Major purposes of this study were to investigate the administration patterns of analgesics and sedatives in SICU and to identify the factors influencing the use of prn analgesics and sedatives by ICU nurses. The sample of this descriptive study was 50 adult patients in SICU and 53 ICU nurses. Patient's medical records were reviewed to investigate names, doses, the routes of administration, the interval of administration, and the type of prescription of sedatives and analgesics administered. Study medications were narcotics, hypnotics, and antipsychotics. To identify the factors influencing the use of prn analgesics and sedatives, 53 ICU nurses checked 9 items, and rank them from first to fifth. The selection of items was based on the previous studies and the experience of the investigator. The results of the study are as follows: 1. The mean age of the subjects was 53 years, 24 patients out of 50 subjects had received mechanical ventilation therapy. Most of the patients received neurosurgeries and abdominal surgeries. 2. For 4 days, 13 total study medications and combination of these were administered to the patients. Commonly prescribed drugs were Ketoprofen and Midazolam. Twenty six to fourty two percent of the patients did not receive any drugs for at least one day during the four days. 3. On the average, the study drugs were administerd 1.4 to 2.6 times per day during 4 days. 4. More than 50 percent of the prescription was as-needed (prn) except those of the POD 3. Fourteen percent of the patients did not have any prescription for sedation and pain control after surgery. 5. Examination of the frequency of sedatives and analgesics bolus administration revealed that a greater number of doses were given during daytime (from 7 am. to 7 pm.) than nighttime (from 7 pm. to 7 am.). The difference was significant at Alpha, .05. 6. First factor that most influenced nurses to administer sedatives and analgesics for intubated patients was the evaluation of patient's vital signs (51%). For non- intubated patients, the factors that nurses considered important were the patients' complaints of pain (64%) and evaluations of patients' vital signs (23%). In conclusion, the results of this study indicate that patients in SICU might not receive enough analgesics and sedatives to feel completely free from pain during the post operational period. Future study should be focused on the evaluation of the adequacy of current practice for pain and anxiety control in terms of the SICU patient's response.
Adult ; Analgesics* ; Antipsychotic Agents ; Anxiety ; Humans ; Hypnotics and Sedatives* ; Ketoprofen ; Medical Records ; Midazolam ; Narcotics ; Neurosurgery ; Prescriptions ; Research Personnel ; Respiration, Artificial ; Vital Signs

No abstract available.
Humans ; Hyperglycemia* ; Infant, Newborn*

No abstract available.
Female ; Ovary* ; Teratoma*

PURPOSE: This study aimed to investigate the job stress level of call center workers and figure out its relation with cognitive emotion regulation strategies as a cognitive coping strategy. METHODS: Data collection was conducted on 985 call center workers, working for K companies in Korea. ANOVA, t-test, Scheffe's test and multiple regression have been conducted for the data analysis using SAS 9.0 software. RESULTS: The total job stress score of subjects ranges Q25~49 (the lower 50%) whereas the score of job demand and job control ranges Q50~74 (the upper 50%), and its sectional job stress level is high. Since job stress is the major factor affecting cognitive emotion regulation strategies, it is shown that when the job stress score gets higher, the score of positive cognitive emotion regulation strategies gets decreased but the score of negative cognitive emotion regulation strategies, increased. CONCLUSION: Based on the results of this study, it is necessary to develop and apply an effective stress easing method for call center workers which reduces negative cognitive emotion regulation strategies and increases positive ones.
Data Collection ; Korea

PURPOSE: This study was performed to test the clinical usefulness of the glucose test strip method for early detection of pulmonary aspiration in tube fed patients. METHOD: The subjects for the study were 36 patients who were receiving enteral feedings and 39 patients who were not given enteral feedings. For the analysis, the tube fed patients were divided into two groups (clinically significant aspiration and no aspiration) according to criteria. RESULT: The mean glucose concentration of tracheal secretions from non enteral fed patients was 26.35mg/dl and were lower than those concentrations found in tube fed patients (32.75mg/dl). The mean glucose concentration of the aspiration group was 45.60mg/dl and the glucose concentration of the non aspiration group was 19.93mg/dl. The difference was statistically significant (t=2.163, p=. 038). More subjects in the no aspiration group (73%) than the aspiration group (56%) had glucose concentrations below 20mg/dl. After deleting the cases that had samples containing blood, glucose concentrations of tracheal aspirates were lower in both groups. CONCLUSION: The glucose level of the aspiration group was significantly lower than the no aspiration group and more subjects in the aspiration group had a glucose level higher than 101mg/dl. Therefore, the glucose test of tracheal secretions in tube fed patients could be a desirable test for screening for tracheal aspiration. Especially the patient who is showing repeatedly high glucose levels should not be given feedings until reassessment is completed.
Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Enteral Nutrition/*adverse effects ; Female ; Glucose/*analysis ; Humans ; Intubation, Gastrointestinal/*adverse effects ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Pneumonia, Aspiration/*diagnosis ; *Reagent Strips ; Trachea/*secretion

PURPOSE: The main purpose of this study was to investigate that the stages of change in smoking cessation behavior among coronary artery disease patients for six months progressed following the stages of change suggested by the transtheoretical model. METHOD: Subjects for this descriptive survey were 59 coronary disease patients who were smoking or who had stopped smoking for less than six months. RESULT: In the baseline, the distribution of the subjects' stages of change was as follows: pre-contemplation stage 25.4%, contemplation stage 25.4%, preparation stage 22%, and action stage 27.1%. After six months, more subjects in the contemplation(33.3%) and preparation stages(30.8%) progressed to the action stage than those of the pre-contemplation stage(0%). Eighty-one percent of the subjects in the action stage at baseline progressed to the maintenance stage. The relationship between the numbers of smoking cessation attempts for six months and stages of change at baseline was significant(p=.001). However, the relationships between self-efficacy and nicotine dependence at baseline and progression in stages of change after six months were not significant. CONCLUSION: Progression in the stages of change for six months among subjects corresponded to the stages of change suggested by the transtheoretical model. Hence, future development and evaluation of intervention programs should be tailored individually considering each patient's stage of change.
Tobacco Use Disorder/*complications/therapy ; Smoking Cessation/*psychology ; Models, Psychological ; Middle Aged ; Male ; Humans ; Coronary Arteriosclerosis/*complications ; Aged, 80 and over ; Aged ; Adult

Epiderniologic description of the tinea capitis of adults was made for the cases detected in Taegu city for 11 years from January 1978 to December 1988. 1. Totalnumber of adult patients(20 years or older) were 41(2.0%) out of 2,029 cases of all tiena capitis. Among 41 patients, 34 cases were detected between 1983 and 1988. 2. Clinically 24 patients were superficial tinea capitis and 17 patients were kerion celsi. 3. Age of the patients ranged from 21 to 85 years with an average of 58.5 years and mode interval of 61-70 years. Patients over 50 years of age accounted for 70.7% of all csses. 4. Sex distribution of the cases was 39 females(95.1%) and 2 males(4.9%). 5. Causative agents isolated from the patients were Microsporum canis in 36 cases, Trichophyton verrucosum in 2 cases, T. mentagrophytes, T. ferrugineum and T. rubrum in 1 case, respectively. 6. Solitary lesion was most common and alopecia was not prominent in most of the cases. The most frequent site of involvement was frontal and posterior scalp. At initial exarnination, 5 cases were misdiagnosed as seborreic dermatitis and 1 case as multiple folliculitis. 7. Sources of infection were presurned to be cat in ll cases, cattle in 2 cases and the rests were unidentified. Interfarnilial infection was observed in 5 cases.
Adult* ; Alopecia ; Animals ; Cats ; Cattle ; Daegu* ; Dermatitis ; Folliculitis ; Humans ; Microsporum ; Scalp ; Sex Distribution ; Tinea Capitis* ; Tinea* ; Trichophyton

In nursing research that the data is collected through clinical observation, analysis of clinical recording or coding of interpersonal interaction in clinical areas, testing and reporting interrater reliability is very important to assure reliable results. Procedures for interrater reliability in these studies should follow two steps. The first step is to determine unitizing reliability, which is defined as consistency in the identification of same data elements in the record by two or more raters reviewing the same record. Unitizing reliability have been rarely reported in previous studies. Unitizing reliability should be tested before progressing to the next step as precondition. Next step is to determine interpretive reliability. Cohen's kappa is a preferable method of calculating the extent of agreement between observer or judges because it provides beyonds-chance agreement. Despite its usefulness, kappa can sometimes present paradoxical conclusions and can be difficult to interpret. These difficulties result from the feature of kappa which is affected in complex way s by the presence of bias between observers ad by true prevalence of certain categories. therefore, percentage agreement should be reported with kappa for adequate interpretation of kappa. The presence of bias should be assessed using the bias index and the effect of prevalence should be assessed using the prevalence index. Researchers have been reported only global reliability reflecting the extent to which coders can consistently use the whole coding system across all categories. Category-by-category reliability also need to be reported to inform the possibility that some categories are harder to use than others.
Bias (Epidemiology) ; Clinical Coding ; Humans ; Nursing Research ; Prevalence

PURPOSE: The purpose of this descriptive study was to investigate the administration patterns of sedatives and paralytic agents for mechanically ventilated patients. METHOD: The participants were 18 adult patients who received mechanical ventilation therapy for more than 1 day in the MICU. Collected data were type of injected medications, administration interval, injected amount, administration purpose, and patient assessment by nurses. RESULT: Mean age of the patients was 61 years old. Seventy-two percent were male. Only 2 drugs (midazolam and norcuron) were administered to most of subjects. The type of medication administered was less heterogeneous than in previous studies. Most of the patients received sedatives and paralytics intermittently. Six different methods were used by nurses to administer sedatives and paralytics. The mean injection frequency was 9.3 times/day for sedatives and 10.8 times/ day for paralytic agents. The most common purpose for administration of the drugs was full sedation of the patient (57%). CONCLUSION: Since a few patients received sedatives and paralytic agents higher than usual dose and a few patients received those drugs lower than usual dose, nurses need to use proper protocols and guidelines for sedation to avoid oversedation and undersedation.
Adult ; Humans ; Hypnotics and Sedatives* ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Respiration, Artificial

No abstract available.