1서울대학교 간호대학
2서울대학교 간호대학 BK21 미래간호인재 양성사업단
3서울대학교 간호과학연구소
1College of Nursing, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea
2Center for Human-Caring Nurse Leaders for the Future by Brain Korea 21 (BK 21) Four Project, College of Nursing, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea
3Research Institute of Nursing Science, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea
© 2025 Korean Society of Nursing Science
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution NoDerivs License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0) If the original work is properly cited and retained without any modification or reproduction, it can be used and re-distributed in any format and medium.
Conflicts of Interest
No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.
Acknowledgements
None.
Funding
This research was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (No. 2022R1I1A207290712).
Data Sharing Statement
Please contact the corresponding author for data availability.
Supplementary Data
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.org/10.4040/jkan.25018.
Supplementary Table 1.
Author Contributions
Conceptualization or/and Methodology: JYY, HL, HJN, BK. Data curation or/and Analysis: JYY, HL. Funding acquisition: JYY. Investigation: JYY, HL. Project administration or/and Supervision: JYY. Resources or/and Software: JYY. Validation: JYY. Visualization: JYY, HL, HJN, BK. Writing: original draft or/and Review & Editing: JYY, HL, HJN. Final approval of the manuscript: all authors.
Position | Role |
---|---|
Head of center | • Human resource management |
• Supervising coordinators’ worka) | |
Team leader | • Conflict management |
• Right advocacy activities | |
• Legal issue resolution coordination | |
Health coordinator | • Conducting intake of health-related information from other staff members and IWD |
• Reviewing health-related information | |
• Carrying out follow-up for missing health-related information | |
• Performing face-to-face assessments | |
• Identifying health problems | |
• Determining what information to send to the primary health center (e.g., clinics, etc.) | |
• Visiting hospital/clinic with IWD | |
• Helping communicating between health provider and IWD | |
• Organizing and integrating information | |
• Sharing health-related information in team meeting | |
• Monitoring health behavior (e.g., medication, activities, etc.) | |
• Updating the assessment information | |
• Educating the IWD and support staff about the health promotion activity | |
• Providing feedback on personal support workers’ strategies to promote health management in daily living | |
• Communicating with external healthcare providers in the context of disciplinary actions | |
Personal support worker | • Helping with bathing, dressing, grooming, and toileting |
• Assisting with mobility and transfer | |
• Accompanying individuals to medical appointments, workplace, and community events, etc. | |
• Supporting proper nutrition through meal preparation | |
• Reporting changes in IWDs’ health status | |
• Assisting with medication management | |
• Assisting with rehabilitation exercises or therapies as directed by healthcare providers |
Participant no. (focus group) | Gender | Age (yr) | Occupation | Position |
---|---|---|---|---|
A (1) | F | 40 | Social worker | Head of supportive housing |
B (1) | M | 54 | Social worker | Team leader |
C (1) | F | 38 | Occupational therapist | Care-coordinator |
D (2) | F | 69 | Personal support worker | Personal support workers |
E (2) | F | 55 | Personal support worker | Personal support workers |
F (2) | M | 57 | Personal support worker | Personal support workers |
Position | Role |
---|---|
Head of center | • Human resource management |
• Supervising coordinators’ work |
|
Team leader | • Conflict management |
• Right advocacy activities | |
• Legal issue resolution coordination | |
Health coordinator | • Conducting intake of health-related information from other staff members and IWD |
• Reviewing health-related information | |
• Carrying out follow-up for missing health-related information | |
• Performing face-to-face assessments | |
• Identifying health problems | |
• Determining what information to send to the primary health center (e.g., clinics, etc.) | |
• Visiting hospital/clinic with IWD | |
• Helping communicating between health provider and IWD | |
• Organizing and integrating information | |
• Sharing health-related information in team meeting | |
• Monitoring health behavior (e.g., medication, activities, etc.) | |
• Updating the assessment information | |
• Educating the IWD and support staff about the health promotion activity | |
• Providing feedback on personal support workers’ strategies to promote health management in daily living | |
• Communicating with external healthcare providers in the context of disciplinary actions | |
Personal support worker | • Helping with bathing, dressing, grooming, and toileting |
• Assisting with mobility and transfer | |
• Accompanying individuals to medical appointments, workplace, and community events, etc. | |
• Supporting proper nutrition through meal preparation | |
• Reporting changes in IWDs’ health status | |
• Assisting with medication management | |
• Assisting with rehabilitation exercises or therapies as directed by healthcare providers |
Components | Themes | Sub-themes | Contents |
---|---|---|---|
Person(s) | Disparities in role identity and health literacy across staff | Differences in perceptions of authority and responsibility for health management support among staff | Health coordinators apply specialized knowledge from their health and medical studies to support the health management of individuals with disabilities, while personal support workers rely on informal sources like caregiving experience, online research, and advice from acquaintances. |
Limited health literacy among personal support workers | Personal support workers relied primarily on their own experiences when identifying health-related issues of individuals with disabilities, and their interpretation of health information was often inconsistent. | ||
Tasks | Challenges in health care support reflecting a person-centered approach | Challenges in health care tasks considering the characteristics of different types of disabilities | High level of job demands in caring for individuals with disabilities, considering their disability-related characteristics |
Challenges in health care tasks arising from differences in health beliefs | When individuals with disabilities have low health beliefs or lack awareness of the need for health management, it creates conflicts between the support staff's role and the autonomy of the individuals | ||
Tools and technology | Barriers in health-related information exchange and communication tools | Lack of meaningful health-related information exchange | Need to implement a checklist or platform that enables personal support workers to assess the health status of individuals with disabilities |
Needs for communication support tools for information sharing | Introducing a platform to facilitate real-time monitoring and sharing of information among support staff | ||
Organization | Needs for organizational strategies or information communication | Needs for establishing mutual trust among staff for exchanging accurate information | Establishing a psychologically safe working environment to enhance information sharing without fear. |
Needs for establishing a system for the sharing and accumulation of health-related information | Improving organizational systems for communicating and collecting information and approaches used in supporting the health of persons with disabilities. | ||
External environment | Needs for integrating health-related information across external healthcare institutions | Need for an integrated communication channel with external healthcare institutions | Requirement for an information exchange system among support staff and primary care organizations to facilitate extensive communication with external healthcare institutions |
Needs for platform to integrate health-related information from various external sources | Design and deployment of a platform to create a comprehensive health record system that consolidates health-related data across healthcare providers, facilitating seamless access and enhancing care coordination. |
F, female; M, male.
IWD, individual with disability. In supportive housing, coordinators are employed to support the health, financial management, and housing management of IWD.
SEIPS, Systems Engineering Initiative for Patient Safety.