PURPOSE: To provide basic data to improve the practice environment of pediatric nurses by identifying their recognition of nursing professionalism and self-efficacy, and to examine the pediatric nurse parent partnership. METHODS: Participants in the study were 165 nurses with 6 months of work experience in a university children's hospital in Seoul. Data were collected using a self-report questionnaire. Research tools measuring nursing professionalism, self-efficacy, and pediatric nurse parent partnership were used. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS PASW statistics 19.0. RESULTS: There were statistically significant positive correlations for nursing professionalism and self-efficacy (r=.359, p<.001), nursing professionalism and the pediatric nurse parent partnership (r=.487, p<.001), and self-efficacy and the pediatric nurse parent partnership (r=.442, p<.001).According to the general characteristics of the participants, nurses who were married, practiced religion and had children tended to have higher nursing professionalism. Higher self-efficacy was exhibited by nurses who were older, married and raising children and the pediatric nurse parent partnership tended to have higher scores for nurses who practiced religion and worked in a general ward. CONCLUSION: The findings indicate that higher nursing professionalism and self-efficacy result in a better pediatric nurse parent partnership which should improve the practice environment of pediatric patients.
Child ; Humans ; Parents ; Surveys and Questionnaires

Purpose: Pancreatic cancer (PC) is one of the most lethal cancers worldwide, but there are currently no effective treatments. The DNA damage response (DDR) is under investigation for the development of novel anti-cancer drugs. Since DNA repair pathway alterations have been found frequently in PC, the purpose of this study was to test the DDR-targeting strategy in PC using WEE1 and ATM inhibitors. Materials and Methods: We performed in vitro experiments using a total of ten human PC cell lines to evaluate antitumor effect of AZD1775 (WEE1 inhibitor) alone or combination with AZD0156 (ATM inhibitor). We established Capan-1–mouse model for in vivo experiments to confirm our findings. Results: In our research, we found that WEE1 inhibitor (AZD1775) as single agent showed anti-tumor effects in PC cells, however, targeting WEE1 upregulated p-ATM level. Here, we observed that co-targeting of WEE1 and ATM acted synergistically to reduce cell proliferation and migration, and to induce DNA damage in vitro. Notably, inhibition of WEE1 or WEE1/ATM downregulated programmed cell death ligand 1 expression by blocking glycogen synthase kinase-3β serine 9 phosphorylation and decrease of CMTM6 expression. In Capan-1 mouse xenograft model, AZD1775 plus AZD0156 (ATM inhibitor) treatment reduced tumor growth and downregulated tumor expression of programmed cell death ligand 1, CMTM6, CD163, and CXCR2, all of which contribute to tumor immune evasion. Conclusion Dual blockade of WEE1 and ATM might be a potential therapeutic strategy for PC. Taken toget

BACKGROUND: The etiology of Behçet's disease(BD) is not yet certain, and various hypotheses are suggested. In order to determine the role of dietary intake behavior in the pathogenesis of BD, we analyzed BD patients by questionnaire regarding their personal, social, and economic characteristics, and dietary intake behavior. METHODS: A series. of 79 patients who were registered at the Behçet's Disease Specialty Clinic at Severance Hospital, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea were studied. The patients were classified and the data from the patients were analyzed according to the revised Japanese criteria. RESULTS: All patients except for suspected type patients took an average amount of nutrition close to the Korean Recommended Dietary Allowance(RDA). However, on the whole, the amount of consumption of Vitamin B2 and C was low and in the case of females, the consumption of Ca and Fe was makedly insufficient in accordance with the Korean RDA. In case of the level of dietary and serum zinc, there was no significant difference in patients or among groups. CONCLUSION: Since the consumption of some vitamins and minerals of patients were low, the behavior of dietary intake of BD patients which is considered to have a possible role in development of disease should be studied further.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Female ; Humans ; Korea ; Minerals ; Miners ; Riboflavin ; Seoul ; Vitamins ; Zinc

PURPOSE: This study attempted to understand patients' and nurses' perspectives on the priority of rehabilitation nursing services using Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA). METHODS: This study used descriptive research design. Data were collected from 121 patients and 144 nurses using self-reported questionnaires. Statistical analysis included an independent t-test, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and IPA conducted using SPSS/WIN 21.0 version. RESULTS: There were no statistical differences between the patients' and nurses' mean scores on perceptions of the importance (t=-0.83, p=.409) and performance (t=-0.32, p=.751) of rehabilitation nursing services. The IPA matrix showed a difference between patients and nurses in terms of their perceived priority of nursing services. Regarding the perception of patients, "helping a patient to continue to practice bedside physiotherapy and occupational therapy", "providing information on the proper care agency and community resources", and "providing education for the prevention of complications" fell in the "concetrate here" area (2nd quadrant). CONCLUSION: The results showed that the priorities of patients and nurses did not match in terms of some of the rehabilitation nursing services. Thus, rehabilitation nursing services need to be provided based on the patients' needs. Allocation of resources for the service items that fell in the "concentrate here" area of the IPA need be reconsidered for the quality in nursing care.
Education ; Humans ; Nursing Care ; Nursing Services ; Rehabilitation Nursing* ; Rehabilitation* ; Research Design ; Resource Allocation

This study was performed to identify association between nutritional status and health risks of the elderly. This was a cross-sectional study involving low income elderly women in Gwangju, Korea (> or = 65y, n = 92). Socio-demographics, life style characteristics, health conditions, dietary intakes based on 24h-recall method, anthropometric measures, and clinical biochemistry parameters were examined. Anthropometric and clinical parameters included wt, ht, waist, hip, body protein, body fat, abdominal fat, total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, triglyceride, total protein, albumin, hemoglobin, hematocrit, fasting blood glucose, ferritin, IL-2, IL-6, TNF-alpha, CRP, TAS, TBARS, systolic blood pressure, and diastolic blood pressure. The subjects were divided into three groups based on age (65-74y, 75-84y, 85y < or =) and were divided into two groups according to the sum of the Nutrition Screening Initiative (NSI) checklist score (adequate nutritional status, NSI score < or = 3; at risk of malnutrition, NSI score > 3). Mean and frequency of variables were estimated. Analysis of Variance, Tukey test, Chi-square test, and Multiple linear regression analyses were performed. Mean BMI and body fat were 25.1 kg/m2 and 40.0%, respectively. However, for over 80% of subjects, the intakes of energy, fiber, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, folate, Ca, K, and Zn were less than the Korean DRI (EAR or AI). The subjects who had lower NSI score tended to have better health status, eat meals frequently, have less depression, and exercise regularly. The subjects who had higher NSI score tended to have tooth problems, to eat alone most of time, and to be physically unable to cook or feed. Serum IL-6 and TNF-alpha were significantly related with nutritional status which suggested higher tendency of inflammatory response. Serum IL-2, TAS, and glucose were significantly correlated with body fat (%) or abdominal fat (%). These results suggest that improving the nutritional status, increasing regular exercise, maintaining normal weight are beneficial to health care of low income elderly women.
Abdominal Fat ; Adipose Tissue ; Aged ; Biochemistry ; Blood Glucose ; Blood Pressure ; Checklist ; Cholesterol ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Delivery of Health Care ; Depression ; Fasting ; Female ; Ferritins ; Folic Acid ; Glucose ; Hematocrit ; Hemoglobins ; Hip ; Humans ; Interleukin-2 ; Interleukin-6 ; Korea ; Life Style ; Linear Models ; Malnutrition ; Mass Screening ; Meals ; Niacin ; Nutritional Status ; Riboflavin ; Thiobarbituric Acid Reactive Substances ; Tooth ; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha

Purpose: This study aimed to develop and evaluate the effectiveness of a preceptor educational program in a children’s hospital. The program’s impact was assessed by measuring improvements in clinical competency, communication competency, and leadership competency. Methods: Four day pediatric nurse preceptor education program was developed using the ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation) model. A single-group pretest-posttest design was employed to assess the program’s effects with seventeen participants who were newly trained preceptors. Additionally, participant satisfaction with the program was measured. Results: Following the implementation of the program, significant improvements were observed in clinical competency (Z=-3.62, p<.001), communication competency (Z=-2.77, p=.006), leadership competency (Z=-2.08, p=.038), other competence (Z=-2.64, p=.008), and total competency (Z=-3.52, p<.001) among participants. The overall satisfaction score was 4.41±0.62 on a 5-point scale. Conclusion The pediatric nurse preceptor educational program significantly enhances the overall nursing competencies of preceptor nurses in a children’s hospital. Further research is needed to evaluate the effects of this preceptorship on newly graduated nurses.

OBJECTIVES: Since 2013, the Students' Emotional and Behavioral Screening Test (SEBT) has been conducted annually for 1st grade and 4th grade elementary school students, 1st year middle school students, and 1st year high school students. The SEBT has been considered to have effectiveness and strength for screening high risk students who have a strong possibility of harboring emotional or behavioral problems in school. Therefore, in this study, we conducted an investigation into the awareness of the SEBT based on the rating score of the parents and teachers to determine its future direction and management. METHODS: A total of 731 parents and 149 teachers participated in this study. Each participant completed a self-administered questionnaire on their awareness of the SEBT. RESULTS: 428 (58.5%) parents and 99 (66.4%) teachers rated their overall satisfaction at more than 4 points out of a total of 5 points. The test reliability was rated at more than 4 points out of a total of 5 points by 52.1% of the parents (n=381) and 47.7% of the teachers (n=71). CONCLUSION: Both parents and teachers consider the SEBT to be highly satisfactory and reliable.
Humans ; Mass Screening* ; Mental Health ; Parents* ; Personal Satisfaction ; Problem Behavior ; Student Health Services ; Surveys and Questionnaires

PURPOSE: The soluble programmed death-ligand 1 (sPDL1) has immunosuppressive activity and is a candidate biomarker for immuno-oncology drug development. In this study, we measured sPDL1 at pre- and post-chemotherapy and at disease progression to uncover the dynamics of sPDL1 during treatment in biliary tract cancer (BTC) patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: From 90 BTC patients (training cohort, 53; validation cohort, 37) who were candidates for palliative first-line chemotherapy, blood was collected at pre- and post-chemotherapy (at the time of best response) and at disease progression. The sPDL1 levels were measured using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Responses to chemotherapy, overall survival (OS), and other prognostic factors including the neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) were analyzed. RESULTS: The OS of all patients was 11.5 months (confidence interval [CI], 9.7 to 16.2). The best response was complete response in seven (7.8%), partial response in 20 (22.2%), stable disease in 52 (57.8%), and disease progression (PD) in 11 patients (12.2%). Patients with high pre-chemotherapy sPDL1 (≥ 1.30 ng/mL) showed worse OS than patients with low prechemotherapy sPDL1 (9.1 months vs. 12.5 months, p=0.003). In multivariate analyses, high pre-chemotherapy sPDL1 (hazard ratio [HR], 1.96; 95% CI, 1.2 to 3.9; p=0.011) and high pre-chemotherapy NLR (HR, 1.82; 95% CI, 1.1 to 3.0; p=0.020) were independent poor prognostic factors for OS. At the time of PD, sPDL1 was increased significantly compared with pre-chemotherapy sPDL1 (1.59 ng/mL vs. 0.72 ng/mL, p=0.003). CONCLUSION: The sPDL1 at pre-chemotherapy confers the prognostic value for OS in BTC patients under palliative chemotherapy. The dynamics of sPDL1 during chemotherapy correlate with disease burden and have prognostic value.
Biliary Tract Neoplasms ; Biomarkers ; Cohort Studies ; Disease Progression ; Drug Therapy ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Humans ; Multivariate Analysis ; Prognosis

PURPOSE: The DNA damage response (DDR) is a multi-complex network of signaling pathways involved in DNA damage repair, cell cycle checkpoints, and apoptosis. In the case of biliary tract cancer (BTC), the strategy of DDR targeting has not been evaluated, even though many patients have DNA repair pathway alterations. The purpose of this study was to test the DDR-targeting strategy in BTC using an ataxia-telangiectasia and Rad3-related (ATR) inhibitor. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of nine human BTC cell lines were used for evaluating anti-tumor effect of AZD6738 (ATR inhibitor) alone or combination with cytotoxic chemotherapeutic agents through MTT assay, colony-forming assays, cell cycle analyses, and comet assays. We established SNU478-mouse model for in vivo experiments to confirm our findings. RESULTS: Among nine human BTC cell lines, SNU478 and SNU869 were the most sensitive to AZD6738, and showed low expression of both ataxia-telangiectasia mutated (ATM) and p53. AZD6738 blocked p-Chk1 and p-glycoprotein and increased γH2AX, a marker of DNA damage, in sensitive cells. AZD6738 significantly increased apoptosis, G2/M arrest and p21, and decreased CDC2. Combinations of AZD6738 and cytotoxic chemotherapeutic agents exerted synergistic effects in colony-forming assays, cell cycle analyses, and comet assays. In our mouse models, AZD6738 monotherapy decreased tumor growth and the combination with cisplatin showed more potent effects on growth inhibition, decreased Ki-67, and increased terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end labeling than monotherapy with each drug. CONCLUSION: In BTC, DDR targeting strategy using ATR inhibitor demonstrated promising antitumor activity alone or in combination with cytotoxic chemotherapeutic agents. This supports further clinical development of DDR targeting strategy in BTC.
Animals ; Apoptosis ; Ataxia Telangiectasia ; Biliary Tract Neoplasms ; Biliary Tract ; Cell Cycle ; Cell Cycle Checkpoints ; Cell Line ; Cisplatin ; Comet Assay ; DNA Damage ; DNA Repair ; DNA ; Humans ; Mice ; P-Glycoprotein

PURPOSE: Jab1 is a coactivator of c-Jun that enhances the transcriptional function of c-Jun. Jab1 is frequently overexpressed in various cancers and is associatedwith poor prognosis of cancer patients. Thus, Jab1 could be a potential therapeutic target in cancer. However, the role of Jab1 in biliary tract cancer (BTC) has not been studied. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed in vitro and in vivo experiments to evaluate the therapeutic potential ofJab1 inhibition in BTC. RESULTS: Among 8 BTC cell lines, many showed higher Jab1 expression levels. In addition, Jab1 silencing by siRNA increased p27 expression levels. SNU478 and HuCCT-1 cells exhibited profound Jab1 knockdown and increased p27 expression by Jab1-specific siRNA transfection. Jab1 silencing induced anti-proliferative and anti-migratory effects and resulted in G1 cell cycle arrest in SNU478 and HuCCT-1 cells. In addition, Jab1 silencing potentiated the anti-proliferative and anti-migratory effects of cisplatin by increasing DNA damage. Interestingly,Jab1 knockdown increased PTEN protein half-life, resulting in increased PTEN expression. In the HuCCT-1 mouse xenograft model, stable knockdown of Jab1 by shRNA also showed anti-proliferative effects in vivo, with decreased Ki-67 expression and AKT phosphorylation and increased Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase–mediated dUTP nick end labeling and p27 expression. CONCLUSION: Jab1 knockdown demonstrated anti-proliferative and anti-migratory effects in BTC cells by increasing DNA damage and stabilizing PTEN, resulting in G1 cell cycle arrest. In addition, Jab1 silencing potentiated the anti-proliferative effects of cisplatin. Our data suggest that Jab1 may be a potential therapeutic target in BTC that is worthy of further investigations.
Animals ; Biliary Tract Neoplasms ; Biliary Tract ; Cell Line ; Cisplatin ; DNA Damage ; G1 Phase Cell Cycle Checkpoints ; Half-Life ; Heterografts ; Humans ; In Vitro Techniques ; Mice ; Phosphorylation ; Prognosis ; PTEN Phosphohydrolase ; RNA, Small Interfering ; Transfection