Purpose: : This study aimed to comprehensively understand the work experience of the person in charge of the adequacy evaluation of small-and medium-sized hospitals and explore its meaning and essence in-depth. Methods: : This was a descriptive qualitative study. The study participants were 10 nurses who understood the purpose of this study and participated voluntarily. Data collection was conducted via in-depth interviews in January 2021. The interviews were conducted 1-2 times per participant and lasted approximately 40-50 minutes per session. Data analysis was performed using a qualitative content analysis. Results: : The work experience of the person in charge of the adequacy evaluation of small-and medium-sized hospitals included four themes: “difficulty in preparing for evaluation,” “negative views on evaluation,” “lack of a support system,” and “positive improvements and changes due to an evaluation.” Conclusion : Based on the above results, an education program and support system should be developed to strengthen the competence of nurses in charge of the adequacy evaluation of small- and medium-sized hospitals.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify the knowledge structure of Asian Oncology Nursing (AON) from 2002 to 2018.METHODS: Abstracts from 382 studies were reviewed and analyzed using the text network analysis program, NetMiner 4.3. Keywords network trends were compared before and after 2012 when the journal title changed from Journal of Korean Oncology Nursing to Journal of Asian Oncology Nursing.RESULTS: ‘Cancer,’ ‘patient,’ ‘quality of life,’ ‘breast,’ ‘nurse,’ ‘depression,’ ‘health,’ ‘nursing,’ ‘pain,’ ‘family’ were the top 10 most frequent keywords, and ‘cancer,’ ‘patient,’ ‘quality of life,’ ‘health,’ ‘nursing,’ ‘family,’ ‘intervention,’ ‘effect,’ ‘hospital,’ and ‘therapy’ were the dominant keywords that ranked highest in co-appearance frequency. Core keywords changed before and after 2012. After 2012, depression, health, symptom and pain were the keywords ranked that replaced nursing, education, family, and intervention from before 2012. Four subtopic groups were identified: 1) cancer treatment, education and information, 2) chemotherapy and psychological adjustment, 3) psychosocial adjustment of cancer survivors, and 4) process of cancer intervention and support.CONCLUSION: This study provides a general overview of research trends of the Asian Oncology Nursing Society. Findings of this study may guide future research directions in Asian Oncology Nursing research.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Depression ; Drug Therapy ; Education ; Emotional Adjustment ; Humans ; Nursing ; Nursing Research ; Oncology Nursing ; Survivors

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop an instrument to assess nursing professional pride. Methods: Fifty-six preliminary items were identified through literature review and focus group interview of nurses working in a hospital. Of these, 45 preliminary instruments were completed over 0.80 of content validity index. To verify the reliability and validity of the preliminary instrument, data were collected from 294 nurses. The data were analyzed using factor analysis and multidimensional scaling analysis. Results: From the factor analysis, 27 significant items were divided into 5 subscales. These subscales were as follows: feeling of vocation, role satisfaction, role of problem solver, self-achievement, and willingness to stay. The nursing professional pride also established criterion-related validity, discriminant validity, and group validity. Cronbach’s a of the instrument was .92, and the subscales ranged from .74 to .85. Conclusion The developed scale for nursing professional pride shows validity and reliability. The significance of this study is the development of an instrument capable of measuring nursing professional pride. To verify the relevance of this instrument, conducting comparative studies is suggested.

Objective: Despite the growing need for psychological programs for North Korean refugees, most psychological interventions for these people lack a verification study that tests their effectiveness. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in North Korean refugees. Methods: Participants included 38 North Korean refugees, of whom 23 participated in simple relaxation and 15 participated in CBT. The Korean version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), State-Trait Anxiety Inventory-State (STAI-S), and Impact of Event Scale-Revised were used to evaluate symptoms pre- and post-intervention. Results: Participants had a significant decrease in CES-D scores after treatment (p=0.037). The decrease in CES-D was larger in those who participated in the CBT compared to those in simple relaxation (p=0.023). The superior effects that CBT had on depressive symptoms over simple relaxation were particularly more prominent in those with severe depression (p=0.035). Participants with high levels of anxiety also showed significant decreases in STAI-S scores after treatment, regardless of which type of program they participated in (p=0.023). Conclusion This preliminary findings suggests that CBT is an effective psychiatric approach in treating depressive symptoms in North Korean refugees, especially for those with a higher degree of depressive symptom.

A genome-wide association study has identified the 15q25 region as being associated with the risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in Caucasians. This study intended as a confirmatory assessment of this association in a Korean population. The rs6495309C > T polymorphism in the promoter of nicotinic acetylcholine receptor alpha subunit 3 (CHRNA3) gene was investigated in a case-control study that consisted of 406 patients with COPD and 394 healthy control subjects. The rs6495309 CT or TT genotype was associated with a significantly decreased risk of COPD when compared to the rs6495309 CC genotype (adjusted odds ratio = 0.69, 95% confidence interval = 0.50-0.95, P = 0.023). The effect of the rs6495309C > T on the risk of COPD was more evident in moderate to very severe COPD than in mild COPD under a dominant model for the variant T allele (P = 0.024 for homogeneity). The CHRNA3 rs6495309C > T polymorphism on chromosome 15q25 is associated with the risk of COPD in a Korean population.
Adult ; Aged ; Alleles ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group/*genetics ; Case-Control Studies ; Female ; Forced Expiratory Volume ; Genotype ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Odds Ratio ; *Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide ; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive/*genetics/physiopathology ; Receptors, Nicotinic/*genetics ; Republic of Korea ; Risk Factors ; Smoking

BACKGROUND/AIMS: A number of genome-wide and candidate gene association studies have identified polymorphisms associated with telomere length in Caucasian populations. This study was conducted to determine the impacts of 17 polymorphisms identified in Caucasians on telomere length in a Korean population. METHODS: Ninety-four healthy individuals were enrolled in this study. Relative telomere length of chromosomes from peripheral blood samples was measured using quantitative polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS: Two polymorphisms, rs10936599 of MYNN and rs412658 of ZNF676, were found to be associated w ith telomere length (under dominant model, p = 0.04; under recessive model, p = 0.001). Three polymorphisms, rs2853669, rs7705526, and rs2736108, at the TERT locus were also associated with telomere length (under recessive model, p = 0.01, p = 0.02, and p = 0.01, respectively). The genotypes of the five polymorphisms associated with short telomere length were considered bad genotypes; telomere length was significantly decreased with increasing number of bad genotypes (p= 1.7 x 10(-5)). CONCLUSIONS: We have identified polymorphisms associated with telomere length in a Korean population.
Adult ; Aged ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group/*genetics ; Case-Control Studies ; DNA-Binding Proteins/genetics ; Female ; Genome-Wide Association Study ; Genotype ; Humans ; Kruppel-Like Transcription Factors/genetics ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Phenotype ; *Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide ; Republic of Korea ; Telomerase/genetics ; Telomere/*genetics/metabolism ; *Telomere Homeostasis ; Zinc Fingers

PURPOSE: Nowadays, chromosomal regions containing genes associated with the risk of lung cancer are identified by a number of genome-wide association studies (GWASs). As part of the study, GWAS has identified the association of six chromosomal regions, 1q23, 4q22, 4q31, 5p15, 6p21, and 15q25, as being associated with lung cancer risk in the European population. We investigated the impact of genetic variants identified in GWASs for lung cancer susceptibility on the survival outcomes in patients with early stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Three hundred and sixty-three patients with surgically resected NSCLC were enrolled. Eight single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), rs2808630 on 1q23, rs7671167 on 4q22, rs1489759 and rs2202507 on 4q31, rs2736100 and rs402710 on 5p15, rs1052486 on 6p21 and rs16969968 on 15q25, were genotyped using a polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism assay. The associations between genotypes and overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) were analyzed. RESULTS: None of the eight SNPs were significantly associated with OS or DFS. In addition, when the patients were categorized according to age, gender, smoking status, tumor histology and pathologic stage, there were no significant associations between the eight SNPs and the survival outcomes. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that the genetic variants identified by GWASs for lung cancer susceptibility may not affect the prognosis of early stage NSCLC.
Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung ; Disease Susceptibility ; Disease-Free Survival ; Genome-Wide Association Study ; Genotype ; Humans ; Lung ; Lung Neoplasms ; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide ; Prognosis ; Smoke ; Smoking

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a global pandemic that had affected more than eight million people worldwide by June 2020. Given the importance of the presence of diabetes mellitus (DM) for host immunity, we retrospectively evaluated the clinical characteristics and outcomes of moderate-to-severe COVID-19 in patients with diabetes.