OBJECTIVES: OCT(Point-of-Care Test), often translated as "Bedside laboratory", is a testing method used in most developed countries to conduct medical research. It is known to extract rapid results that can be applied in the intensive care unit. This study was conducted to investigate the correlation of the i-STAT(TM) POCT analyzer with the traditional test in the neonatal intensive care units. METHODS: 60 babies(birth weight > or =1.0kg) who were admitted to neonatal intensive care unit from June, 2000 to June, 2001 at Asan Medical Center requiring blood samples for the testing of arterial blood gas analysis(ABGA), electrolytes, hemoglobin(Hb), hematocrit(Hct), were included in the study. Blood samples were taken simultaneously to be tested by the traditional laboratory method and by i-STAT(TM) (i-STAT Co. USA) POCT analyzer. The data used for comparison analyzation included pH, pCO2, pO2, HCO3, Na, K, Hb, and Hct. RESULTS: 245 measurements of ABGA and 195 measurements of Na, K, Hb, Hct from 60 babies were used for comparison. Good correlation of data was found between i-STAT(TM) POCT analyzer and traditional laboratory method obtained from the central laboratory(correlation coefficient: pH 0.954, pCO2 0.944, pO2 0.941, HCO3 0.880, Na 0.713, K 0.860, Hb 0.864, Hct 0.880). CONCLUSION: This study showed that i-STAT(TM) POCT analyzer provided accurate analytic results when compared with traditional laboratory method used in the neonatal intensive care units.
Chungcheongnam-do ; Developed Countries ; Electrolytes ; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration ; Infant, Newborn ; Intensive Care Units ; Intensive Care Units, Neonatal* ; Intensive Care, Neonatal* ; Statistics as Topic

PURPOSE: This study aimed to investigate the public's perception of reimbursement for the education and counseling services provided to advanced practice nurses in intensive care units.METHOD: This was a secondary data analysis study. The original data were collected utilizing an online panel. The sample comprised 615 individuals aged between 19 and 49 years nationwide. The study variables included the public's perception of reimbursement for education and counseling services, age, gender, education level, income, and health status. Variables such as past experience of being admitted to an intensive care unit by self, family, or relatives and the recognition of advanced practice nurses were also examined.RESULTS: The mean of the perception score was 3.15 on a 4-point scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree). Among the participants, 89.2% answered “somewhat agreed” or “strongly agreed” to the question about the education and counseling services being covered by the National Health Insurance. Moreover, education level, past experience of being admitted to an intensive care unit by self, family, or relatives, and recognition of advanced practice nurses were significantly associated with the perception score.CONCLUSION: Efforts should be made to publicize the need for the education and counseling services that are provided to advanced practice nurses in intensive care units.
Counseling ; Critical Care ; Education ; Humans ; Intensive Care Units ; Methods ; National Health Programs ; Statistics as Topic

PURPOSE: Relocation stress is a common phenomenon in patients discharged from an intensive care unit(ICU) to a ward. Therefore, nurses need to be aware of the problems that can arise during the transfer process. The aim of this study was to identify nurses' experiences in transferring critically ill patients from the ICU to a ward. METHOD: Focus group interviews were done with 13 nurses from wards and ICU, which participated in receiving and sending of ICU patients. The debriefing notes and field notes were analyzed using the consistent comparative data analysis method. RESULT: Seven major categories were identified in the analysis of the data. These were 'mixed feeling about transfer', 'lack of transfer readiness', 'increase in family burden', 'uncertainty with unfamiliar environment', 'difficulty in decision making', 'difference of perception of the relationships between patients and health care providers', 'need for continuity of nursing care'. CONCLUSION: Transferring out of the critical care area should be presented to the patient and family as a positive step in the recovery process. However, a more universal method of passing information from nurse to nurse is needed to assist in a smooth transition.
Collodion ; Critical Care ; Critical Illness ; Delivery of Health Care ; Focus Groups ; Humans ; Critical Care ; Intensive Care Units ; Statistics as Topic

PURPOSE: With the rapid increase in information technology in the medical environment, protection of patient's privacy is a crucial issue to hospital nurses. The purpose of this study was to determine neonatal nurses' perception and performance of behavior to protect patient privacy, and professional self-concept, and to investigate the relationships among these variables. METHODS: The participants in this descriptive correlation study were 182 nurses in nursery and neonatal intensive care units using EMR or OCS in November, 2011. RESULTS: Perception and performance averaged 4.61 and 4.04 (out of 5) respectively, and the average score for professional self-concept was 2.73 (out of 4). There was a significant difference between perception and performance. The performance of behaviour to protect patient privacy had a positive correlation with perception and professional self-concept. Multiple regression analysis showed that the key determinants of performance were recognition of necessity of patient privacy education, professional self-concept and perception, and these explained 36% of the total variance of performance. CONCLUSION: Study results indicate a need to establish policy to protect privacy of neonates and their families, and to develop educational programs to enhance neonatal nurses' perception and performance.
Education, Professional ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Intensive Care Units, Neonatal ; Nurseries ; Privacy ; Statistics as Topic

BACKGROUNDLittle quantitative evidence was available regarding the development of NICUs in China. The purpose of this survey was to evaluate the current situation of neurointensive care units (NICUs) across China.

METHODSThe directors of NICUs from 100 tertiary care hospitals across China were contacted and asked to complete a closed response questionnaire regarding their NICUs. Basic information, equipment, and technology information available in the units, as well as staffing information were investigated.

RESULTSSeventy-six questionnaires were returned (a 68% response rate). Of 76 NICUs, 43 units constituted the majority. The number of each NICU bed varied from 4 to 45, occupying 2%-30% of the total department beds. Over 70% of NICUs were equipped with many emergency treatment equipments as well as physiological and biochemical monitoring equipments, while 34%-70% of NICUs still lacked some kinds of equipments such as defibrillators. Some specialist equipments were still partially lacking in 62%-95% of NICUs. A vast majority of the NICUs were equipped with neurocritical care directors, full-time attending physicians, and head nurses, but full-time NICU residents and neurocritical care nurses were still lacking in nearly half (53%) and one-third (33%-37%) of NICUs, respectively. In 76 NICUs, full-time neurointensivists and nurses added up to 359 and 852, respectively. In addition, 78%-97% of all the surveyed NICUs were severely short of non-neurological professional staffs.

CONCLUSIONIn China, neurocritical care has developed rapidly, but there is still a shortage of well-equipped and well-staffed NICUs across the nation currently.

This paper presents a typical Clinical Information System for ICU and its design and implementation. This system is able to capture and archive vital data from the monitor network, providing a whole digital solution in ICU. These vital data can be used in quantitative analysis in the computer-assisted decision support.
Decision Making, Computer-Assisted ; Information Systems ; Intensive Care Units ; Monitoring, Physiologic ; statistics & numerical data ; Software Design

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to describe the effects of aroma inhalation on sleep and fatigue in night shift nurses. METHODS: The research design was one group pre-posttest design. The subjects were 17 night shift nurses who work at neurosurgery intensive care unit of K hospital of C university in Seoul. During three consequent night shifts, the participants were worn the Actigraph to measure the sleep pattern on their wrist since their first night shift work. The quality of sleep and fatigue was measured by survey when they awoke at 6 pm after second night shift work. And these measures were repeated during the night shifts in second and third week. Aroma inhalation was applied before going to bed after finishing each night shift work during second and third week. SPSS 12.0 program was used for data analysis. RESULTS: There were no statistically significant differences in sleep latency and total sleeping time. However, significant differences were found in the sleep efficiency, awakening number, sleep quality, subjective symptom and intensity of fatigue. CONCLUSION: These results showed that aroma inhalation had positive effects on the pattern and quality of sleep and reducing fatigue in night shift nurses.
Aromatherapy ; Fatigue ; Inhalation ; Intensive Care Units ; Neurosurgery ; Research Design ; Statistics as Topic ; Wrist

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to describe the effects of aroma inhalation on sleep and fatigue in night shift nurses. METHODS: The research design was one group pre-posttest design. The subjects were 17 night shift nurses who work at neurosurgery intensive care unit of K hospital of C university in Seoul. During three consequent night shifts, the participants were worn the Actigraph to measure the sleep pattern on their wrist since their first night shift work. The quality of sleep and fatigue was measured by survey when they awoke at 6 pm after second night shift work. And these measures were repeated during the night shifts in second and third week. Aroma inhalation was applied before going to bed after finishing each night shift work during second and third week. SPSS 12.0 program was used for data analysis. RESULTS: There were no statistically significant differences in sleep latency and total sleeping time. However, significant differences were found in the sleep efficiency, awakening number, sleep quality, subjective symptom and intensity of fatigue. CONCLUSION: These results showed that aroma inhalation had positive effects on the pattern and quality of sleep and reducing fatigue in night shift nurses.
Aromatherapy ; Fatigue ; Inhalation ; Intensive Care Units ; Neurosurgery ; Research Design ; Statistics as Topic ; Wrist

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify factors affecting professional burnout in intensive care unit (ICU) nurses. METHOD: Data were obtained through questionnaires from 240 ICU nurses working in hospitals of 500 beds or more in two cities in South Korea. Data analysis was done with t-test, ANOVA, Scheffe test, Pearson correlation coefficients and multiple stepwise regression with SPSS WIN 14.0. RESULT: Work stress was positively correlated with level of professional burnout and there was a negative correlation between hardiness and professional burnout. Social support was negatively correlated with level of professional burnout. Hardiness had a positive correlation with social support and a negative correlation with work stress. The explained variances for burnout was 44.7% and factors affecting professional burnout in the ICU nurses' were work satisfaction, work stress, social support, and hardiness. CONCLUSION: The findings indicate that high levels of stress coupled with low levels of hardiness and social support in ICU nurses result in high levels of professional burnout. Reducing work stress and the level of professional burnout in ICU nurses and increasing work satisfaction can be done by enhancing the mediating factors of hardiness and social support through educational efforts and nursing and administrative support.
Burnout, Professional ; Intensive Care Units ; Job Satisfaction ; Negotiating ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Republic of Korea ; Statistics as Topic

PURPOSE: This study was done to analyze variations in unit staffing and recommend policies to improve nursing staffing levels in intensive care units (ICUs). METHOD: A cross-sectional study design was used, employing survey data from the Health Insurance Review Agency conducted from June-July, 2003. Unitstaffing was measured using two indicators; bed-to-nurse (B/N) ratio (number of beds per nurse), and patient-to-nurse (P/N)ratio (number of average daily patients per nurse). Staffing levels were compared according to hospital and ICU characteristics. RESULT: A total of 414 institutions were operating 569 adult and 86 neonatal ICUs. Tertiary hospitals (n=42) had the lowest mean B/N (0.82) and P/N (0.76) ratios in adult ICUs, followed by general hospitals (B/N: 1.34, P/N: 0.97). Those ratios indicated that a nurse took care of 3 to 5 patients per shift. Neonatal ICUs had worse staffing and had greater variations in staffing ratios than adult ICUs. About 17% of adult and 26% of neonatal ICUs were staffed only by adjunct nurses who had responsibility for a general ward as well as the ICU. CONCLUSION: Stratification of nurse staffing levels and differentiation of ICU utilization fees based on staffing grades are recommended as a policy tool to improve nurse staffing in ICUs.
Analysis of Variance ; Female ; Humans ; Intensive Care Units/economics/*manpower/statistics & numerical data ; Intensive Care Units, Neonatal/economics/*manpower/statistics & numerical data ; Nursing Staff, Hospital/economics/*supply & distribution ; Personnel Staffing and Scheduling/*economics ; Workload