BACKGROUND: Nurses are often exposed to needlestick and sharp-object injuries (NSIs). This study aimed to investigate the post-exposure reporting rate of NSIs among nurses. METHODS: The subjects were 84 nurses from 4 hospitals (3 hospitals with 300 or more beds and 1 hospital with less than 300 beds) who had experienced at least 1 NSI within a 6-month period. The instrument was a self-administered questionnaire, which was based on the EPINet report form and a questionnaire for NSIs among resident physicians, which was used by Choi et al. Data were collected between April 9 and June 15, 2009, and analyzed using descriptive statistics and the chi-square test, which was performed using SPSS with a significance level of 0.05. RESULTS: Among the 84 nurses who had experienced at least 1 NSI within 6 months, only 14.3% had reported the NSIs, and 58.4% of these subjects reported the NSI immediately after sustaining the injury. The most common reason for not reporting was "the patients were found out to be uninfectious" (81.9%) followed by "too busy" (65.3%). The incidence of post-exposure reporting was negatively related to the number of NSIs (chi-square=13.871, p<0.001) and positively related to assessments of infectivity of the patients (chi-square=4.248, P=0.039) and other persons' recommendations to report NSIs (chi-square=4.092, P=0.043). CONCLUSION: The post-exposure reporting rate was very low. The factors responsible for this low rate should be investigated in a more systematic manner, and more measures should be undertaken to increase the reporting rate among nurses.
Humans ; Incidence ; Needlestick Injuries ; Surveys and Questionnaires

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to identify the effects of a multifaceted needlestick injury (NSI) prevention program on changes in knowledge about bloodborne infectious diseases and postexposure coping, attitudes toward postexposure reporting, preventive measures, the number of NSIs, and postexposure reporting pre- and post-intervention among nurses. METHODS: A total of 429 and 420 nurses participated in the pre- and post-intervention periods, respectively. The intervention was performed from April to September 2007, comprising NSI guideline education, the use of containers with enhanced engineering, and the supply of safety devices. RESULTS: The average score of knowledge about bloodborne infectious diseases increased significantly from 8.3 to 8.9 out of 14 points (P<0.001), but the change in score of knowledge about postexposure coping was insignificant. The average score of attitude toward postexposure reporting increased significantly from 8.9 to 9.6 out of 12 points (P<0.001). Preventive measures such as "gloves are provided whenever needed" (P<0.001), "use one-hand technique" (P<0.001), and "needle containers are provided whenever needed" (P=0.031) increased significantly. The number of NSIs decreased by 40.4%, and the postexposure reporting rate increased by 552.8%. CONCLUSION: The multifaceted NSI prevention program positively affected knowledge about infectious diseases and postexposure coping, attitudes toward postexposure reporting, preventive measures, the number of NSIs, and postexposure reporting after intervention. Therefore, we recommend that this program be applied to various healthcare workers in hospitals.
Communicable Diseases ; Delivery of Health Care ; Incidence ; Needlestick Injuries ; Post-Exposure Prophylaxis

BACKGROUND: There have been very few studies conducted on the number and type of microorganisms that remain on the ring finger after handwashing. This study was performed to investigate whether there were changes and differences in the type and number of microorganisms on the ring finger before and after handwashing. METHOD: The subjects of the study were 15 MICU and SICU staff nurses who were wearing rings. I swabbed two different fingers of the same hand with cotton balls. One finger which had a ring and the other with on ring. I swabbed the fingers of each subject three times(before handwashing, after handwashing with soap, and after handwashing with bethadine solution). After storing them for 48 hours in an incubator, I sent them to the laboratory and recorded th culture results. RESULTS: There was no difference in the type of microorganism, but a major difference in the number of the microorganisms that existed on the finger ring. The results showed that there were much more microorganisms on the ring fingers than on the fingers that did not have rings both before and after handwashing. This tendency was consistent regardless of the handwashing agent. I therefore recommend that all nursing staff who work in general nursing units, as well as nurses who word in the ICU , remove their rings when taking care of the patients.
Fingers* ; Hand ; Hand Disinfection* ; Humans ; Incubators ; Nursing ; Nursing Staff ; Soaps

PURPOSE: The aims of this study were to develop a motivational interviewing program for exercise improvement in persons with physical disabilities and to examine the effect of this motivational interviewing intervention. METHODS: The study employed a nonequivalent control group pretest and posttest design. A total of 62 persons with physical disabilities (30 in the experimental group, 32 in the control group) were recruited from 2 community rehabilitation centers. The experimental group received 8 sessions of a group motivational interviewing program, scheduled once a week, with each session lasting 60 minutes. Test measures were completed before the intervention, immediately after the end of the intervention, 2 weeks later, and 6 weeks after the end of the intervention. Measures included self-efficacy for exercise, decisional balance for exercise, stage of change for exercise, regularity of exercise, exercise maintenance, and independent living ability. Data were analyzed using the χ²-test, Fisher's exact test, Independent samples t-test, and repeated measures ANOVA, conducted using IBM SPSS Statistics version 18. RESULTS: The experimental group showed a significant increase in self-efficacy for exercise (F=50.98, p<.001), benefit (pros) of exercise (F=24.16, p<.001), and independent living ability (F=50.94, p<.001), and a significant decrease in loss (cons) of exercise (F=26.50, p<.001). There were significant differences between the two groups in stages of change for exercise (p<.001), regularity of exercise (p<.001), and exercise maintenance (χ²=26.61, p<.001). CONCLUSION: The motivational interviewing program has the potential to improve exercise levels in persons with physical disabilities.
Disabled Persons ; Humans ; Independent Living ; Motivational Interviewing* ; Rehabilitation Centers

PURPOSE: This study aimed to evaluate the workplace response system (WRS) against infectious disasters (IDs) based on the response attitudes and capacity of occupational health nurses (OHNs) who worked during the 2015 Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak in South Korea. METHODS: Fifty-one participants who had worked as OHNs at the time of the 2015 MERS outbreak were surveyed from November 20 to December 10, 2016. Data were collected using a self-report questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive statistics and McNemaer's test. RESULTS: According to the survey results, the following were lacking in the WRS: a dedicated ID-response team, manuals, related education programs for OHNs, and health education programs for workers. Results also confirmed that workers were vulnerable to new infectious diseases because of the lack of health checkups and support for workers before and after business trips abroad. Among the respondents, 98.0% answered affirmatively that an ID was important for health management in the workplace, but 64.7% answered that it was difficult to manage an ID. The perceived capacity items to respond to IDs ranged from 3.0 points to 3.3 points. This scores weregenerally high. CONCLUSION: As the WRS is currently insufficient, it is necessary to develop an adequate WRS to IDs by addressing the identified problems.
Commerce ; Communicable Diseases ; Coronavirus Infections ; Disasters* ; Education ; Health Education ; Infection Control ; Korea* ; Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus ; Occupational Health ; Occupational Health Nursing ; Surveys and Questionnaires

Purpose: This study aimed to identify personal listening device (PLD) usage habits, listening belief, and perceived change in hearing, and to investigate how the variables related to perceived change in hearing among adolescents. Methods: The participants were 183 middle school students and 233 high school students from Ulsan. Data were collected by self-reported questionnaires from August 1, 2019, to October 22, 2019, and analyzed with descriptive statistics, χ2 test, Mann–Whitney U test, and hierarchical multiple logistic regression. Results: Most students started to use PLDs from elementary school, and mean preferred listening level was 70.13 dB. Mean perceived susceptibility to music-induced hearing loss (MIHL) and perceived barriers to prevent MIHL were 5.18 and 3.40, respectively. Perceived change in hearing was reported on 14.2% of middle school students and 32.2% of high school students, and as the average score of perceived barriers to prevent MIHL increases by one point, the odds of decrease in hearing increase by 2.05 times (p < .001) and 1.35 times (p < .05), respectively. Conclusion Considering that most adolescents are exposed to PLD in elementary schools and about a quarter experienced a decrease in hearing after PLD use, educational programs on hearing conservation are required to start as early as in schools. Particularly, knowledge and skills to overcome barriers to prevent MIHL should be emphasized in educational programs.

Purpose: This study aimed to identify personal listening device (PLD) usage habits, listening belief, and perceived change in hearing, and to investigate how the variables related to perceived change in hearing among adolescents. Methods: The participants were 183 middle school students and 233 high school students from Ulsan. Data were collected by self-reported questionnaires from August 1, 2019, to October 22, 2019, and analyzed with descriptive statistics, χ2 test, Mann–Whitney U test, and hierarchical multiple logistic regression. Results: Most students started to use PLDs from elementary school, and mean preferred listening level was 70.13 dB. Mean perceived susceptibility to music-induced hearing loss (MIHL) and perceived barriers to prevent MIHL were 5.18 and 3.40, respectively. Perceived change in hearing was reported on 14.2% of middle school students and 32.2% of high school students, and as the average score of perceived barriers to prevent MIHL increases by one point, the odds of decrease in hearing increase by 2.05 times (p < .001) and 1.35 times (p < .05), respectively. Conclusion Considering that most adolescents are exposed to PLD in elementary schools and about a quarter experienced a decrease in hearing after PLD use, educational programs on hearing conservation are required to start as early as in schools. Particularly, knowledge and skills to overcome barriers to prevent MIHL should be emphasized in educational programs.

PURPOSE: This study was aimed to identify the major factors affecting performance in health promoting behaviors in women workers at small-scale industries. METHOD: This study was based on the Pender's Health Promotion Model. The subjects for this study were 251 women workers at 23 small-scale industries in Busan city. The data for this study was collected from July 15th to August 15th 2003 by structured questionaries, and were analyzed with ANOVA, t-test, Pearson' correlation coefficient, and multiple Regression in the SPSS/WIN 10.0. RESULT: The mean performance of the health promoting behavior was 2.56. The factors related to the performance of the health promoting behaviors were social support, marital status, status of owning a house, perceived barriers to action, working time, and self-efficacy, and they explained 58.4% of the variance of the health promoting behaviors. CONCLUSION: The mean performance of the health promoting behavior seemed to be low, and the most important variable related to health promoting behaviorsof women working at a small-scale industry was social support. Therefore, intervention programs to increase the social support for women worker need to be developed.
Adult ; Female ; *Health Promotion ; Humans ; Korea ; Middle Aged ; *Occupational Health Services ; *Women, Working

PURPOSE: This prospective cohort study was done to investigate recall bias to antepartum variables measured at postpartum periods and predictors of postpartum depression. METHODS: Participants were 215 women who answered a self-administered questionnaire which included demographics, Postpartum Depression Predictors Inventory-Revised and Korean version of Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Scale at antepartum 36-40 weeks and postpartum 2 weeks and 6 weeks. Data were analyzed using kappa, and hierarchical multiple logistic regression. RESULTS: Agreement between antepartum variables at both antepartum and two postpartum periods was relatively high (kappa=.55-.95). Postpartum depression rates were 36.3% and 36.7% at two follow-up points. In hierarchical multiple logistic regression analysis, prenatal depression (OR=4.32, 95% CI: 1.41-13.19; OR=5.19, 95% CI: 1.41-19.08), social support (OR=1.40, 95% CI: 1.18-1.66; OR=1.27, 95% CI: 1.06-1.53) and maternity blues (OR=4.75, 95% CI: 1.89-11.98; OR=4.22, 95% CI: 1.60-11.12) were commonly associated with postpartum depression at two follow-up points. Child care stress (OR=1.85, 95% CI: 1.01-3.37) was only associated with postpartum depression at 2 weeks postpartum and pregnancy intendedness (OR=1.57, 95% CI: 1.09-2.27) was only associated with postpartum depression at 6 weeks postpartum. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate a need to apply nursing interventions such as prenatal education and counseling with families from antenatal period.
Adult ; Anxiety ; Cohort Studies ; Demography ; Depression, Postpartum/*psychology ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Logistic Models ; Odds Ratio ; Postpartum Period ; Pregnancy ; Prospective Studies ; Questionnaires

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to identify the level of frailty and major health problems among participants of a tailored home visiting service. METHODS: This secondary data analysis study used the 2009 data of 588 participants of a tailored home visiting service in 2 public health centers in Busan. Data on demographics and health-related characteristics were collected from household sheet, disease sheet, and health interview sheet for the elderly. The level of frailty was measured by an instrument developed by the Japanese Ministry of Health. RESULTS: 15.3% of the elderly subjects were considered frail elderly (FE). The major health problems of the FE were poorer activities of daily living skills and higher prevalences of stroke and cognitive impairment than their non-frail counterpart. The mean number of disease was 3 for the FE and 2 for the non-FE. The prevalence of stroke was 12.2% for the FE and 5.8% for the non-FE (p=0.014). The mean dementia screening score was 2.2 (of maximum 10 points) for the FE and 1.4 for the non-FE (p=0.040). CONCLUSIONS: Our results showed that one of seven vulnerable elderly individuals was frail; and stroke and dementia were more prevalent in the frail elderly. We recommend the further developing of service programs for the participants of tailored home visiting services to better manage and prevent the deterioration of stroke and cognitive impairment.
Activities of Daily Living ; Aged ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Dementia ; Demography ; Family Characteristics ; Frail Elderly ; Home Care Services ; House Calls ; Humans ; Mass Screening ; Prevalence ; Public Health ; Statistics as Topic ; Stroke