No abstract available.
Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma*

BACKGROUND: Direct observation of healthcare workers is commonly used in hospitals to investigate hand hygiene compliance. However, the hand hygiene compliance rate may increase due to the Hawthorne effect, which is the modification of behavior simply because subjects become aware that they are being observed. The objective of this study was to investigate the occurrence of the Hawthorne effect when directly observing hand hygiene compliance in intensive care unit (ICU) healthcare personnel. METHODS: A total of 87 staff members from the coronary care unit and cardiac surgery ICU of a general hospital in Seoul were included in this study: 24 residents and interns, 55 nurses, and 8 nursing assistants. Both covert and overt observations, where subjects were either unaware or aware of any direct observation, were performed on separate occasions. RESULTS: A total of 1,052 covert and 1,336 overt observations were documented over 30 and 34 occasions, respectively. Overall hand hygiene compliance was significantly higher with overt observation than with covert observation (1,041/1,336, 77.9% vs. 659/1,052, 62.6%, P<0.001). The Hawthorne effect was present in all professions and behaviors, with the exception of nursing assistants, and prior to touching a patient. CONCLUSION: Direct observation of hand hygiene compliance was associated with the Hawthorne effect when observations were made overtly and this was likely to contribute to an overestimation of compliance rate.
Compliance ; Coronary Care Units* ; Delivery of Health Care* ; Effect Modifier, Epidemiologic* ; Hand Hygiene* ; Health Personnel ; Hospitals, General ; Humans ; Intensive Care Units* ; Nursing ; Seoul ; Thoracic Surgery*

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to explore how supervisory nurses who were transferred to a long-term care hospital from an acute hospital adapted to the new work environment. METHODS: Colaizzi's phenomenological method was applied. Participants were nine nurses working in long-term care hospitals and data were collected through in-depth individual interviews over 1 month. Approval was obtained from the Institutional Review Board (IRB). RESULTS: From this study 12 theme clusters and 5 categories were classified. The 5 categories were; ‘Unacceptable workload’, ‘Unclear job description’, ‘Unreasonable management system of the hospital’, ‘Understanding the characteristic of the long-term care hospital’ and ‘Challenge and self-development’. CONCLUSION Participants experienced conflict, identity confusion and ambivalence through the relationship with nursing assistants, long-term care workers, administrative staff and the patients’ caregivers. However, they finally understood the characteristics of the long-term care hospital and were positioned as long-term care nurses.

Elastofibroma is a rare benign tumor-like condition manifesting as firm and spherical mass with poorly circumscribed margins of fibroelastic tissue, occuring in the subscapular region or the chest wall of elderly persons. It is not a true neoplasm but rather a reactive or degenerative process causing abnormal elastogenesis. It is unilateral in the majority of cases and the right side is affected more commonly than the left. We report a case of bilateral elastofibromas removed from both subscapular regions of a 73-year-old female farmer. She was presented with tender masses on the bilateral subscapular areas for seven years. Microscopically, it consisted of a mixture of intertwining broad eosinophilic collagen bundles and elastic fibers associated with a few fibroblasts and mature fat cells. The elastic fibers had a degenerated beaded appearance or were fragmented into serrated globules in a linear arrangement.
Adipocytes ; Aged ; Collagen ; Elastic Tissue ; Eosinophils ; Female ; Fibroblasts ; Humans ; Thoracic Wall

Purpose: : This study aimed to understand and describe the experiences of collaborative practice among health professionals in Korea. Methods: : Data were collected through individual in-depth interviews conducted from January to March 2021 with 10 health professionals in Korea. All interviews were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim. The transcribed data then underwent qualitative content analysis. Results: : Through content analysis, 10 categories and 3 themes were formed. Three themes, “working based on knowledge,” “having difficulty in building collaborative relationships,” and “playing complementary roles” emerged. Conclusion : The limitation is that the study participants are 10 health professionals in Korea working at healthcare institutions. However, this study is of great significance in that it provided basic data for preparing measures for collaborative practice among health professionals in Korea.

The cause of essential hypertension is yet unknown, but in general is caused by interaction of hereditary factors, diet, obesity, lack of exercise and stress. The aging process influences various physiological mechanism related to regulation of blood pressure. So elderly hypertensives have a tendancy to consider the disease as a result of the physiological aging process. This attitude causes many complications, worsening of the disease and even early death because of inappropriate care. In order to improve self-management of elderly hypertensives in this study the researcher examined the effect of blood pressure regulation by an education program that improves self-care behavior, through increasing self-efficacy. The education program consisted of group education on hypertension and self-care strategies, and encouraging and reinforcing self-efficacy resources such as verbal persuation, performance accomplishment and vicarious experiences. A quasi-experimental pre-and post-test design was used. Thirty-two elderly hypertensives participated in the study. Eighteen in the education group and fourteen in the control group. The education program consisted of eight sessions twice a week for four weeks. There was no intervention for the control group. Data were analysed using SPSS for Windows(Version 8.0). The results were as follows. 1. There was a significant decrease in systolic and diastolic blood pressure between the experimental group and control group over three different times, and interaction by groups and over time. 2. There was no significant difference in the level of self-care behavior between the experimental group and control group over three different times, and interaction by groups and over time. 3. There was significant difference in self-efficacy of experimental and control group, depending on the measuring period, but there was no difference between these groups on interaction by groups and over time. 4. There was positive correlation between self efficacy and self care behavior depending on the measuring period. There was negative correlation between diastolic blood pressure and self-care behavior on the posttest of the program, and between systolic blood pressure and self-care behavior on the follow-up test of the program. Findings indicate that this study will contribute to develop nursing strategies for the regulation of blood pressure for the elderly, which is easy for the elderly to learn as a nonpharmacologic approach.
Aged* ; Aging ; Blood Pressure* ; Diet ; Education* ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Nursing ; Obesity ; Self Care* ; Self Efficacy

PURPOSE: This study was performed to identify the pre-and post-transplant nutritional assessment for patients undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). METHODS: The subjects of this study were 25 patients undergoing allogeneic HSCT. The data collection was performed from January 31st to March 31st, 2011. The Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA), anthropometrics and biochemical test were collected from the time they entered the isolation unit until they left. RESULTS: Pre-transplant nutritional assessment status indicated moderate malnutrition which scored 7.32+/-1.68 in PG-SGA. There were 22 patients (88.0%) with moderate malnutrition and 3 patients (12.0%) with severe malnutrition. Post-transplant nutritional assessment indicated severe malnutrition status which scored 11.92+/-3.26 in PG-SGA. Pre-and post-transplant nutritional assessment displayed significant differences (p<.001) in PG-SGA score. Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation led to a deterioration of patients' nutritional status. Pre-transplant patients were already in malnutrition status and patients undergoing allogeneic HSCT were at risk for malnutrition. CONCLUSION: Pre- and post-transplant patients were categorized as having undernutritional and malnutritional status. Pre-transplant nutrition status impacted on post-transplant nutritional status. Health care personnel should pay attention to patient's nutrition status when undergoing allogeneic HSCT with appropriate nutritional assessment tools.
Data Collection ; Delivery of Health Care ; Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation ; Hematopoietic Stem Cells ; Humans ; Malnutrition ; Nutrition Assessment ; Nutritional Status

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine the meaning and essence of suicide for elderly people who had previously attempted suicide as an older person. METHODS: Giorgi's descriptive phenomenology was used for analysis. The researchers carried out in-depth interviews, recordings and memos individually with four elders. The elders were individuals who had attempted suicide sometime in the past 5 yr. They were interviewed from 5 to 10 times using open-ended questions and a semi-structural format. Demographic data were also collected. RESULTS: The meaning of suicide before a suicide attempt in older people had four core components: conflict with family, powerlessness and despair in their life with a drop in self-esteem, using internal and external resources to resolve their troubles and awareness of imminent crisis. CONCLUSION: These results of this study will increase understanding of suicide in older people by defining their subjective experience of suicide attempts and applying grounded data in the development of programs that provide concrete intervention strategies to prevent suicide in elderly people.
Aged ; Conflict (Psychology) ; Depression ; Female ; Humans ; Interviews as Topic ; Male ; Self Concept ; Self Psychology ; Suicide, Attempted/prevention & control/*psychology

PURPOSE: This study was performed to explore the effect of senior simulation on nurses' attitudes toward the elderly. METHOD: Twenty-seven nurses working in various settings such as acute hospitals, community health centers, geriatric hospitals, and clinics were recruited. Among them, 25 subjects completed the whole experimental protocol. Aging Semantic Differential Scaling was utilized to evaluate attitudes toward the elderly and 'Suit for Experiencing Being Aged' from the Sakamoto Model was provided for the experiment. Before and after the experiment subjects filled out questionnaires. RESULT: Attitude score before experiment was 4.36, which indicates neutral attitude. Objective attitude scores were not different significantly after experiment. However subjective statements indicated attitude changes in a positive way. CONCLUSION: Senior simulation can affect nurses' attitude toward elderly in subjective way. That is, nurses became more empathetic and understanding to elderly's physical limitations and felt more initiative nursing approach were needed in caring elderly.
Adult ; *Aged ; *Attitude of Health Personnel ; Female ; Humans ; Nurse-Patient Relations ; Nurses/*psychology ; *Patient Simulation

PURPOSE: The purposes of this study were to identify body image changes and physical suffering during radiotherapy among breast cancer patients following breast conserving operations and establish correlations between the two. METHODS: Twenty seven patients were recruited in this survey design. Patient interviews and patient-reported questionnaires were used to collect data from March 1 to July 30, 2013. The questionnaire included 18 items about body image and 10 items about physical suffering. RESULTS: Patients' body image during radiotherapy following breast conserving operation turned significantly negative. Likewise, patients' physical suffering increased significantly during radiotherapy. Body image and physical suffering were inversely correlated (p=.031). CONCLUSION: Breast cancer patients receiving radiotherapy following breast conserving operations go through changes in body image. Timely and proper interventions for physical suffering during radiotherapy would help to set up and maintain a positive body image.
Body Image* ; Breast Neoplasms* ; Breast* ; Humans ; Radiotherapy* ; Surveys and Questionnaires