PURPOSE: This study aimed to examine levels of stress and professionalism of nurses who provided nursing care during the 2015 Middle East respiratory syndrome outbreak based on their experience, to investigate the nurses' intention to respond to possible future outbreaks in relation to their experience during the outbreak, and to determine the relationship between the outbreak experience and nursing intention considering stress and professionalism. METHODS: A self-administered questionnairewas designed based on modifications of related questionnaires, and used to assess levels of stress, professionalism, and nursing intention according to participants' experiences during the outbreak. Multiple regression analysiswas used to examine the relationship between the outbreak nursing experience and nursing intention considering stress and nursing professionalism. RESULTS: The overall stress, professionalism, and nursing intention scores for the firsthand experience group were 33.72, 103.00, and 16.92, respectively, whereas those of the secondhand experience group were 32.25, 98.99, and 15.60, respectively. There were significant differences in professionalism and nursing intention scores between the groups (p = .001 and p < .001, respectively). The regression analysis revealed that the regression estimate between stress and nursing intention was B(SE) = −0.08(0.02), beta = −0.21, p < .001 and the regression estimate between professionalism in nursing and nursing intention was B(SE) = 0.05(0.01), beta = 0.23, p < .001. CONCLUSIONS: Prior outbreak nursing experience was importantly associated with intention to provide care for patients with a newly emerging infectious disease in the future considering stress and professionalism. Gathering information about nurses' experience of epidemics and regular assessment of job stress and professionalism are required.
Communicable Diseases* ; Communicable Diseases, Emerging ; Coronavirus ; Coronavirus Infections ; Disease Outbreaks ; Emergencies* ; Hospitals, Public* ; Humans ; Intention* ; Korea* ; Nursing Care ; Nursing* ; Professionalism* ; Stress, Psychological

PURPOSE: This descriptive study was performed to explore trends in child health nursing research by analyzing the themes, contents and structure of articles published in 2014 in Child Health Nursing Research, the official journal of the Korean Academy of Child Health Nursing. METHODS: Thirty-eight articles were reviewed using keywords, author (s), subjects, ethical considerations, designs, statistics involved, funding resources, and others. RESULTS: Ten domains from 160 keywords were identified as follows, child related, psycho-social variable related, parents and family related, nursing and health related, and others. A mean of 2.9 authors per article was identified and 71% of the authors were academic- affiliated. Twenty-eight articles were human-participant related while 21 articles addressed both Institutional Review Board and written consent. Non-experimental design was the most commonly used method followed by experimental design, and qualitative design. The duration for acceptance was a mean of 89.1 days from submission with most articles requiring a second round of article review. Half of the articles were supported by grant organizations such as Korean National Research Foundation. CONCLUSION: The findings of the analysis show an improvement in the scientific quality with a diversity of articles in Child Health Nursing Research.
Child ; Child Welfare* ; Child* ; Ethics Committees, Research ; Financial Management ; Financing, Organized ; Humans ; Nursing Research* ; Nursing* ; Parents ; Publications ; Research Design

We performed a point seroprevalence survey of measles among healthcare workers (HCWs) at two Korean teaching hospitals in 2019. A total of 2,830 HCWs underwent an antibody test.The overall seropositivity of measles was 93.1%. The seroprevalence of measles was lowest in HCWs aged 20 - 24 years (81.2%), followed by those aged 25 - 29 years (90.1%). The rates of anti-measles IgG positivity were significantly different between the two hospitals (97.0% vs.89.4%, P <0.001). These results suggest that the seropositivity of measles in HCWs may differ depending on the hospital's vaccination policy.

Background: As the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is ongoing, heavy workload of healthcare workers (HCWs) is a concern. This study investigated the workload of HCWs responding to the COVID-19 outbreak in South Korea. Methods: A nationwide cross-sectional survey was conducted from September 16 to October 15, 2020, involving 16 healthcare facilities (4 public medical centers, 12 tertiary-care hospitals) that provide treatment for COVID-19 patients. Results: Public medical centers provided the majority (69.4%) of total hospital beds for COVID-19 patients (n = 611), on the other hand, tertiary care hospitals provided the majority (78.9%) of critical care beds (n = 57). The number of beds per doctor (median [IQR]) in public medical centers was higher than in tertiary care hospitals (20.2 [13.0, 29.4] versus 3.0 [1.3, 6.6], P = 0.006). Infectious Diseases physicians are mostly (80%) involved among attending physicians. The number of nurses per patient (median [interquartile range, IQR]) in tertiarycare hospitals was higher than in public medical centers (4.6 [3.4–5] vs. 1.1 [0.8–2.1], P =0.089). The median number of nurses per patient for COVID-19 patients was higher than the highest national standard in South Korea (3.8 vs. 2 for critical care). All participating healthcare facilities were also operating screening centers, for which a median of 2 doctors, 5 nurses, and 2 administrating staff were necessary. Conclusion As the severity of COVID-19 patients increases, the number of HCWs required increases. Because the workload of HCWs responding to the COVID-19 outbreak is much greater than other situations, a workforce management plan regarding this perspective is required to prevent burnout of HCWs.

BACKGROUND: The performance of the self-monitoring of blood glucose in patients with diabetes should be properly evaluated to ensure strict glycemic control. This study evaluated the self-testing Blood Glucose Monitoring System GlucoDr.S™ (All Medicus Co., Ltd., Korea). METHODS: This study recruited 120 patients. Use of the glucometer was evaluated according to ISO 15197:2013 guidelines. The YSI 2300 STAT PLUS Glucose Analyzer (YSI Life Sciences, USA) was used as the reference device. RESULTS: The standard deviation and coefficients of variation ranges for measurement repeatability and intermediate measurement precision conducted with 10 meters and 3 reagent lots on the same day were 2.7–3.2 mg/dL (<100 mg/dL) and 3.4–3.7% (≥100 mg/dL), respectively, and 3.7 mg/dL (<100 mg/dL) and 2.1–2.6% (≥100 mg/dL), respectively. Each coefficient of determination (R2) for linearity of the 3 reagent lots was >0.99. The influence effect of hematocrit and the 24 interference agents was not significant, except for xylose. A system accuracy test was conducted with 100 subjects taking duplicate measurements from each of the 3 reagent lots. When glucose levels were <100 mg/dL and ≥100 mg/dL, >95% of the samples were within ±15 mg/dL and within ±15% of the average measured values of the reference measurement, respectively. In Consensus Error grid analysis, all results were distributed in zone A and B. The results of the user performance evaluation using 115 lay persons were also included in the acceptance range. CONCLUSION: The GlucoDr.S™ showed acceptable performance according to the ISO 15197:2013 guidelines and could be a clinically useful self-testing glucometer.
Biological Science Disciplines ; Blood Glucose* ; Consensus ; Glucose ; Hematocrit ; Humans ; Xylose

Background: A healthcare system’s collapse due to a pandemic, such as the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), can expose healthcare workers (HCWs) to various mental health problems. This study aimed to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the depression and anxiety of HCWs. Methods: A nationwide questionnaire-based survey was conducted on HCWs who worked in healthcare facilities and public health centers in Korea in December 2020. Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) were used to measure depression and anxiety. To investigate factors associated with depression and anxiety, stepwise multiple logistic regression analysis was performed. Results: A total of 1,425 participating HCWs were included. The mean depression score (PHQ-9) of HCWs before and after COVID-19 increased from 2.37 to 5.39, and the mean anxiety score (GAD-7) increased from 1.41 to 3.41. The proportion of HCWs with moderate to severe depression (PHQ-9 ≥ 10) increased from 3.8% before COVID-19 to 19.5% after COVID-19, whereas that of HCWs with moderate to severe anxiety (GAD-7 ≥ 10) increased from 2.0% to 10.1%. In our study, insomnia, chronic fatigue symptoms and physical symptoms after COVID-19, anxiety score (GAD-7) after COVID-19, living alone, and exhaustion were positively correlated with depression. Furthermore, post-traumatic stress symptoms, stress score (Global Assessment of Recent Stress), depression score (PHQ-9) after COVID-19, and exhaustion were positively correlated with anxiety. Conclusion In Korea, during the COVID-19 pandemic, HCWs commonly suffered from mental health problems, including depression and anxiety. Regularly checking the physical and mental health problems of HCWs during the COVID-19 pandemic is crucial, and social support and strategy are needed to reduce the heavy workload and psychological distress of HCWs.