PURPOSE: The purpose of the study was to examine mission statements and their elements and to investigate correlations between mission statements and organizational performance. METHODS: The current research was a descriptive study based on the examination of mission statements of 353 hospitals that posted mission statements on their webpage and 92 hospitals that made their income statements public. RESULTS: The most common mission element was 'identification of principal services', which accounted for 92.6%. Mission statements of hospitals included the average of 4.82 mission elements out of 9, and the objective of medical quality improvement was 0.81 among 6 objectives of IOM (Institute of Medicine). Net profit of hospitals with mission statements that have above average number of mission elements were significantly higher (t=2.71, p =.008) than those of other hospitals. Net profit was significantly correlated with mission statements (r=.26, p <.001), and mission elements (r=.29, p <.001). CONCLUSION: The results of the study empirically reveal that mission statements in the hospital affect organizational performance. That is, better organizational performance is shown for hospitals with better, more diversified, and more firmly stated mission statements which include identification of target customers, identification of principal services, contribution to society as a non-profit organization, and concern for employees.
*Hospitals ; Humans ; Organizational Culture ; *Organizational Objectives ; Organizational Policy ; Republic of Korea

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine correlations between nurses' self-leadership and individual work role performance and correlations between self-leadership in nursing units and team members' work role performance. METHODS: Participants were 202 conveniently selected general nurses from 5 general hospitals in Korea. The study was carried out on 35 nursing units. Data were collected during February 2015 with self-report questionnaires. RESULTS: For factors affecting individual work role performance, self-expectation, self-goal setting, constructive thought, clinical career in the present nursing unit and marital status accounted for 44.0% of proficiency, while self-expectation, self-goal setting, constructive thought, and marital status accounted for 42.3% of adaptivity. Self-expectation, self-goal setting, constructive thought, self-reward, clinical career in the present nursing unit and position accounted for 26.4% of proactivity. In terms of team members' work role performance, self-reward and self-expectation in nursing units explained 29.0% of team members' proficiency. Self-reward and self-expectation in nursing units explained 31.6% of team members' adaptivity, and self-reward in nursing units explained 16.8% of team members' proactivity. CONCLUSION: The results confirm that nurses' self-leadership affects not only individual self-leadership but also team members' work role performance. Accordingly, to improve nurses' work role performance in nursing units of nursing organizations, improvement in nursing environment based on self-leadership education is necessary and nurses' tasks rearranged so they can appreciate work-autonomy and challenges of work.
Education ; Hospitals, General ; Korea ; Leadership ; Marital Status ; Nursing ; Patient Care Team ; Task Performance and Analysis

PURPOSE: This study was done to develop and test the validity and reliability of the Korean version of the Pain Assessment Checklist for Seniors with Limited Ability to Communicate (PACSLAC-K) in assessing pain of elders with dementia living in long-term care facilities. METHODS: The PACSLAC-K was developed through forward-backward translation techniques. Survey data were collected from 307 elders with dementia living in 5 long-term care facilities in Korea. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, Spearman's rho, paired t-test, ROC (receiver operation characteristic) curve with the SPSS/WIN (20.0) program. RESULTS: The PACSLAC-K showed high internal consistency (.90), inter-rater reliability (.86), intra-rater reliability (.93), and high concurrent validity (.74) in paired t-test with PAINAD. Discriminant validity also showed a significant difference compared with no pain. The PACSLAC-K showed a sensitivity of .93, specificity of .88, and Area Under the Curve of .95 in the ROC curve. CONCLUSION: The findings of this study demonstrate that PACSLAC-K is useful in assessing pain for elders with dementia living in long-term care facilities.
Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Area Under Curve ; Checklist ; Dementia/*physiopathology ; Female ; Geriatric Assessment/*methods ; Humans ; Long-Term Care/*methods ; Male ; *Pain Measurement ; Questionnaires ; ROC Curve ; Republic of Korea

To determine the precise chromosomal localization of tyrosine related protein-1 and -2 (TRP-1 and TRP-2) genes by fluorescence in situ hybridization, we used DNAs isolated from human bacterial artificial chromosome clones. They contain genomic sequences with approximately 120 kb inserts for TRP-1 and TRP-2. The TRP-1 and TRP-2 genes were assigned to human chromosome bands 9p23 and 13q32.1, respectively. These results confirmed the previously mapped location for the TRP-1 gene and more precisely located the TRP-2 gene, which had previously been mapped to chromosome 13q31-q32.
Chromosomes, Human, Pair 13/genetics* ; Chromosomes, Human, Pair 9/genetics* ; Gene Library ; Human ; In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence ; Intramolecular Oxidoreductases/genetics* ; Proteins/genetics*

PURPOSE: The fourth state of matter, plasma is known as an ionized gas with electrons, radicals and ions. The use of non-thermal plasma (NTP) in cancer research became possible because of the progresses in plasma medicine. Previous studies on the potential NTP-mediated cancer therapy have mainly concentrated on cancer cell apoptosis. In the present study, we compared the inhibitory effect of NTP on cell migration and invasion in the oral squamous cancer cell lines. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We used oral squamous cancer cell lines (SCC1483, MSKQLL1) and different gases (N₂, He, and Ar). To investigate the mechanism of plasma treatment, using different gases (N₂, He, and Ar) which induces anti-migration and anti-invasion properties, we performed wound healing assay, invasion assay and gelatin zymography. RESULTS: The results showed that NTP inhibits cancer cell migration and invasion of oral squamous cancer cell. In addition, focal adhesion kinase expression and matrix metalloproteinase-2/9 activity were also inhibited. CONCLUSION: The suppression of cancer cell invasion by NTP varied depending on the type of gas. Comparison of the three gases revealed that N₂ NTP inhibited cell migration and invasion most potently via decreased expression of focal adhesion kinase and matrix metalloproteinase activity.
Apoptosis ; Cell Line ; Cell Movement ; Epithelial Cells* ; Focal Adhesion Protein-Tyrosine Kinases ; Gases ; Gelatin ; Ions ; Neoplasms, Squamous Cell* ; Paxillin ; Plasma ; Plasma Gases* ; Wound Healing

PURPOSE: To determine the effects of nonthermal plasma (NTP) induced by helium (He) alone or He plus oxygen (O2) on the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and cell death in anaplastic thyroid cancer cells. MATERIALS AND METHODS: NTP was generated in He alone or He plus O2 blowing through a nozzle by applying a high alternating current voltage to the discharge electrodes. Optical emission spectroscopy was used to identify various excited plasma species. The apoptotic effect of NTP on the anaplastic thyroid cancer cell lines, such as HTH83, U-HTH 7, and SW1763, was verified with annexin V/propidium staining and TUNEL assay. ROS formation after NTP treatment was identified with fluorescence-activated cell sorting with DCFDA staining. The mitogen-activated protein kinase pathways and caspase cascade were investigated to evaluate the molecular mechanism involved and cellular targets of plasma. RESULTS: NTP induced significant apoptosis in all three cancer cell lines. The plasma using He and O2 generated more O2-related species, and increased apoptosis and intracellular ROS formation compared with the plasma using He alone. NTP treatment of SW1763 increased the expression of phosphor-JNK, phosphor-p38, and caspase-3, but not phosphor-ERK. Apoptosis of SW1763 as well as expressions of elevated phosphor-JNK, phosphor-p38, and caspase-3 induced by NTP were effectively inhibited by intracellular ROS scavengers. CONCLUSION: NTP using He plus O2 induced significant apoptosis in anaplastic cancer cell lines through intracellular ROS formation. This may represent a new promising treatment modality for this highly lethal disease.
Apoptosis/*drug effects ; Caspase 3/*metabolism ; Flow Cytometry ; Humans ; Male ; Plasma Gases/*pharmacology ; Reactive Oxygen Species/*metabolism ; Spectrometry, X-Ray Emission ; Thyroid Carcinoma, Anaplastic ; p38 Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases/*metabolism