Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop nurses’ core competencies and sub-competencies and to verify the validity and importance-performance of core competencies. Methods: The core competencies of nurses were derived through an analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, as well as a literature analysis of domestic and foreign accreditation institutions. Validity and importance-performance analyses were conducted on the core competencies derived from nursing colleges nationwide. Results: Six core competencies of nurses were revealed: integration of knowledge and nursing skills, critical thinking, communication, leadership, safety management, and global competency. Further, eighteen sub-competencies were derived. The content validity ratio values for the core competencies were higher than 0.74. Communication skills among multidisciplinary teams and communication skills among nursing teams were shown to be the most important competencies to be improved. Conclusion The results of this study are meaningful in terms of how the core competencies of nurses were derived and evaluated for the fourth cycle of nursing education accreditation according to the changes of time and culture.

No abstract available.
Diagnosis* ; DNA*

PURPOSE: This study examined Korean clinical nurses' intentions to care for SARS patients and identify determinants of the intentions. Theory of planned behavior was the framework to explain the intentions of Korean nurses for SARS patients care. METHODS: A convenient sample of six hundreds and seventy nine clinical nurses from four university-affiliated hospitals located in Seoul and in Kyung-gi province was used. Self-administered (83-items) questionnaire was used to collect data. Intentions, attitude, subjective norm, perceive behavioral control, behavioral beliefs, normative beliefs, and control beliefs were the study variables. All items were measured using 7-point Likert scale (-3 to +3). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation method, and stepwise multiple regression methods. RESULTS: Intentions and attitudes toward SARS patient care among Korean clinical nurses were moderate, but their subjective norm and perceive behavioral control of SARS patients care were negative. Stepwise multiple regression analysis indicated that attitude toward SARS patient care, perceived behavioral control, subjective norm were the determinants of the intentions for SARS patients care as theory proposed. Among the behavioral beliefs, "SARS-patient caring would be a new experience", "during SARS-patient caring, I should be apart from my family", "after completing SARS-patient caring, I would be proud of myself being able to cope with a stressful event" and "with my SARS-patient caring, patients could recover from SARS" were the significant determinants. Among the normative beliefs, colleague approval, spouse approval, and physician approval were significant determinants of the intentions. Among the control beliefs, "SARS-patient caring would be a challenge" "SARS-patient caring is a professional responsibility", "tension during the care of SARS patients" and "support from team members" were the significant determinants of the intentions. CONCLUSIONS: Korean clinical nurses in this study were not willing to care for SARS patients and showed negative attitude toward the care. They believed their friends and family were not approved their care for SARS patients. Nurses were in conflicts between professional responsibilities to care for SARS patients and personal safety. This study was the first to understand stress and burden of Korean clinical nurses who are in front line to care for newly developed communicable disease such as SARS. Under the circumstance where several fatal communicable diseases are predictable, conflicts between professional responsibility and their personal risks should be taken into considerations by nurses themselves and by nursing administrators in order to improve quality of care.
Adult ; *Attitude of Health Personnel ; Female ; Humans ; *Intention ; Korea ; Middle Aged ; Multivariate Analysis ; Nursing Staff, Hospital/*psychology ; Psychological Theory ; Regression Analysis ; Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome/*nursing

BACKGROUND: The influenza is a contagious respiratory illness caused by influenza viruses. The primary target groups recommended for annual vaccination are healthcare workers and households which have frequent contact with persons at high risk and can transmit influenza to those persons at high risk. Members of these groups should be vaccinated against the flu so that they can avoid getting infected with continuously mutating influenza viruses. We assessed healthcare workers' knowledge and attitudes regarding influenza vaccination in order to help promote the vaccination rate. METHODS: This survey was carried out in two hospitals affiliated with the Catholic University School of Medicine, from December 2004 to January 2005. Of the 3,023 questionnaires distributed, 2,023 could be evaluated. RESULTS: The most frequently cited reason for receiving influenza vaccine was self-protection against influenza (55.4%). The most common reasons for not receiving influenza vaccine are personal health problems such as concurrent flu, pregnancy or breast-feeding (29.2%). There is no significant difference in the frequency of side effect between two groups receiving and not receiving vaccine. The most frequent side effect of influenza vaccination is flu-like syndrome; People receiving vaccine have more significant knowledge than those people not receiving vaccine about efficacy of flu vaccination, risk of influenza infection of healthcare workers and their need of flu vaccination. CONCLUSION: In order to promote the vaccination rate, education targeting people at high risk need to keep continuous and facilitate access to vaccination.
Delivery of Health Care* ; Education ; Family Characteristics ; Humans ; Influenza Vaccines ; Influenza, Human* ; Orthomyxoviridae ; Pregnancy ; Vaccination* ; Surveys and Questionnaires

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to investigate the effects of foot reflexzone massage on state - anxiety and discomfort of ovarian cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. METHOD: A quasi experimental design with a non equivalent control group and non synchronized design was used. The experiment was conducted from October 1, 2003 to September 30, 2004. The subjects consisted of 40 patients admitted to C University Hospital. Twenty subjects were assigned to the experimental group and received foot reflexzone massage everyday for 3 days. The other 20 subjects were in the control group and received routine care. Foot reflexzone massage was done on both feet of the subjects for 30 minutes for 3 days using standard protocol. The 'State-Anxiety Inventory' developed by Spielberger was used to measure the degree of state-anxiety. Discomfort was assessed using the 'Symptom Distress Scale' of McCorkle and Young. Data was analyzed by a SAS program using t-test, Wilcoxon signed rank sum test and Wilcoxon rank sum test. RESULTS: State-anxiety and discomfort of subjects receiving foot reflexzone massage were significantly lower than those of the control group. CONCLUSION: These findings indicate that foot reflexzone massage could be an effective nursing intervention for relieving state-anxiety and discomfort in ovarian cancer patients.
Anxiety ; Drug Therapy* ; Foot* ; Humans ; Massage* ; Nursing ; Ovarian Neoplasms* ; Research Design

PURPOSE: This study was undertaken to identify the effect of providing information on anxiety, knowledge and compliance in permanent pacemaker patients. METHOD: A quasi experimental design with non-equivalent control group and non-synchronized design was used. The subjects of this study were 50 patients who had received permanent pacemaker implantation at a university hospital in Seoul. They were divided into an experimental group of 22 patients who received education and a control group of 28 patients. The education was composed of group education(twice) and individualized reinforcement education(once) using an education booklet. RESULTS: Anxiety decreased in the experimental group. Knowledge significantly increased in the experimental group compared to that in the control group. Compliance significantly increased in the experimental group. CONCLUSION: It can be concluded that providing information is effective for reducing anxiety, increasing knowledge and improving compliance of the permanent pacemaker patients.
Anxiety* ; Compliance* ; Education ; Humans ; Pamphlets ; Research Design ; Seoul

A thymoma often occurs in patients with myasthenia gravis, but the development of multiple thymoma is very rare. The authors report the radiologic and pathologic findings of multiple invasive thymoma in a 59-year-old male with myasthenia gravis.
Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Myasthenia Gravis* ; Thymoma*

PURPOSE: This study was done to identify the level of stress, coping, and depression among hemopoietic stem cell transplantation patients who received care in an outpatient center. METHOD: Data were collected from 81 patients who underwent hemopoietic stem cell transplantation at C University S Hospital between August 2005 and February 2006. RESULTS: Stress and depression were significantly higher following hemopoietic stem cell transplantation in women, and in patients who were worse off financially or who were in bad health. The highest item of stress was 'economic burden for treatment'. There were significantly higher levels of emotion-focused coping among patients who had a spouse and who received motivation from the doctor. The highest item for problem-focused coping was 'try to look at the bright side of life'. The highest items for emotion-focused coping were to 'have faith that treatment will be finished quickly' and 'believe that your situation will improve'. Stress was significantly correlated with depression among these patients. CONCLUSION: It is necessary to develop nursing interventions to enhance positive coping and to decrease stress and depression among patients who have a hemopoietic stem cell transplantation.
Adaptation, Psychological ; Depression* ; Female ; Humans ; Motivation ; Nursing ; Outpatients ; Spouses ; Stem Cell Transplantation* ; Stem Cells* ; Universities

Conjugative R plasmids derived from 74 clinical isolates of Serratia marcescens were epidemiologically analyzed for antimicrobial resistance, EcoRI restriction endonuclease analysis and Southern hybridization with DHFR, TEM and SHV probe. 1. Resistance frequency of isolates against various B-lactam antibiotics was changed by year. 2. Twenty (27%) resistant strains transferred 32 R plasmids to E. coli or Klebsiella by mixed culture. Most strains isolated from 1994 to 1996 transferred only trimethoprim resistance but most strains isolated from 1997 did resistances against gentamicin (Gm) and B-lactams including ampicillin (Ap), carbenicillin (Cb), cefazolin (Cz), cefaloridine (Cl), cefamandole (Cn). 3. Ten plasmids of GmApCbCzC1Cn or GmApCbCzC1 pattern and 3 plasmids of TcSuGmTbApCbCzC1 pattern respectively showed identical EcoRI restriction endonuclease digestion patterns and hybridized fragment patterns with TEM-1 probe by Southern hybridization. These results indicate that the epidemic plasmids carrying blamM gene were present in this hospital in 1997 and molecular genetic analysis of R plasmids can be used to discriminate S. marcescens isolates for epidemiologic studies.
Ampicillin ; Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Carbenicillin ; Cefamandole ; Cefazolin ; Cephaloridine ; Digestion ; DNA Restriction Enzymes ; Epidemiologic Studies ; Epidemiology* ; Gentamicins ; Klebsiella ; Molecular Biology ; Plasmids ; R Factors ; Serratia marcescens* ; Serratia* ; Trimethoprim Resistance

No abstract available.
Arthritis, Rheumatoid* ; Depression* ; Humans