Action Research in Hospital Settings: A Literature Review of International Nursing Journals / 간호행정학회지

PURPOSE: Purpose of this study was to identify major trends of action research from 2006 to 2013 and suggest directions for activating and advancing domestic action research in nursing. METHODS: A review was made of 118 action research studies in hospital settings reported in international journals. Search from PubMed, Ovid, and CINHAL was done using analysis criteria developed by the researchers. General and methodological characteristics and focus on changing outcomes of action research were analyzed. RESULTS: The major group of researchers belonged to colleges/universities (40.7%). Methods included use of qualitative methods (61.0%), research questions (24.6%), and use of theoretical models (35.6%). Prevalent data collection methods were interviews (20.2%), and 48.3% showed more than a 1-cycle process including spiral circulation structure. Focus of changing outcomes of the 56 papers including more than 1-cycle were practice (66.1%), environment (8.9%), client-nurse (7.1%). CONCLUSION: Trends in action research in nursing were identified providing necessary reasons to increase action research in nursing as follows: needs of various researchers including stakeholders as well as healthcare providers, various research designs including unconstrained reflection and writing, specific presentation of adapted theoretical models and action strategies, and quality assurance for validity and reliability of research processes and outcomes.

A Study on Evaluation System for Nursing Bachelor Degree Program Outcomes: Focus on Improvement in Nursing Leadership Ability / 간호행정학회지

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to develop a nursing leadership program outcome evaluation system, required for accreditation of nursing education. METHODS: A methodological design was used. To ensure the theoretical validity of the evaluation system, learning objectives for nursing education programs and job descriptions for nurses in Korea were verified by analyzing the relationships in the five attributes of the nursing leadership concept. The nursing leadership program outcome evaluation system was developed based on the Kim & Park's developmental model (2008). RESULTS: The nursing leadership program outcome evaluation system was established, including implementation level, education curriculum, level of performance, evaluation method, rubrics, and Close-the-Loop. CONCLUSION: The developed evaluation system can be actively used in nursing education, and contribute to enhancing the leadership competencies of nursing students and graduate nurses.

Concept Analysis of Nursing Leadership / 간호행정학회지

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to provide a concept analysis of nursing leadership. METHODS: The concept analysis process of Walker and Avant (2011) was used. A review of the literature was conducted using several databases, including PubMed, CINAHL, Ovid-Medline, DBpia, and KISS. The databases were searched using the following terms 'nursing leadership', 'nursing' & 'leadership', and 'nurse & 'leadership', and for studies published from January 2000 to March 2015. Strict inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied. RESULTS: Analysis of these studies indicated nursing leadership attributes were individual growth, collaboration, nursing excellence, creative problem solving, and influence. The antecedents of nursing leadership were the individual maturity level, construction of mutual trust and confidential relationships, and a job requirement. The consequences were improvement in nursing productivity, development of a supportive work environment, and satisfaction with the nursing profession. CONCLUSION: The findings in this study provide a definite concept of nursing leadership. The findings also provide the theoretical evidence for the development of nursing leadership competencies in nursing students and professional nurses.

A Journey to Action Research in a Clinical Nursing Context / 간호행정학회지

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of Action Research (AR) approach in nursing. METHODS: Participants were 64 perioperative nurses recruited from C hospital in Gwangju, Korea. The nurses were engaged in the project through 2 cycles of planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. A mixed-methods design was used to examine changes in participants and their knowledge management practice. Quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS 20.0 program and qualitative reflection data underwent content analysis. RESULTS: During the project, participants developed standardized pre-operative checklists and opened an Internet Cafe to better manage their perioperative nursing information. At the end of the project, there was a significant increase in nurses' knowledge management (p=.015) and the rate of surgical material prescription errors decreased from 8.0% to 2.9%. Core AR project team members' teamwork skills and organizational commitment increased significantly (p=.040, p=.301, respectively). The main themes that emerged from the qualitative data were learning how to solve problems in practice, facilitating team activities through motivation, barriers of large participation, and rewarded efforts and inflated expectations. CONCLUSION: The AR project contributed to empowering participants to solve local problems. AR is a useful methodology to promote changes in practices and research participants.

Analysis of Research Articles Published in the Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration for 3 Years (2010~2012) / 간호행정학회지

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify the major trends in research studies in the Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration from 2010 to 2012. METHODS: A review using analysis criteria developed by researchers was done of 132 studies published between 2010 and 2012. Research design, participants, research domain, and keywords were analyzed from the Journal of Korean Nursing Administration. RESULTS: Job satisfaction, stress, organizational commitment, safety, turnover, nursing education, and performance were found to be major keywords. Of the research in the Journal, quantitative methods were used in 93.2% of studies. The major setting and participants were hospitals (58.2%) and nurses (65.5%) respectively. Prevalent analysis methods used were t-test, ANOVA, correlation, regression, chi-square, AMOS, and factor analysis. Major domains in the articles were: controlling, directing, staffing, nursing management education, and professionalism & legal principles. CONCLUSION: Through this study, the research trends in nursing administration were identified, but there is a need to include more of the following topics in future research: new concepts in nursing policy, enhanced deliberations of IRB, rationalization of the effects in sample size calculations, theoretical development of planning and organizing, and development of interventions for management support of the nursing management process.

Factors Influencing Problem Solving Abilities of Freshmen Nursing Students / 간호행정학회지

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate factors which influence freshmen nursing students' problem solving abilities. METHOD: The data were collected from 119 students by means of self-reported questionnaires measuring problem solving abilities, critical thinking disposition, and self-directed learning, on March 7th and 11th, 2010. RESULT: For problem solving ability categories, the level of problem discovery was the highest followed by solution plan, problem definition, solution evaluation and solution implementation. The influencing factors on problem solving abilities of nursing students were critical thinking disposition, self-directed learning and gender. CONCLUSION: Using the results of this study as a foundation, nursing education curriculum should be comprised of critical thinking skills and self-directed skills for the improvement of nursing students' problem solving abilities. It is also recommended that further studies be conducted in order to investigate comprehensive curriculum designs that allow for maximum accumulation of these proficiencies.

Development of Clinical Performance Indicators for Establishing a Connecting System between Hospital Performance Management and Quality Improvement / 간호학회지

PURPOSE: This study aimed at developing integrated clinical performance indicators(CPIs) through the analysis of quality improvement(QI) activities of a hospital and literature review about performance measures. METHOD: The CPIs were developed through the following three stages; 1)Identifying preliminary CPIs 2)A staff validity test in preliminary CPIs 3)Developing final CPIs. RESULT: One hundred twenty-three preliminary CPIs were developed through QI activities of the target hospital for 8 years and literature review. The results of the validity test for the preliminary CPIs supported ninety-one items. Sixty-two CPIs were selected through integration, reclassification and renaming. Then, eighteen items were deleted on account of an imprecise calculation method. Finally, forty-four CPIs were confirmed. They consisted of twenty-six items at the hospital level and eighteen items at the department level. CONCLUSION: CPIs can be used as criteria to evaluate the performance of healthcare organizations, and to decide the quality of healthcare for customers. This study may contribute to establishing an integrated system between QI activities and performance measurement of healthcare organizations.