analyzed using the SAS package. The result are as follows: 1. Items with low Cronbach coefficient alpha which means low correlation with total items were removed. The items were removed; friendly, tense, considerate, relaxed, sympathetic, resentful, good-natured, rebellious, trusting, carefree. 2. Overlapped or ambiguous items were discussed by colleagues and elders through verification of content-validity and were removed. Five items were removed in tense-anxiety, seven, in depression -dejection, three, in vigor-activity, three, in fatigue-inertia, two, in confusion-bewilderment, five, in friendliness, and six, in anger? hostility. Thirty four items remainined; angry, clear-headed, lively, confused, sorry, shaky, listless, peeved, sad, active, blue, hopeless, spiteful, uneasy, unable to concentrate, fatigued, helpful, nervous, lonely, cheerful, bitter, exhausted, anxious, ready to fight, sluggish, helpless, alert, deceived, efficient, worthless, forgetful, terrified, vigorous, and uncertain about things. 3. Factor analysis was done in order to confirm con struct validity and three factors were obtained from the result. The first factor, 'anxiety-depression' included 21 items, the second factor, 'vigor' included eight items, and the third factor, 'anger' included five items. Cronbach coefficient alpha for the 34 items was .95. Based on the result, the following is suggested: 1. a contribute to elder's welfare can be made by examining Korean elder's mood in life. 2. there is a need to develop tools appropriate to Korean culture which can be used to examine elders' mood. 3. The modified POMS tool needs to be reverified with appropriate age groups and settings.

Recently, the ratio of elderly in the population are fastly growing due to socio-economical development and the better medical service. Proportionally, the health problems in elderly are increasing, too. Medical professionals must try so that the elderly have the better life through health promotion and disease prevention as well as disease treatment. This study evaluated the effect of walking exercise program on the cardiorespiratory function and the flexibility in the elderly women. The design of research was one group pretest -posttest design. The subjects were eleven elderly women over sixty years old to live in K-city, Kyonggi-do. The type of exercise was walking, which was the most popular exercise in questionnaire. The exercise intensity was 40%~60% of the target heart-rate by Karvonen's method and maintained by the heart-rate monitor. The exercise period was five weeks and the exercise frequency was three times per week. The exercise duration was forty minites at first and gradually increased up to a hour. In order to evaluate the effect of walking exercise, we measured VO2 max, resting heart-rate, systolic/diastolic blood pressure, FVC, FEV1, the flexibility before and after the five week's exercise program. The data are analyzed by the paired t-test and Wilcoxon signed rank test using SAS package. The results are as follows: 1) The hypothesis that cardiorespiratory function will be improved was partly supported. In VO2 max(p=0.0001), resting heart-rate(p=0. 0030), systolic/diastolic blood-pressure (p=0.0387/p=0.0024), there was significant difference. FVC and FEV1 were increased after the exercise, but there were no significant difference. 2) The hypothesis that the flexibility will be improved was supported. There was significant difference in the flexibility (p=0.0140). As the further study, it is necessary to reevaluate the effect with more refined design. We also need to try meta-analysis about the results of previous studies obtained in the experimental setting and compare our result obtained in the field setting with them.

PURPOSE: This study was to identify and clarify the relationship between perceived health, self-esteem, and self-care agencies for promoting self care among Korean adolescents. METHOD: Data were collected from 817 adolescents in schools located in Seoul, Kyungki-do, and Chuncheon from Sept, 16th to Sept, 28th, 1999, and from Mar 10th to Mar 25th, 2000. The instruments used for this study were the Health Self-Rating Scale, Self-Care Agency Assessment Questionnaire (Denyes, 1981), the Self-Esteem Questionnaire (Rosenberg, 1971). RESULT: 1) The mean perceived health status among Korean adolescents was 8.75 (SD=1.72) 2) The mean self-esteem was 27.27 (SD=4.64). 3) The mean self-care agency was 99.64 (SD=21.02) and the average self-care agency score was 3.99 (SD=0.84). In the subcategories, the highest degree was feelings towards health (4.15), followed by ego strength (4.06), attending to health (3.87), general health knowledge (3.56), and the lowest degree was specific health knowledge (3.20) 4) There was statistical significant differences between demographic factors and self-care agencies, expecially, gender (t=28.65), grade (F=3.79), pocket money (t=5.72), and height (F=9.82) 5) The statistical relationship between perceived health status, self-esteem, and self-care agencies were found to have a positive correlation. 6) Self-care agencies among adolescents was the highest factor predicting self-esteem (15%). CONCLUSION: The relationship between perceived health status, self-esteem, and self-care agencies revealed a significant positive correlation among adolescents. Therefore, nursing intervention for adolescents needs to develop self-esteem programs to increase self-care agencies.

The purpose of this study was to assess the perceived exercise self-efficacy and exercise benefits/barriers of Korean adults with chronic diseases, and the relationship between the two variables. For the study, 249 Korean adults with chronic diseases with ages ranging from 18 to 79 years were recruited from hospitals or health centers in five Korean cities and surrounding rural areas. The research instruments were the scales that researchers psychometrically verified the Exercise Self-Efficacy Scale, developed by Bandura (1997), and the Exercise Benefits/ Barriers Scale, developed by Sechrist, Walker, and Pender(1987). Results of descriptive analysis showed that Korean adults with chronic diseases perceived relatively low exercise self-efficacy and relatively high exercise benefits/ barriers. Exercise self-efficacy was significantly correlated with gender, education, regular exercise, and exercise benefits/barriers was significantly correlated with gender, regular exercise. Pearson correlation coefficient showed the significant relationship between the two variables. Further researches, which are a study to evaluate a causal structure for Pender's Health Promotion Model and an intervention study to increase physical activity of chronic patients, are recommended.