PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to describe the perception and practice of hospital infection control of nursing staff in long-term care hospitals by the level of supplementation of nurses. METHODS: The participants were 212 nurses and nurse assistants in 13 long-term care hospitals in a metropolitan city and the data were gathered by self-reported questionnaires during August 2011 and analyzed by SPSS/WIN program. RESULTS: The beds per a nurse were 15, and the proportion of nurses among nursing staff in long-term care hospitals was about 33%. In general, the level of infection control in practice was lower than that of perception. The highest perception and practice domain was 'Management of disinfection/contamination', and the lower level domains were 'Personal hygiene' and 'Hand washing' There were statistically significant differences in the hospital infection control of perception and practice depending on age, education, career in long-term care hospital, job position, the quantity of beds, nurse, and nurse assistant, beds per a nurse and proportion of nurses in hospitals. CONCLUSION: According to these results, the systematic and continual education on hospital infection control of the nursing staff in long-term hospitals should be carried out. In addition, the policy to add more nurses into long-term care hospitals must be implemented.
Cross Infection ; Humans ; Infection Control ; Long-Term Care ; Nursing Staff ; Surveys and Questionnaires

Korea health care system and public welfare system have been changed slowly and developed step by step. It makes efforts to promote the welfare of the people, but does not provide good benefits for geriatric patients. In 2008, it was incompletely set up the long term care system in Korea. And the Law on Long-Term Care Insurance for Elderly was officially announced in Nov. 2011 and the law for dementia, Dementia Management Act, was drafted in Feb. 2012. Though there were many laws, the concept of long-term care hospital and geriatric care facility is still obscure. In long-term care hospital, there are big expansion of the number of beds and institutions in Korea. Over a half of the patients in long-term care hospitals are suffered from mixed neurological diseases. Especially, dementia is the comorbid state with other chronic geriatric diseases. In view of the aging population, the role of neurologist will continue to grow. So neurologists need more special training for the needed skills and competencies, and the specific care settings program in long-term care hospital. In this review, the history and current state of long-term care hospital, related laws, and the role of neurologist will be discussed.
Aged ; Aging ; Delivery of Health Care ; Dementia ; Humans ; Insurance, Long-Term Care ; Jurisprudence ; Korea ; Long-Term Care*

PURPOSE: This study investigated the correlation between person-centered care (PCC) and nursing service quality of nurses in long-term care hospitals. METHODS: The subjects were 114 nurses working in 8 long-term care hospitals. Instruments for evaluating PCC and nursing service quality were used. The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, two samples-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson's correlation and Multiple regression. RESULTS: The mean of PCC was 3.25±0.45 out of 5 and the nursing service quality was 3.87±0.40. There were significant differences in PCC in terms of age and income satisfaction, the application of their opinions, the satisfaction of hospital managers, administrators and nurse managers. There were significant differences in nursing service quality according to age, position, the satisfaction of hospital managers, administrators and nurse managers. Nurses' PCC showed a significant positive correlation with nursing service quality. Factors influencing nursing service quality included PCC, their position and age and the most influencing one was PCC. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that the PCC is the strongest affecting element to the quality of nursing service in long-term care hospitals. Therefore, the strategies to improve the practice of person-centered care should be carried out to enhance the quality of nursing service.
Administrative Personnel ; Humans ; Long-Term Care* ; Nurse Administrators ; Nursing Services* ; Nursing* ; Patient-Centered Care ; Quality of Health Care

PURPOSE: This study was performed to measure nursing professionalism, organizational communication, and intent to stay, and investigate the relationship among these three variables in geriatric hospital nurses. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was done with the participation of 195 nurses working at 23 geriatric hospitals in B city of Gyeongsangnam-do, Korea. Data were collected from January 19 to 25, 2018 using structured questionnaires and were analyzed using SPSS/WIN program. RESULTS: The geriatric hospital nurses' scores for nursing professionalism, organizational communication, and intent to stay were relatively lower than those of general hospital nurses. Each of these three variables was differently perceived according to participants' general characteristics but there was a positive correlation between them. The factors influencing intent to stay were organizational communication, age and through newspapers/advertising (one of motivations for working at geriatric hospitals). These three variables explained 47% of intent to stay. CONCLUSION: To increase intent to stay in geriatric hospital nurses, nursing or hospital managers must develop and apply programs that help improve nurses' professionalism and organizational communication. Especially geriatric hospital nursing managers should try to provide organizational communication enhancement programs for young and inexperienced nurses.
Cross-Sectional Studies ; Gyeongsangnam-do ; Hospitals, General ; Korea ; Nursing ; Professionalism

BACKGROUND: Glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis is characterized by decreased osteoblastic activity and replacement of bone marrow with adipocytes. Since osteoblast and adipocytes are derived from the same mesenchymal stem cell, one might speculate that there is an interaction between these two cells types. In fact, leptin that is secreted from adipocytes is known to stimulate differentiation of osteoblasts, while it inhibits the differentiation of adipocytes. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that PPAR is present in osteoblasts and it is increased by leptin in adipocytes. However, the role of PPAR and leptin remains unknown in glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis. The aims of this study are to investigate the effect of glucocorticoid on bone mineral density and gene expression in osteoblasts and adipocytes, and to study the role of PPAR and leptin in the mechanism of glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis. METHODS: Methylprednisolone, 1 mg/200 g-weight, was injected into five rats (steroid group) and saline was given to five rats (control group) for eight weeks. The bone mineral density was determined by dual energy X-ray absoptiometry. Gene expression of osteocalcin, alkaline phosphatase, lipoptrotein lipase, and PPAR -2 was assessed by RT-PCR. Serum leptin level was measured using a commercial radioimmunoassay kit. RESULTS: 1) The body weight of the steroid group was significantly lower than that of the control group (451.4+/-12.9 g vs. 247.6+/-19.8 g, p<0.05). The bone mineral density of the steroid group tended to be lower than that of the control group (0.27+/-0.01 g/cm2 vs. 0.26+/-0.01 g/cm2, p>0.05). 2) In the steroid group, the gene expressions of osteocalcin (1.00+/-0.08 vs. 0.23+/-0.16, p<0.05) and alkaline phosphatase (0.47+/-0.07 vs. 0.33+/-0.18, p<0.05) were decreased significantly compared to those in controls. 3) In the steroid group, the gene expression of lipoprotein lipase (0.23+/-0.06 vs. 0.39+/-0.12, p>0.05) and+/-PAR 2 (0.17+/-0.08 vs. 0.22+/-0.12, p>0.05) tended to be increased compared to that in the contol group. 4) The serum leptin level of the steroid group tended to be lower than that of the control group (0.20+/-0.12 g/L vs. 0.10+/-0.09 g/L, p>0.05). CONCLUSION: These data suggest that long-term administration of a large dose of glucocorticoid suppresses differentiation of osteoblasts and enhances the differentiation of adipocytes, which may be mediated by increased expression of PPAR and decreased synthesis of leptin.
Adipocytes ; Alkaline Phosphatase ; Animals ; Body Weight ; Bone Density ; Bone Marrow* ; Gene Expression ; Leptin ; Lipase ; Lipoprotein Lipase ; Mesenchymal Stromal Cells* ; Methylprednisolone ; Osteoblasts ; Osteocalcin ; Osteoporosis ; Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptors ; Radioimmunoassay ; Rats