PURPOSE: This study was conducted to explore clinical nurses' experience of positive organizational culture in order to provide data for effective strategies of acquisition and retention of competent nurses. METHODS: In this qualitative study, interviews with four focus groups of four to six nurses, 19 in total, were held. Compositional factors in groups included clinical experience, age, work place, and position. Interviews proceeded until data were saturated. RESULTS: Fifteen sub-themes, categorized into six themes, emerged. Positive organizational culture themes included "Helping nurses to be organization members", "Allowing nurses to communicate with one another", "Helping nurses take an initiative to lead organization", "Having competent leader take charge of organization", "Enabling nurses to achieve organizational changes", and "Leading nurses to accomplish organizational performance." CONCLUSION: Results indicate that positive organizational culture is related to increases in occupational satisfaction and decreases in turnover through supportive organizational culture which makes it possible to reinvest expenses required for training new members to promoting quality growth in the organization and the prestige of professional nurses. In order to improve occupational satisfaction and sustained growth in nurses, it is necessary to provide nurses with positive work environments and require members to make active efforts leading to strategic changes.
Focus Groups ; Organizational Culture* ; Workplace

The purposes of this study were (1) to understand how customers trade off one attribute against another when they choose a pizza restaurant, (2) to compare the importance of individual attributes with their relative importance and (3) to compare customers' brand choice patterns with the prediction of pizza restaurant operators. Empirical data for this study were collected from the customers (n = 307) and operators (n = 273) of four famous pizza franchise restaurants in Korea, Pizza Hut, Mister Pizza, Domino's Pizza and Pizza Mall. The attributes and attribute levels for the hypothetical profiles were decided from the focus group discussion. A total of 16 profiles was selected from fractional factorial designs. The SPSS conjoint procedure was used to calculate utility scores and simulate profiles. The overall group statistics showed the relative importance of all attributes compared with one other. Taste was the most important attribute (32.48%) in choosing a pizza restaurant, followed by service (21.87%), atmosphere (17.23%), price (15.17%) and speed of delivery (13.26%). There was a difference between the customers' ratings of the importance of the individual attributes and the ranking of the same attributes' relative importance as derived from the conjoint analysis. The operators rated service (26.54%) as also being important, as well as taste (27.76%), in choosing a pizza restaurant. The rankings of relative importance for pizza taste, service and price were statistically different in the customers' and operators' data (p < .001, p < .01, p < .05). Operators who want to differentiate themselves from their competitors should make decisions based on an increased understanding of their customers' brand choice decision process and measure the hidden needs of their customers.
Atmosphere ; Focus Groups ; Korea ; Restaurants*

OBJECTIVE:This study was conducted to provide the fundamental information to prepare better strategies based on the experiences of occupational health care providers who are involved in the Government-funded subsidized occupational health programs for small scale industries. METHODS:The focus group methodology was used in this study.The data was collected using focus group interviews and analyzed in the framework of the Grounded theory method as mapped by Strauss and Corbin(1990). The subjects enrolled in this study included 20 occupational health care providers in the Government-funded subsidized occupational health program for the SSI;6 doctors and 14 nurses. RESULTS: We identified 69 concepts,28 sub-categories and 5 categories(Table 2).The categories were the Program's Goals, Various Services,Difficulties in Implement Services, Program Evaluation,and Suggestions for Alternative Plans. CONCLUSIONS: This program showed that autonomous health management ability has not changed although the possibility for small scale industries to start the health management arose by acknowledging the importance of the health management in the work-place. A successful program should provided a practical service that is planned by the characteristics and the requirements of the workers,a better service than the standard, more visiting times,and a trusting relationship among workers. The occupational health agency's quality and the health manager's specialty needs to be improved and the health manager's authority should be consolidated. An actively cooperative triangular relation among the Labor Department/KOSHA, service organizations, and the workplace is required.In addition,alternative plans were suggested.These included various programs for planning an autonomous service suitable for the quality of the workplaces,a model set-up suitable for the quality of the workplaces,and a role model set-up for the health manager.
Focus Groups* ; Occupational Health* ; Program Evaluation

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the reality, status of clinical nurses' emotional labor and the relationship with physical discomfort, burnout, depression and social support. METHODS: A thousand three hundred sixteen clinical nurses from 42 hospitals nationwide participated in this study. Questionnaires were developed for evaluating the reality and status of emotional labor of clinical nurses after interviewing focus groups and reviewing literatures. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient. RESULTS: Ninety eight percent of nurses had answered having emotional labor and they experienced 82 times per year, 9.6 times during last a month which means they experience it every other day. The one who provoke emotional labor were patients, guardians, physicians, supervisor, and colleagues in sequence. Eighty percent of nurses had intention to leave their jobs after experiencing emotional labor. They were doing more surface acting than deep acting of emotional labor. CONCLUSION: Clinical nurses in Korea experienced excessively high level of emotional labor and delayed responding to clients' requests due to lack of time for caring each patient was revealed as one of the main causes of emotional labor.
Depression ; Focus Groups ; Humans ; Intention ; Korea

PURPOSE: The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the workplace bullying experience of Korean nurses. METHODS: Participants were twenty current or former hospital nurses who had experienced workplace bullying. Data were collected through focus group and individual in-depth interviews from February to May, 2015. Theoretical sampling method was applied to the point of theoretical saturation. Transcribed interview contents were analyzed using Corbin and Strauss's grounded theory method. RESULTS: A total of 110 concepts, 48 sub-categories, and 17 categories were identified through the open coding process. As a result of axial coding based on the paradigm model, the central phenomenon of nurses' workplace bullying experience was revealed as 'teaching that has become bullying', and the core category was extracted as 'surviving in love-hate teaching' consisting of a four-step process: confronting reality, trial and error, relationship formation, and settlement. The relationship formation was considered to be the key phase to proceed to the positive settlement phase, and the participants utilized various strategies such as having an open mind, developing human relationships, understanding each other in this phase. CONCLUSION: The in-depth understanding of the workplace bullying experience has highlighted the importance of effective communication for cultivating desirable human relationships between nurses.
Bullying* ; Clinical Coding ; Focus Groups ; Humans ; Interpersonal Relations

PURPOSE: Purposes of this study were to identify non-value-added nursing activities (NVANAs) and to estimate the amount of time spent on NVANAs among total nursing activities. METHODS: Non-value-added nursing activities were identified though the use of a focus group. The nurses in the focus group were nurses working in a tertiary hospital. They discussed possible activities that could be NVANAs. Based on the focus group discussion, a pilot study was done to examine the actual occurrence of NVANAs in clinical settings. RESULTS: The focus group discussion showed that NVANAs occurred in ten categories of nursing performances including communication with physicians, communication with other departments, medications, equipment/supplies, nursing records, tests, admission, discharge, and transfer. Direct nursing activities accounted for 35.5% of total nursing activities while indirect nursing activities accounted for 64.5%. Of indirect nursing activities, 16% were NVANAs. Most NVANAs were related to communication and equipment/supplies. CONCLUSIONS: To improve the quality and efficiency of nursing activities, it is necessary to identify NVANAs and their causes. Results of this study suggest that improvement in the work process and nursing unit structure, support for equipment/supplies, and effective communication are needed to reduce NVANAs in tertiary hospitals in Korea.
Focus Groups ; Korea ; Nursing Records ; Pilot Projects ; Tertiary Care Centers

PURPOSE: The smoking rates among teenagers in Korea grow gradually since 1980s despite of the numerous programs for youth smoking prevention and cessation have been developed and implemented. The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the processes of habituating to smoking among teenagers using the grounded theory methodology. METHOD: Qualitative data was collected via six focus group interviews. A total of 38 people, twelve teachers and 24 middle school students participated in this study. All focus group interviews were tape-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed according to the grounded theory methodology. RESULTS: The overriding theme of the elicited grounded theory was "stepping into a quagmire by a merest chance". The student participants began smoking by a simple chance. The contingent factors to starting smoking were "discord within the family", "family member's smoking", "schoolwork stresses", or "a rebellious spirit". The conditions of smoking included accessibility, going around in group, and the lack of discipline. "Stigmatizing", "involved in mob violence", and "making a poor academic record" coexisted as the covariance of the smoking habituation. CONCLUSION: The findings of this study illustrated the comprehensive and insightful picture of the phenomena under investigation. Nursing implications and further directions for research were discussed.
Adolescent* ; Focus Groups ; Humans ; Korea ; Nursing ; Smoke* ; Smoking* ; Tobacco Products

PURPOSE: To date, no studies in the literature have examined student delivery of team-based learning (TBL) modules in the classroom. We aimed to assess student perceptions of a student-led TBL elective. METHODS: Third-year pharmacy students were assigned topics in teams and developed learning objectives, a 15-minute mini-lecture, and a TBL application exercise and presented them to student colleagues. Students completed a survey upon completion of the course and participated in a focus group discussion to share their views on learning. RESULTS: The majority of students (n=23/30) agreed that creating TBL modules enhanced their understanding of concepts, improved their self-directed learning skills (n=26/30), and improved their comprehension of TBL pedagogy (n=27/30). However, 60% disagreed with incorporating student-generated TBL modules into core curricular classes. Focus group data identified student-perceived barriers to success in the elective, in particular the development of TBL application exercises. CONCLUSION: This study provides evidence that students positively perceived student-led TBL as encouraging proactive learning from peer-to-peer teaching.
Comprehension ; Exercise ; Focus Groups ; Humans ; Learning* ; Students, Pharmacy ; Teaching

PURPOSE: The research aims to identify the roles of nurses at dementia clinics or geriatric hospitals to set their tasks. METHODS: This research has been conducted through literature review and focus group methodology. The field survey has been done for 195 nurses at 36 hospitals for the aged and dementia clinics from Oct. 9 to Oct. 28, 2006. RESULTS: The nurses were identified to play eight roles as clinical specialists, educators, researchers, counselors, consultants, collaborators, leaders, managers, and advocators. They were also known to implement 27 nursing tasks and 104 nursing activities. CONCLUSION: The findings of this research could provide a foundation for the nursing care work as well as become a practice guideline for the nurses, at these hospitals, to implement versatile roles and tasks.
Consultants ; Counseling ; Dementia* ; Focus Groups ; Humans ; Nursing ; Nursing Care ; Specialization

The purposes of this study were to examine the impacts of characteristics of bakery cafe customers and service quality on customer perceived value, customer satisfaction, intention to revisit, and intention to recommend, and to provide comprehensive understanding on attitudes and behaviors of bakery cafe customers. The questionnaire was developed through literature review and focus group interviews and was modified after pilot test. The questionnaires for the main survey were distributed to 320 males and females aged 20 and over in Seoul. A total of 275 questionnaires were used for analyses (85.9%) and the statistical analyses were completed using SPSS Win (12.0) for descriptive analyses, regression analyses, and correlation analysis. The main results were as follows. There were significant differences of intention to revisit between groups of different gender, age, and personal expenses. The service quality of product dimension affected all tested variables, and the service quality of services and price dimension had effects on customer perceived value and intention to recommend. Customer satisfaction was a unique variable that is affected by service quality of the interior environments dimension. Overall, researchers and managers of bakery cafes should understand customer attitudes and behaviors, and the results of this study would help to establish marketing strategies that meet target customers' needs.
Female ; Focus Groups ; Humans ; Intention ; Male ; Marketing ; Seoul