Purpose: The aim of this qualitative study is to explore the health problems and coping experiences of middle-aged and elderly women in the community. Methods: A total of five focus group interviews were conducted with three groups of middle-aged and two groups of elderly women. All interviews were recorded and transcribed. Data were analyzed using the content analysis method. Results: Health problems were categorized as confusion caused by problems that are difficult to handle alone in the middle-aged group and suffering originated by confronting changes in roles and environment in the elderly group. The health problems included stress, suffering, anxiety and social withdrawal as subcategories for the middle-aged women, and the stress, sense of loss, fear, and limited social activities caused by their life events for the elderly women. Meanwhile, the contents of categories about coping were revealed as the beginning of care for the body and mind for healthy life in the middle-aged group and active practice with insight into a healthy lifestyle in the elderly group. While the middle-aged women focused on themselves, attempted changes and started to take care of themselves, the elderly women interacted with the outside world, hardened their mind, made efforts for a dignified death, and managed health by their own methods. Conclusion: There were differences in the experiences of middle-aged and elderly women in accepting their health problems and coping. Nursing interventions reflecting these findings can help to manage and promote the health of middle-aged and elderly women based on an integrated perspective.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to verify the validity and reliability of the Korean version of the Pain in Older Adults Knowledge Survey (K-POAKS) to assess knowledge of pain in older adults including people with dementia for use in long-term care hospital nurses. Methods: Survey data were collected from a convenience sample of 179 nurses who have worked in long-term care hospitals in B, D and U cities. The Kuder-Richardson Formula 20 for internal consistency for test reliability was conducted. The content, criterion-related and construct validity were evaluated using SPSS/WIN 22.0. Results: The KR 20 was .75 and Content Validity Ratio (CVR) was a range of 0.84~1.00. The criterion-related validity was positively correlated with attitudes (r=.28, p<.001) and performance (r=.21, p=.004). The construct validity of K-POAKS was analyzed by conducting the principal component method using the exploratory factor analysis varimax rotation, and seven factors were derived above the eigenvalue of 1.0. The seven factors explained 58.5% of the total variation. Conclusion: The Korean version of the POAKS showed satisfactory internal reliability, content validity, criterion-related validity and construct validity. These results suggest that the K-POAKS could be used as a suitable tool to measure the knowledge of the aged people's pain, including that of dementia patients for long-term care hospital nurses.

Purpose: This study aimed to explore the difficulties and coping that advanced practice nurses (APNs) experience in home health nursing field. Methods: The participants were 12 APNs who had experience in home health nursing for over 5 years. Data were collected through two focus group interviews between August and September, 2017. The results were analyzed using a qualitative content analysis. Results: Out of 10 sub-categories and 29 codes, 4 categories emerged: “crushed by the responsibilities as the only healthcare professional”, “worn out by family who interfere with work”, “anxiety about my safety being threatened” and “using self-learned know-hows”. Conclusion: APNs face difficulties due to the environmental characteristics of the homes, the characteristics of chronically critically ill (CCI) patients and their families, and legal or systematical limitations when dealing with problems based on their personal competence. In order to ensure that professional nursing care is more readily provided to CCI patients through home health nursing services in local communities, it is imperative that support systems at the organizational and institutional levels be established in a systematic way to resolve the issues faced by APNs.

Purpose: This study was performed to identify the factors influencing the fear of dementia in middle-aged and older adults. Methods: Data on the characteristics, dementia knowledge, dementia attitude, dementia health beliefs, and fear of dementia of 156 participants were collected from January 20 to March 22, 2018, using a structured questionnaire. The data were analyzed with the SPSS/WIN 21.0 program for descriptive statistics, using an independent t-test, one-way analysis of variance, Pearson's correlation coefficient, and stepwise multiple regression. Results: Significant factors associated with fear of dementia among middle-aged and older adults were subjective life satisfaction (F=3.72, p=.006) and regular exercise (t=6.05, p=.015). Fear of dementia has positive correlations with dementia attitude, perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, and perceived barrier. The determining factors affecting fear of dementia in middle-aged and older adults were perceived severity (β=.46, p<.001), followed by a perceived barrier (β=.20, p=.004) and perceived susceptibility (β=.17, p=.023), and the explanation power was about 47.8%. Conclusion: The results suggest that perceived severity, perceived barrier, and perceived susceptibility be considered in developing the nursing interventions to increase perceived severity, perceived susceptibility, and to decrease perceived barrier to dementia by evaluating dementia health beliefs to manage the fear of dementia among middle-aged and older adults.

Purpose: This study was conducted to examine the effects of the oral care program for improving swallowing function of the elderly using welfare centers on depression, self efficacy, subjective oral health status and swallowing related quality of life. Methods: The intervention in this study was systematically developed through the six stages of Intervention Mapping Protocol (IMP) and was based on Mead's symbolic interaction theory and Bandura's self efficacy theory. A non equivalent control group pre and post-test design was conducted on a total of 37 elderly people (experimental group: 19, control group: 18) from D city. The oral care program was administered to the experimental group once a week for five weeks, totaling five times, and the exact program ran for 50 minutes. The collected data were analyzed using the SPSS/WIN 25.0 program. Results: Following the intervention, subjective oral health score, and swallowing related quality of life were significantly improved in the experimental group. Conclusion: The oral care program presented in this study was found to be effective in increasing subjective oral health status, and swallowing related quality of life for the elderly using welfare centers.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identifying factors influencing organizational commitment of nurses in Korean Red Cross Blood Center (KRCBC). Methods: A cross sectional survey was conducted for 224 nurses who worked for more than three months in KRCBC. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire from August 28 to September 20, 2018. Data were analyzed using independent t-test, Mann-Whitney U test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson's correlation coefficient, and hierarchical multiple regression analysis with SPSS (ver. 23.0). Results: The mean score of organizational commitment was 3.37±0.52 on a scale of 5 points, the mean of positive psychological capital was 3.51±0.51, communication ability score was 3.60±0.48, and social support score was 3.68±0.57. The factors influencing organizational commitment of nurses in KRCBC were social support (β=.41, p<.001), job satisfaction (β= .27, p<.001), and total length of employment in KRCBC (β=.19, p=.016). The model explained 36.1% of the organizational commitment of the nurses. Conclusion: It is necessary to develop an organizational commitment program for strengthening social support and job satisfaction to improve organizational commitment of nurses in KRCBC. Such a program is eventually expected to improve the quality of nursing care of nurses with a short career in KRCBC.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify levels of health literacy and examine the effects of health literacy and self-care activities on quality of life of patients with type 2 diabetes. Methods: A cross sectional design was used. Questionnaires were administered via the Gallup to 500 Korean patients with diabetes in Seoul and Gyeonggi areas. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent t tests, one way ANOVA, and hierarchical regression. Results: Of 500 patients, 12.4% (n=62) indicated 'inadequate' health literacy, and 43.8% (n=219) reported 'marginal' or 'adequate' health literacy. Levels of health literacy significantly differed by demographic characteristics, self-care activities, and quality of life. The factors that had a significant effect on quality of life included inadequate health literacy (B=3.63, p=.042) and marginal health literacy (B=3.84, p=.002); however, no significant relationship was found for self-care activities (B=0.01, p=.827). Conclusion: The results of this study demonstrate a need for further research with large samples using Korean Health Literacy Scale for Diabetes Mellitus to establish the relationships between health literacy, diabetes self-care activities, and quality of life.

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe the essence and the meaning of nurses' experiences of end-of-life care (EOLC) for elderly patients in the long-term care hospitals (LTCHs). Methods: Data were gathered from 12 nurses who had been working at LTCHs in Korea through one-on-one interviews and the data were analyzed by Colaizzi's phenomenological method. Results: The emergent 5 themes were 'Doing the best for protecting patients' life', 'Providing a comfortable dying process for patients', 'Supporting a family's keeping on patient's death', 'Reflecting on life' and 'Desiring for the establishment of a humanity end-of-life care environment'. Conclusion: The end-of-life care for the elderly patients includes supporting elderly patients' comfortable dying process and helping the family keep the death of the elderly. The results indicated that physical facilities and end-of-life nursing capacity should be established in LTCHs for improving the quality of EOLC.

Purpose: This study aims to identify the types of health-related quality of life (QoL) based on the EuroQoL 5 Dimensions among community older people and predict the factors affecting these types. Methods: This study used data from the 2016 Korea Health Panel Survey, whose participants included 3,848 older people. The data were analyzed using the software jamovi 1.2.17 and Mplus 8.2 for latent class analysis. Results: The subgroups of the older people's health-related QoL were identified as three latent classes: General stable type (43.9%), pain-related low type (35.0%), and general low type (21.1%). The types and characteristics of health-related QoL among the latent classes differed. Comparing the difference between the general low type and general stable type, the subjects showed higher probability of belonging to the general stable type when they were men, younger, higher education level, employment, better subjective health, lower BMI and stress level, and no suicidal ideation. A comparison between the general low type and the pain-related low type showed that the subjects were more likely to be classified as the pain-related low type when they were younger, higher education, employment, and better subjective health. Conclusion: The results showed a significant heterogeneity in the types of health-related QoL among community older people, and the predictors for each type were not the same. These findings present basic data for cultivating nursing interventions that enhance health-related QoL.