In this study, we aimed to define the specific competencies required for nurses to effectively support healthy aging, thereby enhancing the professionalism of nurses, improving the quality of nursing services related to healthy aging, and ultimately contributing to the quality of life for older adults. Methods: Through a literature review, we derived nursing competencies for healthy aging; based on the review, we verified content validity through a Delphi survey with 10 related experts. Expert Delphi survey participants judged that expert opinions were not in agreement when the content validity ratio was less than 0.62, the consensus was less than 0.75, and the convergence was in the range of 0 to 0.5. Results: Nursing competency for healthy aging consists of 9 domains, 26 key competencies, and 132 enabling competencies. Areas include “Assessment of healthy aging,” “Service coordination,” “Prevention and management of intrinsic capacity decline,” “Support for caregivers and care staff,” “Collaboration,” “Communication,” “Leadership,” “Professional ethics,” and “Education and Research.” Conclusion: This study provides foundational data, enhancing the professionalism and expanding the roles of nurses by specifically presenting competencies required to support healthy aging in older adults. These competencies can serve as practical and systematic guidelines to advance nursing education and competency development, enabling nurses to effectively support healthy aging in older adults.

This study aims to identify caregiving burden, depression, quality of life, and institutionalization among family caregivers of home-based long-term-care insurance beneficiaries and to analyze various factors influencing these outcomes. Methods: A secondary data analysis was employed to investigate the impact of various factors on caregivers’ experiences. The study used data from the 2016 Long-Term Care Service Utilization and Care Needs Survey, targeting 1,767 family caregivers of long-term-care beneficiaries. The original survey data included the Zarit Burden Interview for caregiver burden, the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale for depression, and the new five-level version of EQ-5D for quality of life. Institutionalization status was identified using the long-term care database until the end of November 2023. Results: A high caregiving burden was reported by 44% of caregivers and 47.6% of family caregivers were found to be depressed. The average quality of life score was 0.82±0.14, with differences observed based on the participants’ characteristics. Among the study participants, 29.4% of the care recipients were institutionalized. Compared to caregiving burden, depression, and quality of life, the health status of the beneficiaries and their long-term-care service utilization patterns were significant factors influencing institutionalization. Conclusion: To reduce family caregivers’ burden and to decrease institutionalization rates, it is crucial to enhance home-care services and offer a variety of community-based resources. Effective welfare policies should be established to support these efforts.

This study aimed to examine the multifaceted factors influencing elderly patients’ intention to use digital healthcare services based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology model. Methods: Data were collected using a questionnaire from 103 elderly patients aged ≥65 years at a general hospital, a health sub-center, and a health clinic in City Sejong from April 25, 2023 to July 29, 2023. Measures included effort expectancy, performance expectancy, social influence, and intention to use digital healthcare services. Data were analyzed using independent t-tests, one-way ANOVA, Pearson’s correlation coefficient, and hierarchical multiple regression. Results: The factors with the greatest influence on the intention to use digital healthcare services among elderly patients aged ≥65 years were social influence (β=.62, p<.001), followed by effort expectancy (β=.24, p=.001). The explanatory power of these variables was 68% (ΔF=51.80, p<.001). Conclusion: Developing and providing standardized intervention strategies to enhance social influence and effort expectancy regarding digital healthcare services for elderly patients could improve their intention to use these services.

Objectives: Education in biomedical and health informatics is essential for managing complex healthcare systems, bridging the gap between healthcare and information technology, and adapting to the digital requirements of the healthcare industry. This review presents the current status of biomedical and health informatics education domestically and internationally and proposes recommendations for future development. Methods: We analyzed evidence from reports and papers to explore global trends and international and domestic examples of education. The challenges and future strategies in Korea were also discussed based on the experts’ opinions. Results: This review presents international recommendations for establishing education in biomedical and health informatics, as well as global examples at the undergraduate and graduate levels in medical and nursing education. It provides a thorough examination of the best practices, strategies, and competencies in informatics education. The review also assesses the current state of medical informatics and nursing informatics education in Korea. We highlight the challenges faced by academic institutions and conclude with a call to action for educators to enhance the preparation of professionals to effectively utilize technology in any healthcare setting. Conclusions To adapt to the digitalization of healthcare, systematic and continuous workforce development is essential. Future education should prioritize curriculum innovations and the establishment of integrated education programs, focusing not only on students but also on educators and all healthcare personnel in the field. Addressing these challenges requires collaboration among educational institutions, academic societies, government agencies, and international bodies dedicated to systematic and continuous workforce development.

Shared decision making is globally recognized as an important concept in healthcare research, policy, education, and practice that enhances person-centered care. However, it is becoming increasingly evident that shared decision making has not been successfully translated into healthcare practices, especially in gerontological nursing. Central to person-centered and shared decision making is the need to recognize the importance of life experiences to inform decision-making processes. With the world’s aging population and older adults facing more complex decisions and transitions in care, it is important to integrate shared decision making into person-centered care for older adults. This invited paper reviews the key issues in shared decision making in the context of older persons and the role of nurses. The review was divided into three parts. The first describes and comments on the main theoretical frameworks, while the second and third deal with barriers and facilitators to shared decision-making of older persons and issues related to their practice. There is a critical demand for focused research on older individuals with intricate needs and family-centered approaches to shared decision making. The tools and resources that support shared decision-making such as adequate time, consultation services, culturally appropriate decision aids, and systems that track patient progress, are essential for effective decision-making. As shared decision making involves various community resources, nurses must not only educate patients about these resources, but also provide patients with advice and support to ensure that the patients can effectively access and utilize these resources.

Purpose: This study aimed to verify the effect of patient safety environment (PSE) and health literacy (HL) on patient safety participation (PSP) and the mediating effect of HL. Methods: We recruited patients who were hospitalized at a tertiary general hospital in “D” city. A total of 230 people responded to a questionnaire survey we conducted from March 15 to July 10, 2020. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent t-test, One-way ANOVA, Scheffé test, Pearson’s correlation coefficient analysis, and hierarchical regression using SPSS/WIN 26.0. Results: PSP was found to be significantly associated with PSE (r=.29, p<.001) and HL (r=.44, p<.001). PSE and HL were found to have a significant effect on PSP (power: 23%). HL was found to have a partial mediating effect (indirect effect: 0.09, 95% CI: 0.04~0.14) between PSE and PSP. Conclusion The findings from this study can contribute to developing interventions for patient participation in the PSE and providing directions for offering safe and high-quality medical care to patients.

Purpose: This study aims to determine nursing students’ orientation toward patient-centered care (PCC) and identify its influencing factors: their personality traits, empathy, and psychological capital (PsyCap). A mediating model was used to test the role of PsyCap in the association between empathy and PCC. Methods: This cross-sectional study included 300 nursing students from seven universities in South Korea. Their orientation toward PCC was measured using the Patient-Practitioner Orientation Scale (PPOS). Moreover, we analyzed the data using independent t-tests, ANOVA, Pearson's r, and SPSS PROCESS macro. Results: The overall mean score on the PPOS was 3.82±0.43, with the Caring and Sharing subscales accounting for 3.95±0.68 and 3.69±0.50, respectively. Nursing students’ satisfaction with their majors, practicums, and motivation for choosing this profession was significantly related to Caring-not Sharing. Nevertheless, PsyCap positively influenced both Caring (β=.24, p<.001) and Sharing (β=.18, p=.002). While empathy failed to significantly impact both Caring (β=.12, p=.087) and Sharing (β=.01, p=.931). PsyCap mediated the association of empathy with Caring (β=.20, p=.004); however, the same was not true for Sharing (β=.07, p=.366). Conclusion The findings indicate that the orientation of Korean nursing students toward PCC is not high. Therefore, to improve the PPOS Caring subscale, nurse educators should formulate better strategies to enhance nursing students’ satisfaction with their major and practicums, empathy, and PsyCap. The importance of sharing health-related information with patients and family caregivers should be emphasized in the nursing curriculum.

Purpose: This study was to identify how a nursing management practicum was operated during the COVID-19 pandemic in Korea. Methods: This study surveyed instructors teaching the nursing management practicum with a questionnaire covering five domains and 42 items. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and content analysis. Results: The practicum was performed mainly by mixed methods (40.8% and 38.5%), in hospitals only (30.8% and 60.4%), online only (19.8% and 1.1%) in 2020 and 2021, respectively. The mixed methods were most frequently used for instructor teaching and conferences (43.9% and 58.3%). and the average teaching time per week was 9.40 and 8.69 hours per week, respectively. Taking charge in one to three core nursing skill items, 87.8% and 90.1% of the respondents each year performed face to face evaluation for the skills. Four to six out of 12 POs were covered by 58.2% and 54.9% of the participants, respectively, in 2020 and 2021. The greatest difficulty under the pandemic was securing students’ hospital assignments. Conclusion The nursing management practicum needs to adopt various digital technologies, and create new education models including hybrid ones combining both contact and untact methods to improve the educational effect for the post COVID-19 era.

Purpose: This study analyzed news titles related to nurses in Korea before and after the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID 19) pandemic, and aimed to identify the implications of media reports. Methods: Data from January 2019 to December 2020 were collected from BIGKINDS regarding Korean nurses. Text mining and CONCOR analysis were conducted on the top 30 keywords using TEXTOM and Ucinet 6. Results: From the findings of this study, keywords were related to Taewom and Newborn death in 2019. Additionally, because of COVID-19 and the controversy over the encouragement of President Moon Jae-in, Taewom was included in 2020. Using CONCOR analysis, 6 clusters (characteristics and results of major incidents, the issue related target, Newborn abuse, Taewom, drugs, nursing education) were generated in 2019, and 6 clusters (emergency room, hero, controversy, Taewom, COVID-19, hospital infection) were generated in 2020. Conclusion Before and after the COVID-19 pandemic, most of the news headlines of nurses consisted of negative keywords, while there were few positive news headlines. In order to improve the image of nurses, it is necessary to continuously analyze media trends and establish strategies accordingly.

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which has occurred since the end of 2019, has caused tremendous damage not only in terms of disease and death but also in terms of economy. Accordingly, governments implemented health and quarantine policies to prevent the transmission and spread of COVID-19 and minimize economic effects, and implemented various countermeasures to reduce social and economic damage. However, the damage varies from country to country, and there are differences in the response of each government. Methods: Using 2020 data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries, the effectiveness of governments’ quarantine and economic policies in response to COVID-19 was calculated, and what factors determine the effectiveness were analyzed. While most of the previous studies analyzed the relationship between the government’s quarantine policy and corona transmission and death, this study is characterized by considering the economic aspect in addition. Results: As a result of the analysis, the following results were obtained. First, when economic aspects are not considered, Asian and European countries have similar levels of efficiency, but when economic aspects are taken into account, Asian countries have higher efficiency. Second, population density had a negative effect on the efficiency of each country’s policy, and long-term orientation was found to have an important impact when considering the economic aspect. Conclusion We found that the governance index is an important variable influencing the efficiency, which shows that the effectiveness of government policies in response to the coronavirus depends heavily on the trust relationship between the government and the people.