A Literature Review of Research on Action Learning-based Nursing Education in South Korea / 간호행정학회지

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify trends of action learning based nursing education research from 2006 to 2016 and suggest directions for advancing action learning based nursing education. METHODS: A review was made of 18 studies in nursing education reported in domestic journals. RISS 4U, KISS, DBpia, NDSL databases were searched using analysis criteria developed by the researchers. General and methodological characteristics and outcomes of action learning based nursing education were analyzed. RESULTS: Of 18 papers, in 14 (77.8%) quantitative design was used, 16 (88.9%) were conducted in university settings, and virtual problem approach was used in 13 studies (72.2%). Writing task description was conducted in 8 studies (44.4%). Norminal group technique and logic tree were used in 6 studies (33.3%). The number of team members was 6–8 in 10 (55.6%) studies. Reflection journaling was used in 16 (88.9%) studies. Action learning was effective in improving core competency of nurses and nursing students such as problem solving ability and communication skill. CONCLUSION: Findings indicate that action learning is a useful teaching method in nursing education even though action learning for nurses has not been actively applied. Therefore strategies to activate action learning for nurses are needed.

Autocrine Extracellular Signal-regulated Kinase Activation in Normal Human Keratinocytes is not Interrupted by Calcium Triggering and is Involved in the Control of Cell Cycle at the Early Stage of Calciuminduced Differentiation

Normal human epidermal keratinocytes (NHEK) respond to the autocrine activated extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) signaling pathway, which contributes to the survival of keratinocytes. However, during the condition of calcium-induced differentiation, how the autocrine ERK signaling is regulated and affected is poorly understood. The purpose of this study was to understand and to obtain clues to the possible function of the autocrine ERK activation during the calcium-induced differentiation of NHEK. We demonstrated that the autocrine activated ERK was not interrupted by calcium triggering and that it was sustained for at least one day after changing the medium. We also found that the autocrine ERK activation was associated with the expression of cyclin D1 and the cell cycle regulation at the early stage of calcium triggering by treating the cells with the mitogen-activated protein kinase inhibitor PD98059. However, the PD98059 treatment did not have a significant influence on the expression of involucrin and loricrin. In addition, we demonstrated that autocrine ERK activation was associated with protein kinase C and p38MAPK signaling. We suggest that the activation of autocrine ERK is not interrupted by calcium triggering and it might participate in cell growth during the early stage of calcium-induced differentiation in NHEK.