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Purpose: The purpose of the study was to examine the attitudes of acute care nurses towards dementia, their critical reflection competency, and the level of nursing work environment and to identify the factors relating to person-centered nursing. Methods: The study was conducted for 149 nurses with at least 1 year of experience working in acute care hospitals and providing nursing care to hospitalized elderly patients. The measurements used were the Dementia Attitude Scale Korean version, the Critical Reflection Competency Scale, the Nursing Work Environment Scale, and the Person-Centered Nursing Assessment Tool. The collected data were analyzed with frequency analysis, descriptive statistics, independent t-test, ANOVA test, Pearson’s correlation, and multiple regression using IBM SPSS 29.0 software. Results: The factors influencing person-centered nursing performance were critical reflection competency (β=.49, p<.001), attitudes towards dementia (β=.29, p<.001), and clinical career (β=-.26, p=.024), having the explanation power of 59.6%. Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that critical reflection competency, attitudes towards dementia, and clinical career have an impact on person-centered nursing performance. Specifically, higher levels of critical reflection competency and positive attitudes towards dementia were predictors with higher levels of person-centered nursing performance. Therefore, to enhance person-centered nursing performance among acute care nurses, it is important to prioritize critical reflection training programs for experienced nurses to enhance their critical reflection competency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the moderating role of positive psychological capital on the effects of clinical nurses' responses to violence on burnout and to provide basic date for an intervention program that reduces nurse burnout. Methods: The participants in this study were 172 nurses recruited through convenience sampling at one general hospital in Seoul. Data were collected from June 5 to 10, 2023 using structured questionnaires. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS/WIN 26.0. Results: Burnout was positively correlated with violence responses and negatively correlated with positive psychological capital among clinical nurses. Verbal violence experience (β=.14, p=.014), job satisfaction (β=.31, p<.001), social violence response (β=.15, p=.035) and positive psychological capital (β=-.39, p<.001) were identified as factors significantly influencing clinical nurses' burnout. The interaction term between social violence response and positive psychological capital significantly influenced burnout (β=.18, p=.044). Conclusion: Social violence response affected burnout among clinical nurses, and positive psychological capital was identified as a moderating factor in burnout. Therefore, hospital and nursing organizational efforts such as fostering an appropriate organizational atmosphere, providing social support that encourages trust and creativity among organizational members, and implementing various educational and mentoring programs are required to reduce nurses' social violence response and enhance positive psychological capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study was conducted to provide fundamental data for improving the quality of care by investigating the relationships of critical reflection competency, nursing practice environment, job crafting, and person-centered care among tertiary hospital nurses. Additionally, the study sought to identify the factors influencing person-centered care. Methods: Data were collected from 132 tertiary hospital nurses with at least 1 year of work experience via an online survey conducted in January 2023. Results: Person-centered care varied significantly according to age, clinical experience, and department. Significant correlations of person-centered care with critical reflection competency (r=.77, p<.001), nursing practice environment (r=.46, p<.001), and job crafting (r=.71, p<.001) were observed. Factors contributing to person-centered care among tertiary hospital nurses included critical reflection competency (β=.46, p<.001) and job crafting (β=.40, p<.001), with an explanatory power of 70.2%. Conclusion: To provide ethically enhanced person-centered care in tertiary hospitals, various training programs must be developed to strengthen nurses' critical reflection competency and job crafting skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aimed to develop the examination objectives based on nursing competency of the Korean Nursing Licensing Examination. Methods: This is a validity study to develop the examination objectives based on nursing competency. Data were collected in December 2021. We reviewed the literature related to changing nurse roles and on the learning objectives for the Korea Medical Licensing Examination and other health personnel licensing examinations. Thereafter, we created a draft of the nursing problems list for examination objectives based on the literature review, and the content validity was evaluated by experts. A final draft of the examination objectives is presented and discussed. Results: A total of 4 domains, 12 classes, and 85 nursing problems for the Korean Nursing Licensing Examination were developed. They included the essentials of objectives, related factors, evaluation goals, related activity statements, related clients, related settings, and specific outcomes. Conclusion: This study developed a draft of the examination objectives based on clinical competency that were related to the clinical situations of nurses and comprised appropriate test items for the licensing examination. Above results may be able to provide fundamental data for item development that reflects future nursing practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aimed to review the outcomes of nurse residency programs for new graduate nurses. Methods: The inclusion criteria were peer-reviewed articles on the outcomes of nurse residency programs for new graduate nurses published in English from 2010 to 2019. A literature search was conducted in the PubMed, CINAHL, Science Direct, EMBASE, and PsycINFO databases using the search terms "nurse residency program," "new graduate nurse," and "transition to practice program." A qualitative appraisal of studies was conducted using the revised Cochrane risk-of-bias tool for randomized trials (RoB 2) and the Risk Of Bias In Non-randomized Studies of Interventions (ROBINS-I) tool. Results: Twenty-five studies were selected. The systematic review found that nurse residency programs effectively increased the competence and confidence of new graduate nurses in 14 studies. Job satisfaction, job stress and anxiety, and support showed different results, which were increased, decreased, or statistically insignificant after the programs. In three studies, institutional outcomes, including the retention rate in 16 surveys and hospital cost savings, were improved. Patient safety had different results depending upon the study. Conclusion: This study's results can provide evidence for the necessity of a standardized nursing education program and for developing a system for evaluating its effectiveness to improve the quality of nursing education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study explored the possibility of using the Angoff method, in which panel experts determine the cut score of an exam, for the Korean Nursing Licensing Examination (KNLE). Two mock exams for the KNLE were analyzed. The Angoff standard setting procedure was conducted and the results were analyzed. We also aimed to examine the procedural validity of applying the Angoff method in this context. Methods: For both mock exams, we set a pass-fail cut score using the Angoff method. The standard setting panel consisted of 16 nursing professors. After the Angoff procedure, the procedural validity of establishing the standard was evaluated by investigating the responses of the standard setters. Results: The descriptions of the minimally competent person for the KNLE were presented at the levels of general and subject performance. The cut scores of first and second mock exams were 74.4 and 76.8, respectively. These were higher than the traditional cut score (60% of the total score of the KNLE). The panel survey showed very positive responses, with scores higher than 4 out of 5 points on a Likert scale. Conclusion: The scores calculated for both mock tests were similar, and were much higher than the existing cut scores. In the second simulation, the standard deviation of the Angoff rating was lower than in the first simulation. According to the survey results, procedural validity was acceptable, as shown by a high level of confidence. The results show that determining cut scores by an expert panel is an applicable method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Comprehensive nursing care services are provided for patient-centered nursing care in Korea. This study was conducted to compare differences in the frequency and elapsed time of nursing activities between comprehensive nursing care units and general medical-surgical units. Methods: This is a descriptive study design using direct observation of nursing care activities. A time and motion study on the frequency and elapsed time of nursing activities provided by nurses was conducted in the comprehensive nursing care units and general units of two small-to-medium sized hospitals. Data were collected for 64 hours in each hospital, through a two-way method using a checklist and a camera recorder. Results: The total number of nursing activities, activities provided per patient and patient safety care including clinical assessment and treatment were higher in the comprehensive nursing care units compared to general units. We found similar findings regarding the duration of nursing activities. Conclusion: Comprehensive nursing care units provide patient-centered nursing care and have a broader range of nursing activities for patient safety than general units. Assessments conducted to meet nursing needs and to promote safe nurse staffing should reflect the characteristics of the nursing tasks performed in comprehensive nursing care units. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship between attitudes toward the withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment, death anxiety and death acceptance among hospitalized cancer patients who were at least 65 years old. Methods: This study adopted a descriptive study design. Data were collected from 128 patients diagnosed with cancer. The instruments used were the Attitudes toward Life-sustaining Treatment Scale, Death Anxiety Scale and modified versions of the Death Attitude Profile-Revised (DAP-R) questionnaire. Results: The mean score for the subjects' attitudes toward the withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment was 3.48 ±0.50 out of 5. Death anxiety was reported at 2.53±0.54 out of 4. Death acceptance was reported at 4.10 ±1.20 out of 7. There was a significant negative correlation between the subjects' attitudes toward the withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment and death anxiety (r= -.21, p=.018), however there was no statistically significant correlation between the subjects' attitude towards the withdrawal of lifesustaining treatment and death acceptance (r=-.07, p=.462). Conclusion: The more positive elderly cancer patients are about the withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment, the lower their death anxiety is. This finding can help nurses with patient care towards the end of life by considering the relationship between death anxiety and their attitudes toward the withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Geriatric depression is often closely connected with physical symptoms among older adults. This study aimed to determine the factors related to depressive symptoms among older adults with multiple chronic diseases. Methods: We assessed 6,672 older adults using data extracted from the 2014 National Survey on the Elderly in Korea. The short form of the Geriatric Depression Scale and the Korean versions of the Mini-Mental State Examination for dementia screening and the DETERMINE Your Nutrition Health Checklist were used. Statistical analyses included independent t-test, χ² test, and logistic regression analysis. Results: We found that 36.7% of the older adults exhibited depressive symptoms, and the average score on the short form of the Geriatric Depression Scale was 5.90±4.53. The factors significantly related to depressive symptoms were unemployment (Odds Ratio [OR]=1.85, 95% Confidence Interval [CI]=1.59~2.15), "high risk" nutritional management status (OR=1.19, 95% CI=1.16~1.22), slight visual dysfunction (OR=1.21, 95% CI=1.05~1.38), high visual dysfunction (OR=1.41, 95% CI=1.04~1.91), slight hearing dysfunction (OR=1.22, 95% CI=1.05~1.43), slight chewing dysfunction (OR=1.37, 95% CI=1.19~1.59), high chewing dysfunction (OR=1.59, 95% CI=1.30~1.95), low cellphone utilization (OR=1.60, 95% CI=1.04~2.46), older age (OR=0.99, 95% CI=0.98~1.00), and higher educational level (OR=0.96, 95% CI=0.95~0.98). Conclusion: Preventive interventions for depressive symptoms should include nutritional education programs, functional assistive devices, and the use of information technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Simulation-based nursing education is an increasingly popular pedagogical approach. It provides students with opportunities to practice their clinical and decision-making skills through various real-life situational experiences. However, simulation approaches fall along a continuum ranging from low-fidelity to high-fidelity simulation. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect size of simulation-based educational interventions in nursing and compare effect sizes according to the fidelity level of the simulators through a meta-analysis. Method: This study explores the quantitative evidence published in the electronic databases EBSCO, Medline, ScienceDirect, ERIC, RISS, and the National Assembly Library of Korea database. Using a search strategy including the search terms "nursing," "simulation," "human patient," and "simulator," we identified 2279 potentially relevant articles. Forty studies met the inclusion criteria and were retained in the analysis. Results: This meta-analysis showed that simulation-based nursing education was effective in various learning domains, with a pooled random-effects standardized mean difference of 0.70. Subgroup analysis revealed that effect sizes were larger for high-fidelity simulation (0.86), medium-fidelity simulation (1.03), and standardized patients (0.86) than they were for low-fidelity and hybrid simulations. In terms of cognitive outcomes, the effect size was the largest for high-fidelity simulation (0.50). Regarding affective outcome, high-fidelity simulation (0.80) and standardized patients (0.73) had the largest effect sizes. Conclusions: These results suggest that simulation-based nursing educational interventions have strong educational effects, with particularly large effects in the psychomotor domain. Since the effect is not proportional to fidelity level, it is important to use a variety of educational interventions to meet all of the educational goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study examined the effects of peer assisted learning (PAL) using video recordings in standardized patients (SP) simulation. Methods: A mixed-method approach was adopted, in which quantitative data were supplemented with qualitative data. Research participants consisted of 49 nursing students, 24 of whom were assigned to the experimental group, and 25 to the control group. The 12 item instrument was used to measure perioperative care knowledge, while performance confidence was assessed with the 10 item questionnaire, and clinical critical thinking skills with the Clinical Critical Thinking Skill Test (CCTS). Qualitative data were collected using a reflective journaling and in-depth interviews. Results: Participants in the experimental group exhibited significantly higher levels of knowledge than those in the control group (t=5.43, p<.001), and were significantly more confident in their performances (F=52.33, p<.001). However, no significant differences were found between the experimental and the control groups with regard to CCTS (t=0.72, p=.477). A qualitative content analysis was conducted using the interview and reflective journaling data, in which six major themes were elicited from three codes. Conclusion: PAL employing video recordings is expected to be utilized as a teaching and learning strategy in simulation-based nursing practicum with greater frequency and longer period, given the positive effects observed in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop a revised version of the clinical critical thinking skills test (CCTS) and to subsequently validate its performance. Methods: This study is a secondary analysis of the CCTS. Data were obtained from a convenience sample of 284 college students in June 2011. Thirty items were analyzed using item response theory and test reliability was assessed. Test-retest reliability was measured using the results of 20 nursing college and graduate school students in July 2013. The content validity of the revised items was analyzed by calculating the degree of agreement between instrument developer intention in item development and the judgments of six experts. To analyze response process validity, qualitative data related to the response processes of nine nursing college students obtained through cognitive interviews were analyzed. Results: Out of initial 30 items, 11 items were excluded after the analysis of difficulty and discrimination parameter. When the 19 items of the revised version of the CCTS were analyzed, levels of item difficulty were found to be relatively low and levels of discrimination were found to be appropriate or high. The degree of agreement between item developer intention and expert judgments equaled or exceeded 50%. Conclusion: From above results, evidence of the response process validity was demonstrated, indicating that subjects respondeds as intended by the test developer. The revised 19-item CCTS was found to have sufficient reliability and validity and will therefore represents a more convenient measurement of critical thinking ability [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of current study was to explore the positive outcomes of advanced practice nurse who have experienced the roles in their clinical settings. Methods: This study adopted a qualitative research design based on conventional content analysis. Participants were 16 nurse practitioners have been worked at hospitals or community centers. Data were collected via focus group interviews and analyzed using thematic analysis method. Results: Patients’ aspect outcomes were “client-centered care in providing continuity”, “providing trust based on expertise”, “promoting skilled intervention in patient recovering”, “blocking the negative consequences”, “quality improvement: nursing becoming tighter”, “providing total care for cases that require intensive care”, “improving patients outcomes by total management”, “increasing confidence in evidence-based professional nursing”, “rising the satisfaction by cost-effective services”, “providing skilled professional practice”, and “providing comprehensive care related to covering various aspects.” Other themes elicited also included “promoting efficacy by inter-related health professions supervising”, “the expansion of specialized practice areas increase business efficiency”, “formation of outside customers due to increasing the satisfaction with skilled nursing care”, “filling in the emptying spaces of doctors by practicing reliable role to bridge”, “attracting external customers through successful management of subjects”, “increasing staff’s satisfaction on the role to make a bridge between inside and outside doctors”, “24 hours medical expertise of professional staff ready secured”, and “low cost, same results, that is, cost-effective” in reference to health care resources aspect. Conclusion: These findings suggested that advanced practice nurses perceived various positive outcomes and provided basic data for outcome indicators of advanced practice nurses’ role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives Located on chromosome 10q22-q23, the human neuregulin 3 (NRG3) is suggested as a strong positional and functional candidate gene involved in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. Several case-control studies examining the association between polymorphisms on NRG3 gene with schizophrenia and/or its traits (such as delusion) have been reported recently in cohorts of Han Chinese, Ashkenazi Jews, Australians, white Americans of Western European ancestry and Koreans. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the association of one SNP in exon 9 (rs2295933) of NRG3 gene with the risk of schizophrenia in a Korean population. Methods Using TaqMan assay, rs2295933 in the exon 9 of NRG3 was genotyped in 435 patients with schizophrenia as cases and 393 unrelated healthy individuals as controls. Differences in frequency distributions were analyzed using logistic regression models following various modes of genetic inheritance and controlling for age and sex as covariates. Results Subsequent analysis revealed that the frequency distribution of rs2295933 of NRG3 was not different between schizophrenia patients and healthy controls of Korean ethnicity. Conclusions This study does not support the role of NRG3 in schizophrenia in a Korean population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rank of a semigroup $\mathcal{A}$ of functions from a finite set X to X is the minimum of | f( X)| over $f\in \mathcal{A}$. Given a finite set X and a subset Y of X, we show that if $\mathcal{A}$ is a semigroup of functions from X to X and ℬ a transitive semigroup of functions from Y to Y, then the rank of $\mathcal{A}$ divides that of ℬ provided that f( X)⊆ Y for some $f\in \mathcal{A}$ and that each function in ℬ is the restriction of a function in $\mathcal{A}$ to Y. To prove this, we generalize a result of Friedman which says that one can partition Y into q subsets of equal weight where q is the rank of ℬ. When one extends a transitive automaton by adding new states and letters, a similar condition guarantees that the rank of the extension divides the original rank. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the critical thinking dispositions and skills of senior nursing students. Study participants were students enrolled in associate (n = 137), baccalaureate (n = 102), and RN-to-BSN (n = 66) programs accredited by the Korean Ministry of Education. The California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (CCTDI) and California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST) were used. A comparison of the CCTDI scores revealed a statistically significant difference between the students enrolled in different programs (F - 4.159, p = 0.017), as did a comparison of the CCTST scores (F = 24.205, p < 0.0001). Within the total sample (n = 305), the relationship between CCTDI and CCTST scores was significant (r = 0.305, p = 0.000). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between two natural definitions of the relative pressure function, for a locally constant potential function and a factor map from a shift of finite type, is clarified by showing that they coincide almost everywhere with respect to every invariant measure. With a suitable extension of one of the definitions, the same holds true for any continuous potential function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]