Jae Sim Jeong

Epidemiology of Musculoskeletal Symptoms Among Korean Hospital Nurses

We investigated the epidemiology of musculoskeletal symptoms (MSS) among a complete cross-section of 330 nurses from a large Korean hospital, by means of a questionnaire survey (response rate: 97.9%). The prevalence of MSS at any body site was 93.6%, with symptoms most commonly reported at the shoulder (74.5%), lower back (72.4%), neck (62.7%), lower legs (52.1%) and hand/wrist (46.7%). Logistic regression indicated that nurses who undertook manual handling of patients were 7.2 times as likely to report MSS ( OR 7.2, 95%CI 1.2—42.3, P = .0275), while nurses suffering from periodic depression experienced a 3.3-fold MSS risk ( OR 3.3, 95%CI 1.3-8.3, P = .0104). Overall, our study suggests that Korean nurses incur a very high MSS burden when compared internationally. A greater commitment is needed to improve physical conditions, occupational tasks and psychosocial work issues among nurses in this country.s

Infection control nurse specialist education in Korea.

With the amendment of the Medical Service Act in 2003, the infection control nurse specialist system was launched as one of several specialties for nursing in Korea. Nurse specialists are certified through the national qualifying examination after graduating from a specialist nursing program with core and specialty courses at a graduate school approved by the Ministry of Health and Welfare. This article describes graduate preparation and certification for infection control nurse specialists in Korea.

Laboratory-based surveillance of hospital-acquired respiratory virus infection in a tertiary care hospital

&NA; Of 7,772 laboratory‐confirmed cases of respiratory viral infection among hospitalized patients, 22.8% were categorized as having hospital‐acquired infection. The overall incidence of hospital‐acquired respiratory viral infection was 3.9 (95% confidence interval, 3.7‐4.1) cases per 1,000 admitted patients. Rhinovirus was the most common virus (30.3%), followed by influenza virus (17.6%) and parainfluenza virus (15.6%).

Qualitative content analysis of psychologic discomfort and coping process after needlestick injuries among health care workers

BACKGROUNDnThis study was designed to survey psychologic discomfort and coping processes of health care workers that suffered needlestick injuries (NSIs).nnnMETHODSnThis qualitative analysis was performed with 15 health care workers who experienced NSIs. Data were collected using face-to-face interviews. The study subjects were asked the following: please describe the psychologic discomfort that you experienced after the NSI incidence. Data were evaluated by qualitative content analysis.nnnRESULTSnTypes of psychologic discomfort after NSI among health care workers included anxiety, anger, and feelings of guilt. Some personnel adopted active coping strategies, such as seeking first aid or reporting the incident to a monitoring system, whereas others used passive coping methods, such as avoidance of reporting the incident, vague expectancy to have no problems, and reliance on religious beliefs. Recommended support strategies to improve the prevention of NSIs were augmenting employee education and increasing recognition of techniques for avoiding NSIs.nnnCONCLUSIONnMedical institutions need to provide employees with repeated education so that they are familiar with guidelines for preventing NSIs and to stimulate their alertness to the risk of injuries at any time, in any place, and to anybody.

The use of multidose vials and fingerstick blood sampling devices in Korean emergency departments and intensive care units

This study was performed to compare compliance with standard precautions for the use of multidose vials (MDVs) and fingerstick devices in emergency departments (EDs) and intensive care units (ICUs). Between December 2007 and February 2008, 389 nurses from the EDs or ICUs of six university-affiliated hospitals in Korea were asked to complete the questionnaire. A total of 338 (86.9%) nurses completed the survey, corresponding to 159 of 184 ED and 179 of 205 ICU nurses. A comparison of MDV use in EDs and ICUs indicated a significant difference only in disinfection of the rubber septum of heparin vials; 88.1% of ED nurses and 96.6% of ICU nurses stated that they always disinfected the rubber septum of heparin vials whenever drawing medication (P = 0.003). The use of separate fingerstick devices for each patient (71.7% vs. 54.5%) and disinfection of these devices after each use (36.5% vs. 26.0%) were more common in ED nurses. The rate of good hand hygiene was lower in ED nurses, both before (43.7% vs. 74.3%) and after (64.6% vs. 91.6%) the use of fingerstick devices (P < 0.001 for both). There is a need to improve compliance with standard precautions, especially hand hygiene, in EDs.