Nurses' Job Analysis in a Regional Emergency Center Using the DACUM / 임상간호연구

Purpose@#This study aimed to establish the role of and to analyze the job of nurses in a regional emergency center using the Developing a Curriculum(DACUM) process, a job analysis technique. @*Methods@#The DACUM committee was organized, and three workshops were held from June 1st to July 4th, 2016. One hundred two nurses in a regional emergency center participated in a survey from October 3rd to 10th, 2016. The frequency, importance and difficulty of each tasks and task elements in the DACUM were investigated on a Likert scale. @*Results@#The roles of nurses in a regional emergency center were identified and the DACUM chart was developed with 6 duties, 29 tasks and 153 task elements. According to the survey, some tasks such as ‘CPR,’ ‘acute respiratory distress care,’ and ‘drug administration’ showed high frequency and importance or difficulty in all nursing units in common, and different results reflected the characteristics of each nursing unit were also found. @*Conclusion@#The results showed the feature of the regional emergency center. Based on these results, it is necessary to develop educational programs for practice.

The Related Factors to Urgent Disease in Triaging Patients with Acute Abdominal Pain in Emergency Department

PURPOSE: Abdominal pain is the most common symptom of patients visiting the emergency department (ED). Abdominal pain is caused by a variety of causes, so it is difficult for a triage nurse to determine the urgency of a patient, but it is still a must. The purpose of this study was to identify the related factors to the urgent diseases of patients with abdominal pain visiting ED.METHODS: This study was a retrospective descriptive study. The study setting was an ED in a tertiary hospital in Korea. Data were collected from September 1, 2017 to October 15, 2017. During the study period, of a total of 6,181 patients visiting the ED, 731 complained of abdominal pain. Patients with obvious cause of pain and patients who could not express detailed symptoms were excluded. The 573 patients were included in the final analysis. We collected demographics, clinical characteristics, and final diagnosis. We divided final diagnoses into urgent diseases which were more likely to be life-threatening without treatment and non-urgent diseases. We identified the related factors to the urgent diseases of patients with abdominal pain using the logistic regression.RESULTS: 173 (30.2%) patients had urgent diseases. Age (OR=1.02, 95% CI=1.00~1.03), referral from other clinics (OR=2.92, 95% CI=1.86~4.60), ambulance utilization (OR=2.00, 95% CI=1.27~3.15), diarrhea (OR=0.44, 95% CI=0.25~0.76), and tachycardia (OR=2.27, 95% CI=1.44~3.58) were related to urgent diseases.CONCLUSION: Triage nurse should take into account the patient's age, mode of visiting, and route of visiting ED; and check the symptom of tachycardia or diarrhea.

Adherence to the Clean Intermittent Catheterization Following a Customized Intensive Education Program for Patients with Emptying Failure

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to investigate adherence to the clean intermittent catheterization (CIC) and influencing factors on the adherence following a customized intensive education program (CIEP). METHODS: This work is a retrospective descriptive study. The subjects were 226 emptying failure patients who learned in a CIEP from January 2012 to July 2014. The program developed in 2011 and consisted of 1) customized theoretical education; based on the results of urologic tests, underlying disease, or surgery of the patients, 2) hands-on practice until the trainees were able to master the techniques, 3) questions about the process of catheterization and what he/she needs to know. 4) at follow-up, the survey about adherence and barrier to CIC. Clinical characteristics; the level of satisfaction, understanding, and self-confidence; the barrier in medical records were reviewed. RESULTS: The short-term adherence rate (median 22 days) is 87.6% and the long-term adherence rate (median 112 days) is 50.4%. The biggest obstacle is time management. The levels of satisfaction, understanding, and self-confidence are very high. The variable of Income is the only factor that has influence on adherence. CONCLUSION: Despite the CIEP, the adherence rate is relatively low. In addition to the education, emotional and psychological supports and regular follow-up are needed to improve long-term adherence.

The Effects of Helicobacter pylori on the prognosis of patients with curatively resected gastric cancers in a population with high infection rate / 대한외과학회지

PURPOSE: The goal of this study was to assess the correlation between the Helicobacter pylori status of patients who underwent curative resection for gastric adenocarcinoma and their prognosis in Eastern societies where H. pylori infection is prevalent. METHODS: Between 2006 and 2007, 192 patients who had a curative resection for the treatment of gastric adenocarcinoma were enrolled in the study. Of these patients, 18 were excluded due to an inexact evaluation of the H. pylori status, thereby leaving 174 patients in the final analysis. Serologic testing for H. pylori was assessed using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kit for immunoglobulin G, and the histological presence of H. pylori was identified using the Giemsa stain. RESULTS: Of the 174 patients, 111 patients (63.8%) were confirmed for H. pylori infection. H. pylori status did not correlate with the overall or disease-free survival. For patients with stage III or IV gastric cancer, a positive H. pylori status was a significant predictive factor for recurrence over that of a negative H. pylori status (P = 0.019). Negative H. pylori status was a predictive factor for recurrence in multivariable analysis (relative risk, 2.724; 95 confidence interval, 1.192 to 6.228). CONCLUSION: Helicobacter pylori status did not correlate with the clinicopathologic factors of gastric adenocarcinoma. However, a negative Helicobacter pylori status may be a predictive factor for recurrence in patients diagnosed with advanced gastric adenocarcinoma.

Clinicopathologic Features of the Superficial Spreading Type of Early Gastric Cancer

PURPOSE: The superficial spreading type of early gastric cancer (SSE) has unique features such as its growth pattern and histologic aggressiveness. But its incidence rate is very low, so the clinicopathologic features of SSE are not well known. The aim of this study is to clarify the clinicopathologic features of the superficial spreading type of gastric cancer and we propose an appropriate treatment strategy with the proper treatment modality. METHODS: A retrospective study was conducted on 894 surgically resected patients with early gastric cancer. The superficial spreading type was defined as a lesion more than 20 cm(2). The demographic features and histopathological features were analyzed by using the hospital records. The survival rate was analyzed by the Kaplan-Meier method and the other statistics were analyzed using the chi-square test. RESULTS: For the superficial and common groups, there were no significant differences in the rates of submucosal layer invasion, the histologic types and differentiation and the tumor location. But the ratio of lymph node metastasis was significantly different (P<0.05). There were some differences concerning the operative methods between the groups. For the superficial spreading type, the portion of total gastrectomy was greater than that of the common type. The average distance between the upper portion of the tumor and the proximal resection margin was shorter for the superficial spreading type than that for the common type (3.78+/-2.79 cm vs 5.58+/-2.79 cm, respectively). The 5 year survival rate and the recurrence rate between the two types were not significantly different. CONCLUSION: Because of the higher rate of lymph node metastasis and the higher rate of an indistinct tumor margin, wide resection with adequate lymph node dissection (D1+beta or more) seems to be a proper operative method for the superficial spreading type of early gastric cancer.

The Preservation of Left Gastric Atery in Laparoscopy-Assisted Subtotal Gastrectomy with Splenectomy of Stomach Cancer

Usually in the subtotal gastrectomy, the left and the right gastric arteries, as well as the left and the right gastroepiploic arteries are ligated. Thus, to avoid a blue stomach surgeons preserve the spleen and the short gastric arteries. When a radical subtotal gastrectomy with splenectomy is performed, meticulous caution is necessary; otherwise, the subtotal gastrectomy might have to be changed to a total gastrectomy to prevent a blue stomach. We report the case of a 67-year-old woman who had distal stomach cancer with a splenic solitary mass, for which splenic meatastasis could be excluded. We planned and performed a laparoscopy-assisted radical subtotal gastrectomy with splenectomy as the diagnostic and therapeutic option. In this case, to avoid a remnant stomach infarction or total gastrectomy we saved the left gastric artery and vein with clearing perivascular soft tissue, lymphatics, and lymph nodes. Thus the radical therapeutic goal was reached, and serious complications were avoided.

Changes of Glomerular Filtration Rate of Donated and Remnant Kidneys in a Week after Living Donor Kidney Transplantation / 대한이식학회지

PURPOSE: In living donor kidney transplantation, the initial function of donor's kidneys will be split into the function of the donor's remnant kidney and the recipient's implanted kidney. The question whether the function of these remnant and implanted kidneys will change after donation and transplantation was addressed. METHODS: The functional ratio of each kidney using (99m)Tc-Diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid ((99m)Tc-DTPA) as well as serum creatinine (Scr, mg/dL) and 24-hour urine creatinine clearance (Ccr, mL/min/ 1.73 m(2)) from 100 donors were measured before donation. The kidney function was also calculated using Cockcroft-Gault formula (Ccr-CG, mL/min/ 1.73 m(2)). In donors and recipients, the Scr, Ccr, Ccr-CG were measured within a week after transplantation. RESULTS: The average functional ratio of the implanted kidney versus the remnant kidney before donation was 50.7 : 49.3. In implanted kidneys, the predonation Ccr and Ccr-CG were 56.7+/-9.4 mL/min/1.73 m(2) and 42.0+/-9.9 mL/min/1.73 m(2) which increased to 78.5+/-18.2 mL/min/1.73 m(2) and 53.2+/-16.4 mL/min/ 1.73 m(2) after transplantation. In remnant kidneys, the predonation Ccr and Ccr-CG were 54.5+/-10.9 mL/min/1.73 m(2) and 40.8+/-9.4/min/1.73 m(2) then increased to 68.0+/-14.2 mL/min/ 1.73 m(2) and 53.6+/-11.6 mL/min/1.73 m(2) after donation. CONCLUSION: Kidney transplantation from a living donor should be encouraged based on the total functional benefit of both donors and recipients after kidney donation and implantation.