PURPOSE: This study was a descriptive correlation study to increase understanding of, and relationships among critical thinking disposition, clinical decision making and job satisfaction of cancer center nurses. METHOD: The participants in this study were 150 nurses working in one cancer center located in Gyeonggi Province. The statistic program, SPSS WIN17.0 was used for data analysis and data were analyzed using t-test, ANOVA, and Pearson correlation. RESULTS: The critical thinking disposition of the participants showed statistically significant differences according to areas of practice (F=4.426, p=.005), and current position (F=9.346, p=.000). For clinical decision making of the participants, statistically significant differences were found according to current position (F=10.667, p=.000). Furthermore, for job satisfaction, there were statistically significant differences according to income (F=6.779, p=.002), length of career (F=2.701, p=.033) and current position (F=5.423, p=.005). There were significant positive correlations for critical thinking disposition with clinical decision making, and with job satisfaction. CONCLUSION: The results of the study indicate that to improve clinical decision making and job satisfaction of cancer center nurses, it is necessary to increase critical thinking disposition. To make this change, appropriate programs are needed to increase critical thinking and clinical decision making of general cancer center nurses.
Decision Making ; Job Satisfaction ; Statistics as Topic ; Thinking

PURPOSE: The purposes of this study were as follows; 1) To review the definitions of critical thinking from various perspectives, 2) To examine the critical thinking measurements throughout nursing research, and 3) To review the nursing studies with regard to critical thinking. METHODS: This study was a literature review with regard to the critical thinking in nursing in aspects of conceptual meaning, measurements, and research. RESULTS: The definition of critical thinking in nursing included decision making in clinical setting, inference with logical construct to increase nursing quality, interpretation in the context, and evaluation. The critical thinking was a core concept, which meant not only simple nursing process, but included decision making ability. The critical thinking has been conceptualized by both critical thinking disposition and skill. However, there was no nursing specified critical thinking measurement. Critical thinking research has been conducted to describe critical thinking disposition and critical thinking, to determine relationships between critical thinking and clinical competency, and to evaluate the effectiveness of educational programs. CONCLUSION: The instruments for measuring critical thinking disposition and skill that contain cultural difference and clinical specificity need to be developed to measure critical thinking and increase it.
Decision Making ; Logic ; Nursing Process ; Nursing Research ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Thinking

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to develop an instrument that evaluated QUality Of care Through patients' Eyes for hospitalized child (QUOTE-Child), and examine the validity and reliability. METHODS: Preliminary items were reviewed through expert content validity and face validity. To test the validity and reliability of the instrument, the data were collected from 221 care givers of hospitalized children. Data were analyzed using exploratory factor analysis, Pearson correlation coefficient, Cronbach's alpha and Spearman-Brown coefficient. RESULTS: Factor analysis yielded 19 items in four factors including 1) respect, 2) explanation, 3) kindness, and 4) skillfulness, with a cumulative explanatory variance of 70.68%. For criterion-related validity, a significant positive relationship was found between quality of care and pediatric family satisfaction. For internal consistency reliability, the Cronbach's alpha was .93 (importance) and .95 (performance) for the overall instrument. The half split reliabilities were .86, .95 (importance) and .92, .97 (performance). The Cronbach's alpha of 110 data was .92 (importance) and .94 (performance). CONCLUSION: Researchers and practitioners can use this instrument to systematically assess quality of care for hospitalized children and identify areas of support for hospitalized children and their family.
Caregivers ; Child ; Child, Hospitalized* ; Humans ; Quality of Health Care ; Reproducibility of Results

PURPOSE: This study was done to develop a postural-stability patient transfer technique for care helpers in nursing homes and to evaluate its effectiveness. METHODS: Four types of patient transfer techniques (Lifting towards the head board of the bed, turning to the lateral position, sitting upright on the bed, transferring from wheel chair to bed) were practiced in accordance with the following three methods; Care helpers habitually used transfer methods (Method 1), patient transfer methods according to care helper standard textbooks (Method 2), and a method developed by the author ensuring postural-stability (Method 3). The care helpers' muscle activity and four joint angles were measured. The collected data were analyzed using the program SPSS Statistic 21.0. To differentiate the muscle activity and joint angle, the Friedman test was executed and the post-hoc analysis was conducted using the Wilcoxon Signed Rank test. RESULTS: Muscle activity was significantly lower during Method 3 compared to Methods 1 and 2. In addition, the joint angle was significantly lower for the knee and shoulder joint angle while performing Method 3 compared to Methods 1 and 2. DISCUSSION: Findings indicate that using postural-stability patient transfer techniques can contribute to the prevention of musculoskeletal disease which care helpers suffer from due to physically demanding patient care in nursing homes.
Adult ; Aged ; *Caregivers ; Female ; Humans ; Knee Joint/physiology ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Muscle, Skeletal/physiology ; Nursing Homes ; Patient Transfer/*methods ; Posture ; Shoulder Joint/physiology

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to develop a revised version of the clinical critical thinking skills test (CCTS) and to subsequently validate its performance. METHODS: This study is a secondary analysis of the CCTS. Data were obtained from a convenience sample of 284 college students in June 2011. Thirty items were analyzed using item response theory and test reliability was assessed. Test-retest reliability was measured using the results of 20 nursing college and graduate school students in July 2013. The content validity of the revised items was analyzed by calculating the degree of agreement between instrument developer intention in item development and the judgments of six experts. To analyze response process validity, qualitative data related to the response processes of nine nursing college students obtained through cognitive interviews were analyzed. RESULTS: Out of initial 30 items, 11 items were excluded after the analysis of difficulty and discrimination parameter. When the 19 items of the revised version of the CCTS were analyzed, levels of item difficulty were found to be relatively low and levels of discrimination were found to be appropriate or high. The degree of agreement between item developer intention and expert judgments equaled or exceeded 50%. CONCLUSION: From above results, evidence of the response process validity was demonstrated, indicating that subjects respondeds as intended by the test developer. The revised 19-item CCTS was found to have sufficient reliability and validity and will therefore represents a more convenient measurement of critical thinking ability.
Discrimination (Psychology) ; Humans ; Intention ; Judgment ; Nursing* ; Reproducibility of Results ; Students, Nursing ; Thinking*

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine the adherence to physical activity (PA) among older adults in Korea using data from the Fourth Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES IV), and to illustrate geographic variations in PA using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). METHODS: A secondary analysis of the KNHANES IV data from 2007 to 2008 was used for this study. Participants of the study included 2,241 older adults over the age of 65. Estimates on adherence to PA were obtained for vigorous, moderate, walking, strengthening, and stretching activities. All estimates were weighted to represent Korean population. The association between participants' characteristics and PA was analyzed using Wald chi-square test. Maps depicting regional variations in PA were created using GIS software. RESULTS: Adherence to PA among Korean older adults who met national recommendations during the period of year 2007-2008 was about 9% in vigorous activity, 10% in moderate activity, and 48% in walking. The most common type of PA was walking. A higher level of PA was associated with male gender, younger age, high level of income and education, and living with family. CONCLUSION: The majority of older adults did not meet the national PA recommendations, suggesting that consistent surveillance and intervention for PA in the geriatric population are needed in the future. Maps generated using GIS visually showed regional differences in PA among the study participants.
Adult ; Aged ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Geographic Information Systems ; Humans ; Korea ; Male ; Motor Activity ; Nutrition Surveys ; Walking