PURPOSE: Nursing has evolved as a unique and independent field over the last decades. Unfortunately, many nurses in Korea express concern that they lack appropriate background knowledge in bioscience necessary to practice nursing competently. To determine the reasons of their concerns, we examined the perceptions of RNs regarding bioscience courses in their undergraduate (Baccalaureate and 3 year diploma program) and their perceived relations to the practice of nursing. METHODS: The structured questionnaires were sent to 3 university-affiliated tertiary hospitals in Seoul, Korea. RESULTS: The responses given by the nurses in the two groups were similar. The nurses in this study reported that the bioscience courses they took as undergraduates had little relation to their professional tasks. This lack of link between bioscientific knowledge and nursing practice may be partly due to the fact that the courses are taught by non-nursing faculties who are not familiar with nursing tices. It also appears that bioscience knowledge deficit was most prominent during nursing assessment regardless of the program they attended or the unit they are currently working. CONCLUSION: Bioscience courses should be integrated into the nursing curriculum properly and taught by nursing faculty who have a strong background in biological sciences.

The purpose of nursing education is to prepare the professional practitioner as nurse who will be interested in the health and the related aspects of community and will assume responsibility for contributing toward the improvement of the health for the all. This means that nursing education must provide opportunities for the development of knowledge, skills, and attitudes which make this possible. Consequently, this approach has relevance for nursing education. Faculty engaged in endless debates about what is to be included, and to what death, and what will be given short shrift as a result. Thus, it can be seen why there is so much confusion and lack of agreement between the emphasis and objectives in nursing. This study attempted to review and identify the curriculum content of child nursing in Korea to build and develop the standard curriculum contents for national board examination for nurses and child's health needs for the coming 21st century. The questionnaire was consisted of items for selection and organization of the knowledge components and type of unit with weigh to be attained in child nursing. Response of 34% of nursing program in university and junior college. Content analysis was done by using consensual validation of essential knowledge for curriculum content to identify what is obvious or trivial. This study pointed out that it is not yet apparent that demographic fact has greatly influenced child nursing curriculum content. In a similar vein the majority of content of child nursing devote little time and weigh to social and epidemically significant to child health. It seems to be needed that the content of child nursing may push the paradigm shift in nursing education such as health promotion and prevention for postretinal roles of child and family. In conclusion, it is time to convoke and content and standardization on job analysis for national board exam for nurses in Korea.
Child* ; Curriculum* ; Education, Nursing ; Health Promotion ; Humans ; Korea* ; Nursing* ; Veins ; Child Health ; Surveys and Questionnaires

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to investigate the changes in occlusal force after loss of the lower first molar depending on the inclination and extrusion of the adjacent and opposing teeth by using a strain gauge. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Anatomic teeth were used to reconstruct the normal dental arch with loss of the lower right first molar. A uniformly thick layer of silicone was applied to the root to mimic the periodontal ligament. Four stages of dies with varying degrees of inclination and extrusion of the adjacent and opposing teeth were constructed and attached to master model interchangeably by using a CAD/CAM fabricated customized die system. The strain gauges were attached to teeth and a universal testing machine was used to determine the changes in occlusal force. An independent t-test and one-way ANOVA were performed (α = .05). RESULTS: While simulating chewing food, the upper first, second premolar and lower second molar showed greater occlusal force than before extraction. When the change of adjacent teeth's occlusal force with their progressive movement after molar loss was evaluated, the difference among four die models was significant and was in the decreasing aspect (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: When the lower first molar was lost and the adjacent teeth did not move yet, the occlusal force in adjacent teeth was higher than that when the lower first molar still existed. In addition, the occlusal force in the upper premolars and lower second molar decreased significantly with the progressive movement of adjacent teeth.
Bicuspid ; Bite Force* ; Dental Arch ; Mastication ; Molar* ; Periodontal Ligament ; Silicon ; Silicones ; Tooth*

"Journal of Korean Academy of Adult Nursing" has been published since 1989 and more than 330 articles have been published up 2000. We reviewed all the articles published in this journal to analyze the contents and trend of published articles and to find out the way of improvement both in quantity and quality of studies in this area. The results are as follows; 1) Ninety percent of articles were quantitative studies. Experimental design was used in 16.1% and quasi-experimental design was adapted in 73.6% of articles. Qualitative research were 10.3% of total articles reviewed. 2) Only 5.1% of articles described theoretical framework and 73.6% of experimentally designed articles included research hypotheses. 3) Among experimental studies, only one was true experimental studie design. Eighty nine point three persent had descriptive survey method among non-experimental studies. Amog the thirty four qualitative studies, phenomenologic(73.5%), grounded theory(14.7%), and ethnographic (11.8%) design were used. 4) Most of research subject were patients and few healthy people, healthcare worker, and patient family. 5) Psychosocial data collection method which used questionnaire were 53.7% and interview, physical measurement, observation were used in 22.8%, 8.2%, 5.4% of articles respectively. 6) Total number of keywords were 692, and average number of key words per article was 2.2. Health-related keyword was the most frequently used according to four metaparadigm of nursing (human, health, nursing, and environment). Environment related keyword was rarely appeared. The number and quality of nursing research in "Journal of Korean Academy of Adult Nursing" have been improved continuously. It is difficult to find out special trend or characteristics which is unique in this journal because of relatively short history of adult nursing studies. This review study was performed to analyze adult nursing studies only in the view of quantitative aspect, but it is needed to analyse qualitatively to find philosophical or theoretical trend in nursing.
Adult* ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Delivery of Health Care ; Humans ; Nursing Research* ; Nursing* ; Qualitative Research ; Research Design ; Research Subjects

BACKGROUND: Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a potent angiogenic peptide with biologic effects that include regulation of hematopoietic stem cell development, extracellular matrix remodeling, and inflammatory cytokine generation. VEGF plasma levels are elevated in circulation during tumor growth and bone marrow proliferative status. In this study, to investigate the role of VEGF expression in patients with aplastic anemia (AA), VEGF protein expression and microvessel density (MVD) were evaluated. METHODS: Immunohistochemical staining for detecting VEGF protein was performed by the labeled avidin-biotin method on the formalin-fixed and paraffin embedded bone marrow biopsy samples of 25 patients with severe AA and 10 normal controls. Microvessels were scored in at least 3 areas (x200 fields) of the highest MVD in representative sections of each bone marrow biopsy specimen using immunohistochemistry for CD34 antigen. RESULTS: In AA, megakaryocytes and histiocytes expressed less intense cytoplasmic VEGF than in control (P < 0.05). However, plasma cells had higher VEGF immunoreactivity in AA than in control. MVD was significantly lower in patients with AA (21.43+/-7.24), compared to controls (27.65+/-3.44) (P < 0.05). MVD had a strong correlation with bone marrow cellularity. Also, the degree of VEGF immunoreactivity was correlated with bone marrow cellularity and MVD. CONCLUSION: Angiogenesis as assessed by MVD and VEGF expression seems to have a role in the pathogenesis of AA.
Anemia, Aplastic* ; Antigens, CD34 ; Biopsy ; Bone Marrow ; Cytoplasm ; Extracellular Matrix ; Hematopoietic Stem Cells ; Histiocytes ; Humans ; Immunohistochemistry ; Megakaryocytes ; Microvessels ; Paraffin ; Plasma ; Plasma Cells ; Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A*

OBJECTIVES: This study estimated the magnitude of malignant mesothelioma and its epidemiologic features in Korea. We collected data on 160 cases for the 5-year period from 2001 to 2005. METHODS: We established a surveillance system for malignant mesothelioma in 2001. The important participants were pathologists, and respiratory and occupational physicians. We reclassified these cases according to the date of diagnosis and calculated fatality by comparing National Mortality Data. We actively surveyed 18 cases which were diagnosed in 2004 and 2005 to evaluate their work-relatedness. RESULTS: Among 160 cases, 18 were initially diagnosed before 1995, 57 from 1996 to 2000, 11 in 2001, 18 in 2002, 11 in 2003, 29 in 2004 and 16 in 2005. After 2001, 17cases were reported annually. Among the 86 cases which were diagnosed before 2003, 60 cases (69.8%) had died and 46(53.5%) had died within 1 year. Among the 18 cases which we surveyed, 5 were related with the construction industry, 2 with asbestos textile manufacturing industries and 1 with asbestos painting. There was no evident work relatedness in the other 10 cases, but 6 were related to environmental exposure. CONCLUSIONS: Although this surveillance system revealed the magnitude of malignant mesothelioma in Korea, it needs to be supplemented by an active surveillance system using death certificate data and cancer registry data etc.
Asbestos ; Construction Industry ; Death Certificates ; Diagnosis ; Environmental Exposure ; Korea* ; Mesothelioma* ; Mortality ; Paint ; Paintings ; Textiles

PURPOSE: Influenza virus is one of the most important viruses that cause the respiratory infection seasonally. In April 2009, H1N1 was detected in America and Mexico and then there was pandemic in Korea. We investigated the difference of clinical and laboratory findings between the infections of H1N1 and Influenza B. METHODS: We have retrospectively studied the patients under age of 15 years who visited Inje University Sanggye Paik Hospital from August 2009 to April 2010. Evaluation for influenza infection was performed by rapid antigen test or multiplex reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction. Complete blood count with differential counts, C-reactive protein and chest X-ray were checked. RESULTS: Enrolled patients were 2,226 in H1N1-infected group and 288 in influenza B-infected group. Seasonal variation was that H1N1 in autumn and winter but influenza B in spring. The male-to-female sex ratio was same as 1.23 in each group. The mean age of H1N1-infected group was higher than influenza B-infected group (P<0.001). Fever was developed similarly in both groups (P=0.114). However, cough, sputum, rhinorrhea, vomiting, diarrhea, and headache were more prevalent in influenza B infection compared to H1N1 infection (P<0.001). Pneumonia development and admission rate were higher in influenza B infection compared to H1N1 infection (P<0.001, respectively). CONCLUSION: Although H1N1 infection spread rapidly, H1N1 caused not so severe symptoms than influenza B. Because of the possibility that influenza epidemic will develop repeatedly in the future, we need to evaluate more about different characteristics depending on the virus subtype and prepare for them.
Americas ; Blood Cell Count ; C-Reactive Protein ; Cough ; Diarrhea ; Fever ; Headache ; Humans ; Influenza, Human ; Korea ; Mexico ; Orthomyxoviridae ; Pandemics ; Pneumonia ; Retrospective Studies ; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Seasons ; Sex Ratio ; Sputum ; Thorax ; Viruses ; Vomiting

BACKGROUND: Due to the inconvenience of performing oral glucose tolerance tests and day to day variability in glucose level, glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) has been recommended by the American Diabetes Association as a method to diagnose diabetes. In addition, the Korean Diabetes Association has also recommended the use of HbA1c as a diagnostic test for diabetes. In this study, we evaluated the prevalence of diabetes according to fasting plasma glucose (FPG) level only or the combination of FPG and HbA1c tests. METHODS: Data from the 2011 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) were analyzed. Among 5,811 subjects aged 30 years or older, 5,020 were selected after excluding the data of fasting time <8 hours, missing values from fasting glucose or HbA1c level, previous diagnosis of diabetes made by physicians, or current use of antidiabetic medications. Diabetes was defined as FPG > or =126 mg/dL, previous diagnosis of diabetes made by a medical doctor, current use of antidiabetic medications, and/or HbA1c > or =6.5%. Prediabetes was defined as FPG of 100 to 125 mg/dL and/or HbA1c of 5.7% to 6.4%. RESULTS: When we used FPG only, the prevalence of diabetes and prediabetes were 10.5% (men, 12.6%; women, 8.5%) and 19.3% (men, 23.8%; women, 14.9%), respectively. When HbA1c was included as a diagnostic test, the prevalence of diabetes and prediabetes increased to 12.4% (men, 14.5%; women, 10.4%) and 38.3% (men, 41%; women, 35.7%), respectively. Participants with HbA1c > or =6.5% and fasting glucose level <126 mg/dL were older and had lower estimated glomerular filtration rate. CONCLUSION: We concluded that using fasting glucose level only may result in an underestimation of diabetes and prediabetes. HbA1c is an acceptable complementary diagnostic test for diabetes in Korean patients. However, national standardization is needed to order to use HbA1c as a diagnostic method of diabetes and prediabetes.
Aged ; Blood Glucose* ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Diagnostic Tests, Routine ; Fasting* ; Female ; Glomerular Filtration Rate ; Glucose Tolerance Test ; Hemoglobin A, Glycosylated ; Humans ; Korea ; Nutrition Surveys ; Prediabetic State* ; Prevalence*

BACKGROUND: Due to the inconvenience of performing oral glucose tolerance tests and day to day variability in glucose level, glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) has been recommended by the American Diabetes Association as a method to diagnose diabetes. In addition, the Korean Diabetes Association has also recommended the use of HbA1c as a diagnostic test for diabetes. In this study, we evaluated the prevalence of diabetes according to fasting plasma glucose (FPG) level only or the combination of FPG and HbA1c tests. METHODS: Data from the 2011 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) were analyzed. Among 5,811 subjects aged 30 years or older, 5,020 were selected after excluding the data of fasting time <8 hours, missing values from fasting glucose or HbA1c level, previous diagnosis of diabetes made by physicians, or current use of antidiabetic medications. Diabetes was defined as FPG > or =126 mg/dL, previous diagnosis of diabetes made by a medical doctor, current use of antidiabetic medications, and/or HbA1c > or =6.5%. Prediabetes was defined as FPG of 100 to 125 mg/dL and/or HbA1c of 5.7% to 6.4%. RESULTS: When we used FPG only, the prevalence of diabetes and prediabetes were 10.5% (men, 12.6%; women, 8.5%) and 19.3% (men, 23.8%; women, 14.9%), respectively. When HbA1c was included as a diagnostic test, the prevalence of diabetes and prediabetes increased to 12.4% (men, 14.5%; women, 10.4%) and 38.3% (men, 41%; women, 35.7%), respectively. Participants with HbA1c > or =6.5% and fasting glucose level <126 mg/dL were older and had lower estimated glomerular filtration rate. CONCLUSION: We concluded that using fasting glucose level only may result in an underestimation of diabetes and prediabetes. HbA1c is an acceptable complementary diagnostic test for diabetes in Korean patients. However, national standardization is needed to order to use HbA1c as a diagnostic method of diabetes and prediabetes.
Aged ; Blood Glucose* ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Diagnostic Tests, Routine ; Fasting* ; Female ; Glomerular Filtration Rate ; Glucose Tolerance Test ; Hemoglobin A, Glycosylated ; Humans ; Korea ; Nutrition Surveys ; Prediabetic State* ; Prevalence*

PURPOSE: Recommended dietary allowance of vitamin C was determined on the basis of preventing the scurvy without considerations of the important function of the vitamin C as a first line antioxidant. So we measured the whole blood and plasma vitamin C concentrations of the contemporay healthy elementary school children in Chinju for the establishment of the optimal daily vitamin C requirment in the elementary school children. METHODS: Whole blood and plasma vitamin C concentrations were measured by the 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine method in 338 children from the 1st to the 6th grade of one elementary school in Chinju. RESULTS: Whole blood and plasma vitamin C concentrations were 1.36+/-0.34mg/dL and 1.07+/-0.33mg/dL respectively. There existed an close relationship between whole blood and plasma vitamin C concentrations (r=0.77, p=0.0001). Whole blood vitamin C concentration decreased as the age became older (r=-0.22 p=0.0001), but plasma vitamin C concentration did not change. There were no sex differences in the whole blood and plasma vitamin C concentrations except in the 3rd grade (p<0.05). Twenty-three of 338 elementary school children (6.8%) had the plasma vitamin C concentration less than 0.6mg/dL. CONCLUSIONS: We produced the blood and plasma vitamin C concentrations of the contemporay elementary school children in Chinju. These values were not satisfactory in consideration of the importance of the childhood health.
Ascorbic Acid* ; Child* ; Gyeongsangnam-do* ; Humans ; Plasma* ; Recommended Dietary Allowances ; Scurvy ; Sex Characteristics ; Vitamins*