The Communication Styles and Nursing Service Satisfaction of Clinical Research Nurses Perceived by Clinical Subjects / 한국간호교육학회지

PURPOSE: This study aimed to examine the communication styles and nursing service satisfaction of clinical research nurses perceived by clinical subjects. METHODS: The data were collected with self-administrated questionnaires after receiving consents from 200 clinical trial subjects. The data were analysed with descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson's correlation coefficients and stepwise multiple regression analysis using SPSS 21.0 statistic program. RESULTS: Clinical subjects perceived that clinical research nurses used the informative, affective, and non-authoritative communication styles. The study identified factors influencing the nursing service satisfaction, and they were the informative communication styles (β=.34, p<.001) and affective communication styles (β=.35, p<.001, R2=37%) by multiple linear regression. CONCLUSION: If educational programs on communication are developed to help clinical research nurses use the informative and affective communication styles according to the characteristics of subjects and applied to the field of practice, they will be able to increase the nursing service satisfaction and contribute to the higher quality of clinical trials.

Concept Analysis on the Organizational Commitment: Focused on the Nursing Organizations / 한국간호교육학회지

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to explore the clear concept of organizational commitment for effective nursing personnel management. METHOD: This study was conducted using Walker & Avant's conceptual analysis framework(2005). RESULTS: Organizational commitment was identified with six attributes: acknowledgment, acceptance, trust, sacrifice, attachment, regulation. Antecedents of organizational commitment were personal characteristics, perceived organizational support, empowerment, fair compensation, job satisfaction, job autonomy, organizational culture, and leadership. Consequences of organizational commitment were turnover intention, job performance and organizational citizenship behavior. CONCLUSION: Organization commitment is a core concept for understanding the management of nursing personnel. Appropriate instruments to operationalize the concept of organizational commitment including six attributes need to be developed.

Medication Status and the Effects of a Medication Management Education Program for the Elderly in a Community

PURPOSE: This study investigated medication status by examining the effects of a medication management education program on the knowledge of medications and medication misuse behaviors in the elderly in a local community. METHODS: This study used a non-equivalent control group quasi-experimental design. For the study, 116 subjects were assigned to the control group and another 116 subjects were assigned to the experimental group. The medication management education program consisted of 1:1 education, practice in medication management, consultation, and discussion. Data were analyzed using the SPSS 21.0 program. RESULTS: Statistically significant differences were found between the experimental and control groups in terms of their knowledge of medications and medication misuse behaviors. CONCLUSION: The results indicate that the medical management education program is effective in improving the knowledge of medications and decreasing medication misuse behaviors. Therefore, this education program can be used as an intervention to improve the medication behaviors of the elderly in local communities.

The Attitude, Use and Adverse Effects of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) Therapies among Vulnerable, Community Dwelling Old Adults

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to obtain information of use of complementary and alternative medicines (CAMs) and any reported adverse effects of them on vulnerable elders in a community. METHODS: 1,837 elderly subjects aged 65 or higher with health problems were selected from those who were enrolled in a public health care center and received visiting health management services. A proportional stratified sampling method was used. Data collection was completed by face to face interviews using a structured questionnaire. The descriptive statistics and chi2-test were used to analyze the data. RESULTS: The prevalence of CAM use last year was 57.5%, and 10.4% of the subjects reported adverse effects of the therapies. The mean score of the subjects' attitudes towards CAM was 4.1+/-3.44 (range 1~10). The major sources of advice and exposure to CAM therapies were most likely to be from family and friends (72.5%). The primary reason for choosing CAM was to manage symptoms and relieve pain (86.6%). CONCLUSION: These findings suggest the need to develop nursing strategies for reducing and preventing adverse effects of CAM use by promoting awareness of using safe and appropriate CAM therapies.

The Effects of Exercise in the Frail Elderly

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to examine the effects of exercise on physiological, physical and psychological functions of the frail elderly. METHODS: The research design was a nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design. Data were collected from September 9 to October 10, 2009. The subjects were 56 frail elders who agreed to participate in this study and each subject was randomly assigned to either the experimental group (n=28) or the control group (n=28). The exercise program was provided to each subject in the experimental group twice in a week for 6 weeks. Data were analyzed with frequency, chi2-test, Kolmogorov-Smirnor test and independent t-test using SPSS/WIN 12.0. RESULTS: There was a significant improvement in psychological functions in the experimental group compared to the control group (t=1.726, p=.045). CONCLUSION: The exercise program showed the effects to improve the psychological functions of the frail elderly with chronic disease. In recommendation, this exercise program could be utilized as a health promoting program for the frail elderly.

Validation of Instruments to Classify the Frailty of the Elderly in Community

PURPOSE: This study aimed to validate instruments to classify the frailty of Korean elderly people in community. METHODS: For this study, 632 elders were selected from community-based elderly houses and home visiting registries, and data on frailty were collected using three instruments during November, 2008. The Korean Frail Scale (KFS) was composed of 10 domains with the maximum score of 20. The Edmonton Frail Scale (EFS) had 10 domains with the maximum score of 17. The 25_Japan Frail Scale (25_JFS) was composed of 6 domains with the maximum score of 25. Internal consistency was measured with Cronbach's alpha. Sensitivity, specificity and area under the curve (AUC) of ROC were measured to see validity with long-term care insurance grade as a gold standard. RESULTS: The Cronbach's alpha was .72 for KFS, .55 for EFS, and .80 for 25_JFS. Sensitivity, specificity, and AUC were 70.0%, 83.2%, and .83, respectively, at cutting point 10.5 for the KFS, 50.0%, 80.9%, and .66, respectively, at 8.5 for EFS, and 80.0%, 85.9%, and .86, respectively, at 12.5 for 25_JFS. CONCLUSION: KFS and three JFS showed favorable internal consistency and predictive validity. Further longitudinal studies are recommended to confirm predictive validity.

The Effects of Exercise Program for the Elderly

No abstract available.

Analysis of Researches on Nursing Intervention for Elderly Health Promotion from 1994 to 2004

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to analyse researches on nursing intervention for elderly health promotion. METHOD: A literature review of 38 researches was carried out using guidelines developed by the present researchers. RESULT: The research papers studied in this research were theses written for doctoral or master's degree and published between 1994 to 2004. These researches applied nursing intervention for health promotion of elders and used experimental study design. The average period of nursing intervention was about 9 weeks and the average frequency was three times per week. As for major characteristics of subject groups, most of them were over 65 years old (76.3%) and resided in community (65.8%), and each group consisted of 10 to 29 elders. The dependent variables used in these studies included physiological variables (blood pressure, blood cholesterol level, pulmonary function, fasting blood sugar, blood cortisol level, body mass etc.), psychologic variables (depression, quality of life, life satisfaction, loneliness, anxiety etc.), cognitive variables (perceived benefits, perceived barriers, self-efficacy, self-concept, subjective health status etc.), activities of daily livings, health promotion behavior, pain, risks of fall, and variables related to Trans Theoretical Model. The majority of these studies (78.9%) applied exercise programs for health promotion including exercise motivating programs (15.8%). CONCLUSION: We suggest that more various nursing interventions must be applied to promote elders' health and to take care of their chronic diseases.

The Effect of a Self-Regulation Program for Hypertensives in Rural Areas / 간호학회지

This study was conducted to identify a effect of the comprehensive self-regulation program for hypertensives as a nursing intervention on self-care performance and the physiologic parameters in rural areas. For this purpose, a nonequivalent control group and a pre and post-test quasi- experimental design was used. Fifty-four were evaluated subjects from two Community Health Practitioner Posts in the suburbs of Taejon City. The subjects of the control and experimental groups were matched for age and sex. The self-regulation program developed by author given to the experimental group. The program consisted of group education on hypertension and self-care, self-regulation including the blood pressure self-monitoring, recording of self-care activities, and encouraging and reinforcing self-efficacy. The whole program was carried out from September to November of 1999. The data were analyzed by repeated measure ANCOVA, t-test, and ANCOVA. The results were as follows; There was significant improvement in the scores on knowledge (F=.68, P=.004), perceived self-efficacy (F=26.39, P=.000), self-care performance (F=26.11, P=.000) of the experimental group compared with those of the control group. There was no significant change on the score of locus of control, perceived benefits and perceived barrier, blood cholesterol level, body weight between two groups (P>.05). From these results, it can be concluded that the self-regulation program is an effective nursing strategy to promote self-care performance of hypertensives in rural area.