PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify the need for advanced practice nurse and explain the relationship between self-efficacy and professional self-concept among Korean nurses. METHOD: The participants were 511 Korean nurses who were recruited in hospitals or public health centers in Korea. The instruments used in this study were Sherer et al's self-efficacy instrument, Arthur's professional self-concept instrument, and a structured questionnaire on the need for advanced nurse practitioners. Cronbach alpha, mean, SD, X2, t-tests, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient were used to analyze the data using SPSS PC+ ver 12.0 for Windows. RESULTS: Of the nurses, 57.9% of wanted to be advanced practice nurses. The mean of professional self-concept and self-efficacy scores for the nurses were at the medium level. Professional self-concept and self-efficacy of nurses showed significant differences according to age, working location, marital status, level of education, and length of clinical experience. A significant positive correlation was found between professional self-concept and self-efficacy. CONCLUSION: Before planning to develop the role of Advanced practice nurse, there is a need to measure self-efficacy and professional self-concept among nurses. Politically, strategies to increase self-efficacy and professional self-concept among Korean nurses will be necessary in order to prepare good advanced practice nurse.
Education ; Humans ; Korea ; Marital Status ; Nurse Practitioners ; Professional Role ; Public Health ; Questionnaires

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the level of cultural competency of visiting nurses and community health practitioners and explore factors that are related with their cultural competency. METHODS: The subjects of this study were 113 visiting nurses and 103 community health practitioners working in Gangwon-do. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire on May 24, 2011. The SPSS/WIN 17.0 program was used for data analysis. RESULTS: The average score for cultural competency of visiting nurses was 2.76+/-0.60 and that of community health practitioners 2.91+/-0.51. Most of subjects received no multicultural education (78.0% for nurses, 85.7% for community health nurses). Factors influencing cultural competency were number of service experience for multicultural clients and participation of multicultural education. CONCLUSION: It is necessary to develop systematic educational programs to enhance the cultural competency of nurses.
Community Health Nursing ; Cultural Competency ; Surveys and Questionnaires

To evaluate the health risk of the workplace environment of a general hospital toward the hospital workers, a questionnaire survey on the perception of risk at the workplace environment and environmental measurements at 27 locations with 240 workers in the hospital were made from October 25th, 1993 to October 30th, 1994. The results were as follows; 1. By the environmental measurements, 86 workers(36%) were found to be exposed to poor or harmful degree of general illumination, 193 workers(80%) were exposed to poor or harmful local illumination, 34 workers(14%) were exposed to poor or harmful degree of thermal condition and l80 workers(75%) were exposed to poor or harmful noise level, but nobody was exposed to poor or harmful dust and toluene concentration. Also nobody was exposed to poor or harmful level of radiation or anticancer/antibiotic agents. 2. The subjective perceptions on the environmental conditions felt by the workers were different from the objective findings by the environmental measurements. The workers underscored the poor illumination state and overscored the dust concentrations. Also workers oversensitized about the thermal condition, the noise level, the radiation level, the toluene concentration and anticancer/antibiotic agents. 3. The sources of noise were the dialogue(179 workers) and the office instruments(131workers). The sources of dust came from the clothes(108 workers) and the building materials(79 workers). 4. The questionnaire survey showed that the 28 workers were exposed to poor or harmful level of the antibiotics, 10 workers to alkali or acid and 6 workers to drug dust in the pharmacy but the above findings could not be proved by the environmental measurements.
Alkalies ; Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Dust ; Hospitals, General* ; Lighting ; Noise ; Pharmacy ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Toluene

To identify osteoporosis and examine the relationship between health behavior and the self-efficacy of middle-aged women, a descriptive survey was conducted. The subjects were 465 healthy female residents of Kyunggido, Korea, who underwent ultrasound measurement and a health examination at the Kangmeung-Ci Health Center between July and August 2000. They were 40 to 60 years old, with a mean age of 46.7 years. The subjects completed a self- reported questionnaire that consisted of seven items concerning health behavior and twelve items concerning self-efficacy related to osteoporosis. Bone density was evaluated from ultrasound measurements of the right heel. All the data were analyzed using the program SAS-PC. The study found that the mean T score related to bone density was -1.30, and ranged from -3.52 to 3.06. Based on the T score, 74.8% of the subjects were normal, 12.9% had osteopenia, and 12.3% had osteoporosis. The mean osteoporosis self-efficacy score was 41.17 and ranged from 12 to 60. Osteoporosis self-efficacy differed significantly with health behavior related to health supplementary food (t=5.63, p=.018), exercise (t=6.65, p=.010), alcohol drinking(t=10.80, p=.001), and smoking (t=10.23, p=.001). A community-based health promotion program should be developed to prevent osteoporosis in middle-aged women.
Bone Density* ; Bone Diseases, Metabolic ; Female ; Gyeonggi-do ; Health Behavior ; Health Promotion ; Heel ; Humans ; Korea ; Middle Aged ; Osteoporosis ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Ultrasonography

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of a case management program on range of motion, pain, depression and self efficacy in community-dwelling older women with knee arthritis. METHODS: The research design was one-group pre and post-test design with 40 participants with knee arthritis who agreed to participate in the 12-week case management program. Data were collected four times, before and after 4, 8 and 12 weeks. RESULTS: Repeated measures ANOVA revealed significant differences between before and after the service in range of motion, pain, depression and self efficacy. Significant improvements from the baseline to 4 weeks after the service were observed in the measurements of range of motion, pain, depression and self efficacy. There were no significant differences in range of motion, pain and depression between 4 and 12 weeks after the services. CONCLUSION: This study represents the first effort showing that a case management program can have positive outcomes on range of motion, pain, depression and self efficacy for older women with knee arthritis. More research using a control group pre-post test design considering time lapse is needed in order to examine more accurately the effects of case management programs for knee arthritis.
Arthritis* ; Case Management* ; Depression ; Evaluation Studies as Topic ; Female ; Health Services* ; House Calls* ; Humans ; Knee ; Range of Motion, Articular ; Research Design ; Self Efficacy

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to provide fundamental materials for improving school health promotion programs by investigating school nurses' awareness of the importance, performance level, and perceived competence level of school health promotion programs in Gangwon-do. METHODS: The subjects of this study were 173 school nurses who were working in Gangwon-do. The instrument for this study was a scale for awareness of importance, performance level, and perceived competence level. Data were collected on December 15, 2007 and analyzed using SPSS 13.0 for Windows. RESULTS: The mean score of awareness of importance was 3.51 (range: 1~4). The mean score of performance level and the mean score of perceived competence level were 3.35 (range: 1~4) and 3.29 (range: 1~4), respectively. The younger school nurses were (F=4.380, p=.014), the higher their awareness of importance was. The performance level was lowest in high school nurses (F=5.013, p=.008). There were significant correlations between awareness of importance, performance level, and perceived competence level in school nurses. CONCLUSION: In order to improve the effectiveness of school health promotion programs, training and education programs for school nurses' competencies and technical support systems for school nurses should be provided.
Education ; Gangwon-do ; Health Promotion ; Humans ; Mental Competency* ; School Health Services*

To get basic data for the development of health care toward the staff of a university, an evaluation study of the risk factors for the cardiovascular disease utilizing data from questionnaire and health examination performed in 1994 for 1233 staff of Chosun University and its affiliated Hospital. The results are as follows: 1. The mean values of systolic blood pressure was 122.0+/-14.7mmHg for the male and 111.8+/-12. lmmHg for the female. The mean values of diastolic blood pressure was 82. 5+/-12.0mmHg for the male and 73.7+/-10.0mmHg for the female. The mean values of serum total cholesterol was 185.6+/-33.4mg/dl for the male and 173.5+/-32.6mg/dl for the female. The mean values of body mass index(BMI) was 23. l+/-2.4kg/m2 for the male and 21.5+/-2.3kg/m2 for the female. The smoking rate of the male was 47. 6% and that of the female was 0.4%. 2. The systolic and diastolic blood pressure levels increased with age in both sexes. Under 55 years of age the mean blood pressures of the male were higher than that of the female, but the levels of both sexes at 55-64 year old group did not show any big difference. The mean values of serum total cholesterol and BMI also increased with age in both sexes. Under 45 years of age, the serum cholesterol and BMI levels of the male were higher than that of the female, but on the contrary, levels of the male were lower than that of the female at 55-64 year old groups. The mean cholestrol and BMI levels of both sexes at 45-54 year old group was similar. As the age increases, the rate of exsmoker increased and the rate of current smoker decreased among the male. 3. The additive cardiovascular risk scores were calculated considering the values of blood pressure, serum total cholesterol level and the smoking status. The distribution curve of risk scores for the male showed 39. 1% under 4 points and 60.9% above 4 points with the peak at 4 points. 61.7% of the female showed that the risk scores were under 4 points and the rest was more than 4 points with maximum 9 points. As a whole the risk scores of the female were lower than that of the male. 4. By the analysis of association between the risk score of cardiovascular disease and the subjective symptom under the stratification of age and sex, the prevalence of exertional dyspnea was significantly higher at 35-44 year male group and prevalence of dizziness was significantly higher at 45-64 year male group as the risk score of cardiovascular disease increased. Among 25 34 year and 45-64 year female group persons with lower risk score of cardiovascular disease showed higher prevalence of dizziness than persosns with higher risk score.
Blood Pressure ; Cardiovascular Diseases ; Cholesterol ; Delivery of Health Care ; Dizziness ; Dyspnea ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Prevalence ; Risk Factors* ; Smoke ; Smoking ; Surveys and Questionnaires

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify the effects of a physical exercise program using elastic bands in rural area women. METHOD: This study adopted a pre-post test design. The subjects were 89 rural area women who were selected from four community health care centers. The physical exercise program was executed 30 times for 10 weeks (3 times a week) from August 23 to October 31, 2003. RESULTS: There was a significant difference in the attitude of physical exercise (t=-5.517, p=.000). In the degree of joint pain, there were significant differences in the flextion and extension of the shoulder joint (t=2.557, p=.020; t=5.625, p=.000), and there was a significant difference in the flextion of the knee joint (t=4.747, 0=.000) but there was no significant difference in the extension of the knee joint (t=1.795, p=.083). CONCLUSION: Physical exercise programs need to be implemented and spread continuously.
Arthralgia* ; Community Health Services ; Evaluation Studies as Topic ; Exercise* ; Female ; Humans ; Knee Joint ; Shoulder Joint

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to develop a sexuality education course of study for students in the lower grades of elementary school. METHOD: On the basis of the sexuality education guidebook for elementary school students published by Korea Ministry of Education & Human Resources Development, the state-designated textbooks for first to third grade were analyzed. RESULTS: 1) In the category of physical and psychological development, physical development and psychosexual development content were covered, but not sexual health content. 2) In the category of understanding of human relationship, marriage and family, and the opposite sex and love were presented but self-determination and selection were only partially presented. 3) In the category of sexual culture and sexual ethics, sexual role in society was covered, but not social environment or equality of the sexes. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that content on sexuality which is not covered in textbooks for students in lower grades should be included in other school courses or activities in class.
Education ; Ethics ; Humans ; Korea ; Love ; Marriage ; Psychosexual Development ; Reproductive Health ; Sexuality* ; Social Environment ; Staff Development ; Child Health

This study was done to provide basic data to develop smoking prevention and non-smoking education program. Questionnaire were collected from 438 male, 474 female middle school students at Chunchon, Kwangwon-do from Sep 2, 2000 to Feb 28, 2001. The Questionnaire used to measure subjects' knowledge and attitude about smoking was Guideline for the content of tobacco smoking surveys of the general population by WHO. The collected data were analyzed by SPSS-Win program. The results were as follows. 1.The average score of knowledge about smoking of subjects was 57.01 on the basis of 100. 2. The average score of attitude about smoking of subjects was 63.54 on the basis of 100. 3.In knowledge about smoking, there were statistically significant difference according to subjects' grade(F=3.218, p=.041), thinking about smoking behavior(F=3.424, p=.017), harmfulness of smoking(F=17.202, p=.000), present drinking(F=3.555, p=.029) and in attitude about smoking, there were statisti cally significant difference according to subjects' grade(F=20.520, p=.000), sex(t= -5.073, p=.000), mother's smoking(t= -2.405, p=.035), brother's smoking(t= -5.022, p=.000), mother's schooling(F= 3.730, p=.024), having smoking friend or not (t=-9.357, p=.000), subjects' smoking experience (t=-12.363, p=.000), present smoking(F= 76.643, p=.000), quantity of smoking(F= 6.808, p=.001), period of stop smoking(F= 4.685, p=.004), beginning time of smoking (F=2.286, p=.049), thinking about smoking behavior(F=17.933, p=.000), harmfulness of smoking(F=58.360, p=.000), present drinking (F=58.071, p=.000). 4. There were significant relationship between subjects' knowledge and attitude about smoking(r=.469, p=.000).
Drinking ; Education ; Female ; Friends ; Gangwon-do ; Humans ; Male ; Smoke* ; Smoking* ; Thinking ; Child Health ; Surveys and Questionnaires