[A study for womanhood and caring].

This study is to explore the womanhood and caring. To explore the meaning of caring for nursing, it is necessary to identify the terms of the relationship between caring and womanhood as these bonds have been formed over the last century. Historically, nurses were expected to act out of on obligation to care, taking on Caring more as an identity than as work, and expressing altruism without, thought of autonomy either at the bedside of in their profession. Not only did the role of nursing evolve from the mother's role in the family, but the family itself served as a modal for care in the hospital. Thus, Nurses, like others who perform what is defined as "womens'work" in own society, have had to content with what appears as a dichotomy between the duty to Care for others and the right to control their own activities in the name of caring. Nursing was to be, therefore, a woman's duty, not the job. Obligations and love, not the need of work, were to bind the Nurses bo her patient. Caring was to be an unpaid labour of Love Gender studies suggests a basis for caring the stresses individual discretion and values, acknowledging that the Nurses'right to Care should be given equal consideration with the physician's right to Cure. Nursing continues to struggle with the basis, and the value of caring. But the dilemma of nursing is too tied to society's broader problems of gender and class. Nurses will have both to create a new political understanding for the basis of caring and to find ways to gain the power to implement it.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

[Health status of elderly persons in Korea].

This Study was done to design and test an instrument to measure the health status of the elderly including physical, psychological and social dimensions. Data collection was done from July 18 to August 17, 1990. Subjects were 412 older persons in Korea. A convenience sample was used but the place of residence was stratified into large, medium and small city and rural areas. Participants located in Sudaemun-Gu, Mapo-Gu, and Kangnam-Gu, Seoul were interviewed by brained nursing students, and those in Chungju, Jonju, Chuncheon, and Jinju by professors of nursing colleges. Rural residents were interviewed by community health practitioners working in Kungsang-Buk-Do, Kyngsang-Nam-Do, Jonla Buk-Do, and Kyung Ki-Do. The tool developed for this study was a structured questionnaire based on previous literature and then tested for reliability and validity. This tool contained 20 physical health status items, 17 mental-emotional health status items and 38 social health status items. Physical health status items clustered in to six factors such as personal hygiene, activity, home management, digestive, sexual, sensory, and climatization functions. Mental-emotional health status items clustered into two factors, mental health and emotional health. Social health status items clustered into seven factors, grandparent, parent, spouse, friend, kinships, group member and religious role functions. Data analysis included percentage, average, S.D., t-test and ANOVA. The results of the analysis were as follows: 1. The tool measuring the health status of the elderly and developed for this research had a relatively high reliability indicated by a Cronbach = 0.97793. 2. Average score of the subjects physical health status was 4,054 in a 5 point likert scale, mental-emotional health status was 3.803, social health status was 2.939 and the total average was 3.521. The social status of the subjects was the lowest and the next was mental-emotional health status; physical health status was the highest. 3. Educational background, perceived health status, the amount of pocket money were related to physical and mental-emotional health status and family structure was related mental-emotional physical and social health status. Occupation was related to physical and mental-emotional status. Area of residence was related to mental-emotional and social status. Source of living in the expenses was related to physical and mental-emotional health status marital status to mental-emotional and social health status, and the number living in the home physical health status and religion to social health status.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)