The Work Experiences of Emergency Room Nurses during the COVID-19 Pandemic / 임상간호연구

Purpose@#The purpose of this study was to explore emergency room nurse's work experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. @*Methods@#Data were collected from 15 registered nurses working in the emergency room between October, 10th and December 15th, 2020, through focus group interviews and in depth interviews.Collected data were analyzed using Colaizzi's phenomenological method. @*Results@#The study derived four categories and eight themes. The four categories are ‘sense of cringing with fear’, ‘nursing in chaotic situation’, ‘lonely struggles’, and ‘career growth as a nurse’. Emergency room nurses experienced fear and confusion in the COVID-19 pandemic, but overcame the crisis and had positive experiences of professional growth as a nurse. @*Conclusion@#To protect emergency room nurses from infectious disease and improve their professional quality of life during the COVID-19 pandemic appropriate education and healthcare resource should be provided. It is necessary to reflect clinical worker's opinions and improve the delivery system of guideline to reduce confusion in the field and develop practical infectious disease control guideline. Furthermore, better working conditions, appropriate rewards and social and mental support should be provided for nurses in emergency room.

Sexual Health Care Attitudes and Practices of Nurses Caring for Patients with Cancer

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine nurses' sexual health care attitude and practice while caring for cancer patients. METHODS: Data were collected using a structured questionnaire from 236 nurses caring for patients with cancer from June 30, 2014 to July 6, 2014 at a University Hospital in Daegu, Korea. RESULTS: The mean score for sexual health care attitude of nurses caring for patients with cancer was 27.75+/-6.45 of a possible range 17 to 51 and the mean score for a sexual health care practice of nurses was 3.67+/-3.30 of a possible range 0 to 21. The scores of a sexual health care attitude and practice were significantly different by age, education, department, experience in gynecology or urology departments, and position. Sexual health care attitude and practice had a significantly positive correlation (r=.16, p=.015). CONCLUSION: The nurses caring for patients with cancer recognize the importance of sexual health care, but their sexual health care practice rate was very low. Therefore specific and differentiated nurse education programs designed to increase sexual health care practice are required for young nurses and staff nurses that are not practicing sexual health care often.