Purpose: This descriptive correlation study was designed to identify the job characteristics of advanced practice nurses (APNs) and the degree of nursing professionalism as factors influencing the political competency of APNs.Additionally, the relationship between these two factors and political competency was analyzed. Methods: Data were collected through an online survey of 118 APNs from June 16 to September 16, 2021. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics, a t-test, ANOVA, Scheffé ́’s test, Pearson’s correlation, and a multiple regression analysis using SPSS/WIN 25.0. Results: Statistically significant differences were noted in the political competency of APNs based on age, workplace, position, experience as an APN, political education, and political party membership. Furthermore, political competency positively correlated with job characteristics and nursing professionalism. The factors affecting the political competency of APNs included skill variety, workplace, political education, political party membership, and nursing professionalism. Conclusion Findings of this study confirmed the importance of the political competency of APNs. Furthermore, policy efforts to promote independent job development reflecting the job characteristics of APNs and improvement in nursing professionalism are required, and support from professional nursing organizations is needed.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Kidney transplantation (KT) is the best treatment for end-stage renal disease patients. Although previous studies have demonstrated that the clinical outcome following living related (LR) KT is better than that following unrelated (LUR) KT in ABO-compatible KT recipients, recent studies showed no differences in clinical outcomes between the two treatments. In this study, we compared the clinical outcomes of LR and LUR KT in ABO-incompatible KT recipients. METHODS: From January 2011 to August 2013, 19 cases of ABO-incompatible KT were analyzed retrospectively. Eight kidneys (7 cases of parent-offspring and 1 case of siblings, Group 1) were donated from living-related donors and 11 (all spousal donors, Group 2) from living-unrelated donors. We investigated patient survival, graft survival, acute rejection, graft function, and complications. RESULTS: On Kaplan-Meier analysis, patient and graft survival during follow-up were 87.5% and 87.5% in Group 1; both were 100% in Group 2. Acute rejection, graft function, and medical and surgical complications were not significantly different between the two groups. CONCLUSIONS: The short-term clinical outcomes between LR and LUR KT in ABO-incompatible KT recipients were equivalent. Most domestic cases of LUR KT are from spousal donors and the spousal donor will be a major donor in ABO-incompatible KT patients.
Follow-Up Studies ; Graft Rejection ; Graft Survival ; Humans ; Kaplan-Meier Estimate ; Kidney Failure, Chronic ; Kidney Transplantation* ; Kidney* ; Retrospective Studies ; Siblings ; Tissue Donors ; Transplantation*

BACKGROUND: Little is known about epigenetic silencing of genes by promoter hypermethylation in renal cell carcinoma (RCC). The aim of this study was to identify prognostic methylation markers in surgically treated clear cell RCC (ccRCC). METHODS: Methylation patterns were assayed using the Infinium HumanMethylation450 BeadChip array on pairs of ccRCC and normal tissue from 12 patients. Using quantitative PSQ analysis, tumor-specific hypermethylated genes were validated in 25 independent cohorts and their clinical relevance was also verified in 152 independent cohorts. RESULTS: Using genome-wide methylation array, Zinc finger protein 278 (ZNF278), Family with sequence similarity 155 member A (FAM155A) and Dipeptidyl peptidase 6 (DPP6) were selected for tumor-specific hypermethylated genes in primary ccRCC. The promoter methylation of these genes occurred more frequently in ccRCC than normal kidney in independent validation cohort. The hypermethylation of three genes were associated with advanced tumor stage and high grade tumor in ccRCC. During median follow-up of 39.2 (interquartile range, 15.4–79.1) months, 22 (14.5%) patients experienced distant metastasis. Multivariate analysis identified the methylation status of these three genes, either alone, or in a combined risk score as an independent predictor of distant metastasis. CONCLUSION: The promoter methylation of ZNF278, FAM155A and DPP6 genes are associated with aggressive tumor phenotype and early development of distant metastasis in patients with surgically treated ccRCC. These potential methylation markers, either alone, or in combination, could provide novel targets for development of individualized therapeutic and prevention regimens.
Carcinoma, Renal Cell ; Cohort Studies ; Disease-Free Survival ; Epigenomics ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Kidney ; Methylation ; Multivariate Analysis ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Phenotype ; Zinc Fingers