Nursing Students' Human Rights Sensitivity and Perception of Patients' Rights / 한국간호교육학회지

PURPOSE: This study aimed to explore human rights sensitivity and the perception of patients' rights among nursing students. For the study, 253 nursing students from K and D universities located in Daegu and the Gyeongbuk region were asked to participate. METHODS: Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics 20.0; in addition, descriptive statistics, a t-test, and a one-way ANOVA were used. RESULTS: The average human rights sensitivity score was 2.40 out of 5 points. Human rights sensitivity was significantly different in education experiences in regards to human rights after getting into nursing school and in nursing courses, as well as experiences of clinical practice. Among the six episodes that measured human rights sensitivity, nursing students reported the highest score on the right to the pursuit of happiness of older people and the lowest score was reported on the right to privacy. The average score of patients' rights perception was 4.53 out of 5 points. In particular, nursing students considered the right to enjoy human worth/dignity and the right to equality to be the most important of patients' rights. Patients' rights perception, in general, was significantly different depending on the number of family members. CONCLUSION: It is needed to develop an effective nursing curriculum in order to improve nursing students' human rights sensitivity and foster positive perceptions regarding patients' rights.

Observation between Clinical Outcomes and the Size of the Syrinx with Magnetic Resonance Image

OBJECTIVE: This study was conducted to examine the correlation between clinical outcomes and the size of the syrinx in post-operative magnetic resonance imaging(MRI) and symptom duration. METHODS: The authors investigated twelve patients who underwent various operations for syringomyelia from January 1995 to December 2003. The authors retrospectively analyzed medical records, pre- and post-operative MRI findings, features and durations of symptoms, and the method of surgical treatments. The clinical outcomes were assessed on Prolo scale at 6 months of post-operative period. RESULTS: Neurologic symptoms did not promptly disappear after the shrinkage of syrinx, but post-operative MRI demonstrated most patients showed reductions in the size of the syrinx. There is no statistical relationship between clinical improvements and decrements of the syrinx size. However, patients who underwent surgical treatment within 2 years from the symptom onset had more favorable outcome than those who had operations after 2 years from the onset of symptoms. CONCLUSION: Change in the size of the syrinx in post-operative MRI is not directly proportional to favorable clinical outcomes. However, symptom duration before surgical treatment has considerable impact on the clinical outcomes.