PURPOSE: In Korea, the prevalence of dementia patients has increased, which makes the care burden of nurses important. The purpose of this study is to identify factors affecting the care burden of nurses caring elderly patients with dementia. METHODS: A cross-sectional design was conducted using a convenience sample of 127 nurses from two hospitals and a nursing home in Korea. Participants completed questionnaires on knowledge of and attitudes toward dementia, social support, self-esteem, dementia problematic behavior (DPB), and professional caregiver burden index. The data were analyzed by using the t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation, and multiple regression with the SPSS/windows version 21.0 program. RESULTS: The influencing factors for nurse burden include day shift, DPB, self-esteem, social support, which explain 28.0% of care burden of nurses. CONCLUSION: To reduce the burden of the nurses, there needs to be an administrative system that focuses on enhancing their self-esteem and social support. Active institutional support may be necessary for the nurses taking care of elderly patients with dementia.
Aged ; Caregivers ; Dementia ; Humans ; Korea ; Nursing Homes ; Prevalence

Purpose: This study aimed to examine the level of self-concept and psychosocial well-being among women with BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutations and to identify factors affecting their psychosocial well-being. Methods: A cross-sectional design was used.Data were collected from an online community comprising Korean patients with breast cancer and their families. A total of 98 women with BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutations completed the online questionnaire comprising the BRCA self-concept scale, the psychosocial well-being index-short form, demographic characteristics, and disease-related characteristics. Descriptive statistics, frequencies, independent t-tests, one-way ANOVA, Pearson’s correlation, and multiple regression were used for data analysis. Results: The total self-concept level at 82.13±15.45 (range: 17~119), and the psychosocial well-being level at 28.81±9.51 (range: 0~54) indicated a high-risk group of psychosocial well-being among the surveyed women with BRCA gene mutations compared with Korean general office workers. Self-concept (β=.57, p<.001) and monthly family income (≥4,500 USD)(β=-.24, p=.048) significantly affected the psychosocial well-being of women with BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutations. Conclusion The level of self-concept and psychosocial well-being of women with BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutations should be assessed carefully, and tailored consultation and educational programs should be developed to overcome a negative self-concept. Supportive systems for financially vulnerable women with BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutations should be considered.

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to investigate the factors influencing the competence in intensive and critical care nursing of senior nursing students. METHODS: A descriptive survey was used to examine the factors that influence competence in intensive and critical care nursing. The data were collected using self-administered questionnaires; 237 senior nursing students were asked about general characteristics, critical thinking, communication competence, self-esteem, self-resilience, and self-leadership. RESULTS: Multiple regression analysis indicated that self-leadership, self-esteem, and confidence in intensive care unit practice predicted the competence in intensive and critical care nursing (37.8% of explanatory power). Critical thinking, communication competence, and self-resilience were not shown to be significant predictors of, but were positively correlated with, the competence in intensive and critical care nursing. CONCLUSION: Based on the results, it is suggested that self-leadership, self-esteem, and confidence in intensive care unit practice should be considered in nursing education in order to improve nursing students' level of competence in intensive and critical care nursing.
Clinical Competence ; Critical Care Nursing* ; Critical Care* ; Education, Nursing ; Humans ; Intensive Care Units ; Mental Competency* ; Nursing* ; Students, Nursing* ; Thinking

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine the degree of intensive and critical care nursing competence in senior nursing students. METHODS: The research method for this study comprised a descriptive survey study with a convenience sample of 113 senior nursing students from one university. The instrument entitled ICCN-CS-1, which measures intensive and critical care nursing competence, was translated by the authors following WHO guidelines for translation process. The data were collected using ICCN-CS-1. RESULTS: The mean score of intensive and critical care nursing was above the intermediate level. The competence indices of knowledge, skill and attitude/value were also above the intermediate level, which suggests that their competence is good. For two intensive and critical care nursing domains, the nursing students' mean score of clinical competence is higher than that of professional competence. The competence of intensive and critical care is also influenced by nursing students' satisfaction in their major and clinical practice as well as their confidence in clinical practice. CONCLUSION: The senior nursing students' competence of intensive and critical care nursing is above the intermediate level. A consideration of the influencing factors of satisfaction of nursing major/ICU practice and confidence of ICU practice is needed in intensive and critical care nursing education.
Clinical Competence ; Critical Care Nursing* ; Critical Care* ; Education ; Humans ; Mental Competency* ; Methods ; Nursing* ; Professional Competence ; Students, Nursing

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the experiences of insomnia symptoms in the elderly living alone in the community. Methods: Eleven of the elderly with insomnia symptoms living alone in the community were interviewed. Data were collected through individual interviews July-September 2018. Colaizzi’s phenomenological methodology was used. Results: Results showed that the experiences of insomnia symptoms of the elderly living alone comprised 11 themes clusters and five categories: 1) Insomnia symptoms triggered by various causes, 2) Physical symptoms exacerbated by insomnia, 3) Insomnia worsened by psychological symptoms, 4) Useless efforts to fix insomnia, 5) Living with adapted insomnia symptoms. Conclusion It is necessary to develop a sleep intervention program that includes insomnia symptoms awareness, sleep health education, and social support factors. Community nurses should focus on insomnia symptoms as well as listen and empathize with various psychological phenomena in caring for the elderly with insomnia living alone.

Purpose: This study was conducted to examine the effects of the oral care program for improving swallowing function of the elderly using welfare centers on depression, self efficacy, subjective oral health status and swallowing related quality of life. Methods: The intervention in this study was systematically developed through the six stages of Intervention Mapping Protocol (IMP) and was based on Mead’s symbolic interaction theory and Bandura's self efficacy theory. A non equivalent control group pre and post-test design was conducted on a total of 37 elderly people (experimental group: 19, control group: 18) from D city. The oral care program was administered to the experimental group once a week for five weeks, totaling five times, and the exact program ran for 50 minutes. The collected data were analyzed using the SPSS/WIN 25.0 program. Results: Following the intervention, subjective oral health score, and swallowing related quality of life were significantly improved in the experimental group. Conclusion The oral care program presented in this study was found to be effective in increasing subjective oral health status, and swallowing related quality of life for the elderly using welfare centers.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to verify influencing factors affecting service quality provided by caregivers working for the elderly with dementia. Methods: Data were collected using a self-reported questionnaire from 214 caregivers in a long-term care facility in D city. The data were analyzed with service quality, dementia knowledge, work value, and job performance confidence. For data analysis, the descriptive statistics, t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficients, and multiple regression were performed using SPSS/WIN 21.0 program. Results: There were significant differences in service quality depending on the health status. Factors influencing service quality were work value, and job performance confidence with R2 value of 38%. The highly influencing factors were work value, and job performance confidence. Conclusion The results of this study indicate that the effort to improve the service quality of caregivers should focus on work value and job performance confidence.

Purpose: This study was conducted to investigate the factors affecting the discrimination of the elderly using welfare centers. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 217 elderly people from a welfare center in D city. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire survey consisting of ageism experience, social participation attitude, social support, and empowerment. For data analysis, descriptive statistics, t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficients, and multiple regression were performed using SPSS/WIN 21.0 program. Results: As a result of analyzing the correlations among the variables, the discrimination experience of the elderly showed negative correlations in social participation attitude and child relationship support. The factors affecting the discrimination experience of the elderly include gender, job, smartphone use, and child relationship support had a significant effect. The explanatory power of the discrimination experience of these factors was 15.4%. Conclusion This study found that gender, job, social support, and smartphone use were factors influencing the discrimination experience of the elderly. It is hoped that public relations and policy measures should be considered.

The etiology and pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) are not completely understood although it is often associated with other conditions such as obesity, hypertension, and dyslipidemia. Lipoprotein lipase (LPL) is a key enzyme in human lipid metabolism that facilitates the removal of triglyceride-rich lipoproteins from the bloodstream. LPL hydrolyzes the core of triglyceride-rich lipoproteins (chylomicrons and very low density lipoprotein) into free fatty acids and monoacylglycerol. To gain insight into the possible role of LPL in T2DM, nine single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of LPL were analyzed for the association with T2DM using 944 unrelated Koreans, including 474 T2DM subjects and 470 normal healthy controls. Of the nine LPL SNPs we analyzed, a significant association with multiple tests by the false discovery rate (FDR) was observed between T2DM and SNP rs343 (+13836C>A in intron 3). SNP rs343 was also marginally associated with some of T2DM-related phenotypes including total cholesterol, high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDLc), and log transformed glycosylated hemoglobin in 470 normal controls, although no significant association was detected by multiple tests. In total, our results suggest that the control of lipid level by LPL in the bloodstream might be an important factor in T2DM pathogenesis in the Korean population.
Aged ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Cohort Studies ; Databases, Genetic ; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2/*genetics ; Female ; Gene Frequency ; Genetic Predisposition to Disease ; Genotype ; Humans ; Lipoprotein Lipase/*genetics ; Male ; Middle Aged ; *Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide

BACKGROUND: From May to July 2015, the Republic of Korea experienced the largest outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) outside the Arabian Peninsula. A total of 186 patients, including 36 deaths, had been diagnosed with MERS-coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infection as of September 30th, 2015. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We obtained information of patients who were confirmed to have MERS-CoV infection. MERS-CoV infection was diagnosed using real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction assay. RESULTS: The median age of the patients was 55 years (range, 16 to 86). A total of 55.4% of the patients had one or more coexisting medical conditions. The most common symptom was fever (95.2%). At admission, leukopenia (42.6%), thrombocytopenia (46.6%), and elevation of aspartate aminotransferase (42.7%) were observed. Pneumonia was detected in 68.3% of patients at admission and developed in 80.8% during the disease course. Antiviral agents were used for 74.7% of patients. Mechanical ventilation, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, and convalescent serum were employed for 24.5%, 7.1%, and 3.8% of patients, respectively. Older age, presence of coexisting medical conditions including diabetes or chronic lung disease, presence of dyspnea, hypotension, and leukocytosis at admission, and the use of mechanical ventilation were revealed to be independent predictors of death. CONCLUSION: The clinical features of MERS-CoV infection in the Republic of Korea were similar to those of previous outbreaks in the Middle East. However, the overall mortality rate (20.4%) was lower than that in previous reports. Enhanced surveillance and active management of patients during the outbreak may have resulted in improved outcomes.
Antiviral Agents ; Aspartate Aminotransferases ; Coronavirus Infections* ; Disease Outbreaks ; Dyspnea ; Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation ; Fever ; Humans ; Hypotension ; Leukocytosis ; Leukopenia ; Lung Diseases ; Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus ; Middle East* ; Mortality ; Pneumonia ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Republic of Korea* ; Respiration, Artificial ; Thrombocytopenia