PURPOSE: This study was to investigate the performance of safety care activities among nurses in small-medium sized general hospitals and to identify factors associated with the safety care activities. METHODS: In this cross-sectional descriptive study, 455 nurses were recruited from small-medium sized general hospitals. Data were collected with the ‘Questionnaire on Patient Safety Care Activities’ by web based survey. Descriptive statistics, independent t-test and One-way ANOVA with Duncan test for multiple comparison were used for data analysis. RESULTS: The mean score of patient safety care activity was 4.52 out of a total of 5 points. The total score of patient safety care activities according to the characteristics of the subjects was significantly higher than those of patients who had more than 15 years of clinical nursing career (F=7.06, p < .001) and there was a significant difference according to experience of healthcare accreditation (t=−2.10, p=.036). CONCLUSION: In order to raise the level of patient safety care activity among nurses in small-medium sized general hospitals, it is important to retain experienced nurses. Practical training and regular educations on patient safety care activities are required for nurses in small-medium sized general hospitals.
Accreditation ; Delivery of Health Care ; Hospitals, General* ; Humans ; Nursing ; Patient Safety* ; Statistics as Topic

No abstract available.
Aneurysm ; Angina, Unstable

OBJECTIVES: Cheyne-Stokes respiration (CSR) is frequently observed in acute stroke patients. In case of heart failure, CSR has been reported to be a poor prognostic factor. However, whether CSR has negative predictive value in stroke is not established yet. We aimed to investigate the relation between the presence of CSR and the outcome of acute stroke. METHODS: We investigated the patients who were admitted with acute ischemic stroke and received sleep apnea test. We collected data on demographics, risk factors, etiologic subtypes and the parameters associated with respiratory events in sleep apnea test. Primary outcome was the occurrence of early neurologic deterioration (END) within 3 weeks. Secondary outcome included the modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score at 3 months after stroke. We assessed the risk of poor outcome associated with CSR using multivariate logistic regression. RESULTS: Among 182 patients, 35 (19.2%) showed CSR in sleep apnea test. The presence of CSR in acute stroke was not associated with END, but associated with increased risk of 3 or higher mRS score at 3 months (odds ratio, 3.02; 95% confidence interval, 1.39 to 6.55) in univariate analysis. The association was still significant in large artery atherosclerosis group in stratified analysis. However, this association was insignificant in multivariate analysis which revealed that poor outcome at 3 months was associated with obstructive sleep apnea, as well as territory of internal carotid artery or basilar artery, initial National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale, and history of previous stroke. CONCLUSIONS The presence of CSR was associated with poor functional outcome after acute stroke. However, large scaled study is needed to confirm the role of CSR as an independent prognostic factor of stroke.