OBJECTIVE: The study was conducted by the Association of Korean College of Nursing in order to survey and analyze the current state of clinical practicum for adult health nursing at four-year nursing college in Korea and to suggest improvements in the contents and methods of clinical practicum and its future direction. METHOD: Data were collected using a survey by mail from July to November 2004 using a structured questionnaire on the general state of clinical practicum for adult health nursing. The questionnaires were sent to 53 nursing colleges throughout the country, and 47 recovered questionnaires were analyzed. RESULTS: The number of credits for adult health nursing practicum was 7~10(average range), and various nursing fields were used in clinical practicum. The number of students per team was 5~6 at general wards and 3~4 at intensive care units. Students also experienced practicum during daytime and in the evening. Clinical practicum for adult health nursing was led by full-time professors and field practicum directors. In clinical practicum for adult health nursing, almost every college evaluated students' attitude, skills, leadership, etc. in various forms. CONCLUSIONS: It is urgent to develope a standardized evaluation tool for clinical practicum.
Adult* ; Education, Nursing ; Humans ; Intensive Care Units ; Korea* ; Leadership ; Nursing* ; Patients' Rooms ; Physician's Practice Patterns ; Postal Service ; Surveys and Questionnaires

The purpose of this study is to identify and classify the different types of cancer patients who use alternative therapies, to understand their subjective frameworks in using such alternative therapies. The results of this study provided the subjective information on five types of attitudes towards alternative therapies and described characteristics of five types from 30 cancer patients. The "Dependent to Others" (the first type) decided to use alternative therapy because they were influenced by the experiences of others and invocations of the family (especially spouse) or close relatives. In general, they did not believe that it will cure the diseases but generally thought it was not harmful and it may be better than doing nothing. There were a group of patients who chose to use alternative therapy with vague hope and belief. These patients decided to try alternative methods with their own convictions and confidences because they have personally seen or heard about some people who had been cured miraculously. This group of patients was grouped as "Belief in Effects (second type)." Although, there is a very little chance for miracles, "Expecting for Effects (third type)" believed alternative therapy will strengthen immune systems, help with feces and urine, change physical constitutions, slow down the progression of cancerous cell, have no side-effects, and expects to have practical effects and uses. The fourth group of patients thought foods in alternative therapies were same as general foods, therefore, it was easy to take, did not expect miracles to happen but considered the alternative therapy as supplementary treatments. This "Supplementary for Effects (fourth type)" patients thought it was their duty to do everything possible. The last type was "Expecting for Miraculous Effects (fifth type)." The patients in this group were devastated and thought of alternative treatments as the last hope for miracles. They thought it would relieve their physical pains, reduce the chance of side effects from chemical treatments, help them for comfortable and painless death, and considered it as the last possible option with expecting for miracles. The result of this study has implications to provide practical and concrete guidelines for caring and nursing cancer patients using alternative therapies. It will be used as a tool to work on independent for nursing intervention. Furthermore, the result of study will provide practical guidelines to help develop better tools and nursing intervention strategies to nurse cancer patients.
Complementary Therapies ; Constitution and Bylaws ; Feces ; Hope ; Humans ; Immune System ; Nursing

The purpose of this study was to describe the differences in three phenomenological research methods used to understand the experience of families of patients with cancer and so provide as guideline to novices first attempting qualitative research. The subjects were 3 family members - spouse, daughter, daughter-in-law -of cancer patients at S-hospital. Unstructured deep interviews were carried out and taped for further analyzed. Interviews were analyzed using three phenomenological methods ; Giorgi's, Colazzi's, and Van Kaam's. The results are as follows: The experience of family the analyzed using Giorgi's method showed different characteristics according to the family members' role. According to Colaizzi's method, they experienced burden, a willingness to care, role conflict, thanks to family and significant others, and ambivalence about treatment. Using Van Kaam's methodology, two categories were identified ; change of family function and burden. Themes in change of family function were positive attitude(9), role conflict(6), negative attitude(5), active attitude(2), and passive attitude(2) ; Themes in burden were emotional burden, physical burden, and economic burden. The result from using Giorgi's method were centered or individual characteristics and these results constituteds situational structured description and a general structured description. From Colaizzi's method the focus was on the common experience of all fo the subjects. In Van Kaam's method, subthemes (13), themes(8), and categories(2) were identified. So researchers should choose the qualitative method according to their research goals and methodological characteristics.
Humans ; Nuclear Family ; Qualitative Research ; Research Design* ; Spouses

Spontaneous regression of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is extremely rare, and dozens of cases have been reported in the literature. In this report, we present a case of pathologically confirmed HCC that partially regressed without medical intervention. A 54-year-old Korean male with chronic hepatitis B had a hepatic mass detected by abdominal ultrasonography during a routine visit. A clinical diagnosis of HCC was made after measuring serum alpha-fetoprotein levels followed by dynamic computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging. The patient delayed surgical resection; however, after 5 months, the size of the HCC decreased from 3.2 to 1.0 cm in diameter without any treatment. At that time the mass was surgically resected. Histopathology confirmed that the hepatic mass was consistent with partially regressed HCC and showed more intra- and peri-tumoral lymphocytes consisting of greater CD4+ T cell infiltration than what is normally seen in resected HCC.
alpha-Fetoproteins ; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular* ; Diagnosis ; Hepatitis B, Chronic ; Humans ; Lymphocytes ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Regression, Spontaneous ; Ultrasonography

Spontaneous regression of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is extremely rare, and dozens of cases have been reported in the literature. In this report, we present a case of pathologically confirmed HCC that partially regressed without medical intervention. A 54-year-old Korean male with chronic hepatitis B had a hepatic mass detected by abdominal ultrasonography during a routine visit. A clinical diagnosis of HCC was made after measuring serum alpha-fetoprotein levels followed by dynamic computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging. The patient delayed surgical resection; however, after 5 months, the size of the HCC decreased from 3.2 to 1.0 cm in diameter without any treatment. At that time the mass was surgically resected. Histopathology confirmed that the hepatic mass was consistent with partially regressed HCC and showed more intra- and peri-tumoral lymphocytes consisting of greater CD4+ T cell infiltration than what is normally seen in resected HCC.
alpha-Fetoproteins ; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular* ; Diagnosis ; Hepatitis B, Chronic ; Humans ; Lymphocytes ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Regression, Spontaneous ; Ultrasonography

OBJECTIVE: To cross-validate liver stiffness (LS) measured on shear wave elastography (SWE) and on magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) in the same individuals. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We included 94 liver transplantation (LT) recipients and 114 liver donors who underwent either MRE or SWE before surgery or biopsy. We determined the technical success rates and the incidence of unreliable LS measurements (LSM) of SWE and MRE. Among the 69 patients who underwent both MRE and SWE, the median and coefficient of variation (CV) of the LSM from each examination were compared and correlated. Areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve in both examinations were calculated in order to exclude the presence of hepatic fibrosis (HF). RESULTS: The technical success rates of MRE and SWE were 96.4% and 92.2%, respectively (p = 0.17), and all of the technical failures occurred in LT recipients. SWE showed 13.1% unreliable LSM, whereas MRE showed no such case (p < 0.05). There was moderate correlation in the LSM in both examinations (r = 0.67). SWE showed a significantly larger median LSM and CV than MRE. Both examinations showed similar diagnostic performance for excluding HF (Az; 0.989, 1.000, respectively). CONCLUSION: MRE and SWE show moderate correlation in their LSMs, although SWE shows higher incidence of unreliable LSMs in cirrhotic liver.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Elasticity Imaging Techniques/*methods ; Female ; Humans ; Linear Models ; Liver Cirrhosis/*diagnosis/ultrasonography ; *Liver Transplantation ; *Living Donors ; *Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Male ; Middle Aged ; ROC Curve ; Sensitivity and Specificity