Purpose: This study aimed to explore and describe the experiences of helper nurses deployed in COVID-19 dedicated wards, seeking a deeper understanding of the significance inherent in their experiences. Methods: Sixteen nurses with over one month of experience working as helper nurses in dedicated COVID-19 wards were selected as participants. Individual interviews were conducted between July and August 2023 using a semistructured questionnaire. Data were analyzed using the methods described by Elo and Kyngäs (2007). Results: The analysis revealed two categories comprising six themes derived from helper nurses’ experiences. These categories include “Confronting Professional Challenges” and “Growing as a More Professional Nurse”. Conclusion: Further studies are necessary to explore helper nurses’ experiences of infectious disease disaster situations. Nurses experience role conflicts, knowledge gaps, and burnout. Therefore, developing protocols for tasks and education is essential in highly uncertain situations and when new responsibilities arise. Establishing systematic support systems for stress reduction and enhancing social support among nurses is crucial. Therefore, additional research is required to understand the growth and impact of helper nurses.

This study aimed to investigate the levels of perception of, knowledge of, and attitude toward patient safety and identify factors that affected patients’ attitude towards patient safety. In this descriptive study, participants included 196 patients hospitalized at a tertiary hospital in South Korea. Data were collected using self-reported questionnaires. Perception of and attitude towards patient safety were measure with a tool developed by Ahn Jin-ok, and the questionnaire for knowledge of patient safety was developed by researchers based on a literature review and validated by an expert group. Data were analyzed with Pearson’s correlation coefficients and multiple regression. The average perception of patient safety was 35.48(±6.80) out of 50; the average knowledge of patient safety was 84.33(±8.66) out of 100; and the average attitude towards patient safety was 36.88(±3.74) out of 50. The perception and knowledge of patient safety, level of hospital safety, and age were identified as influential factors explaining 13% of the variation in attitude towards patient safety. The results showed that the direct and indirect educational experience of patients may increase their perception and knowledge of patient safety that can influence their attitude towards patient safety. Therefore, patient education would be an important intervention to improve patients’ attitude towards patient safety. We recommend further studies with educational interventions for improving patient safety activities.

This was written to introduce the case of establishment and implementation of the Disclosure procedure related to patient safety accidents at Hospital A. The process of establishing the Disclosure procedure of Hospital A consisted of a survey of professors in charge of Clinical Performance Improvement, the formation of consensus within the management, the establishment of procedures through discussion in the relevant departments and committees, and the enactment and implementation of regulations. In addition, in order to apply the regulations to the field, various education and public relations strategies for employees, as well as management procedures for cases of violation of the patient safety culture. And now, psychological support programs are being explored to protect the employees who are the second victims. Continuous efforts to improve “communication know-how” should be made by collecting data and analyzing cost effects. Therefore, legal support such as the Apology Act is also needed to activate and protect patient safety communication.

Nurses help patients not lose their humanity to the end in the asymmetrical relationship between medical personnel and patients. Because the nurse's frequent judgments at the clinical site are associated with human dignity, the nurse is required to judge and act ethically, and is responsible for making ethical decisions. Therefore, nurses are trained from nursing colleges to have ethical competence, and such training should be carried out continuously and systematically even after graduation. A Medical Center Nursing Department implements various forms of ethical education to improve the ethical capacity of clinical nurses. Education is divided into four types: lectures, e-learning, workshops and clinical ethics counseling. All education was organized around real-life cases to realize that nursing ethics were not far from the actual work site but the closest problem encountered, and the core theories and issues were repeatedly and continuously exposed so that they could permeate into the nurse's ethical decision-making process. Of course, there are still more tasks to be carried out in the future, such as expanding debate-oriented education, promoting clinical ethics counseling, setting up a forum for sharing opinions on ethical issues such as the Ethics Round, but we hope that it will serve as a foundation for the development of better nursing ethics education programs by sharing specific cases of nursing ethics education currently implemented at a tertiary Hospital.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the turnover experience of nurses who moved from a tertiary medical institution to a general hospital and to understand the meaning of the move for them. Methods: This is a phenomenological qualitative study using Colaizzi's (1978) method. Semi-structured, open-ended questions and in-depth interviews were conducted to 11 nurses within 3 years after turnover to a general hospital at a tertiary medical institution, between April, 2018 to September, 2018. Results: The four theme clusters and thirteen themes emerged. The core theme licited I was “the journey to find-balance and leave.” Four theme clusters were; “advance to a dream job”, including ‘expectation for my work’, ‘my confidence and family pride’, “unstable my dream job” including ‘stand alone in a desert’, ‘crushed by extra work’, ‘torn protection’, ‘invisible future’, “my job that I wish to keep” including ‘unconditional patience for growth’, “I can't be a loser” is desperate selfinspiration’, ‘leaning on comfort and support', and finally “my place I found again.” including ‘being prepared to be by my side’, ‘restoring work-life balance’, ‘revealed my existence’, and ‘unsatisfied with new work’. Conclusion: Participants choose of turnover for physical and psychological well-being, instead of the romance of the tertiary medical institution. This showed the characteristics of the millennial generation that values the comfort and relaxation in one's life prior to professional vision of nursing care as a nurse, and success. The result is meaningful as an understanding of effective job management for current-generation clinical nurses.

Antibiotic resistant salmonellosis has shown a recent increase, making treatment of patients with Salmonella infections difficult. This study analyzed changes in the species, serogroups, and antimicrobial susceptibility of enteric pathogens isolated from stool specimens during a period of eight years from 2003 to 2010 in a tertiary hospital. In total, 237 pathogens (1.9%) were isolated from 12,289 stool specimens, comprising 50.6% NTS and 49% Vibrio parahaemolyticus. Serogroups D, B, and C Salmonella were isolated most frequently, in that order. Of the Salmonella, 49% of the isolates were ampicillin resistant and this rate for serogroups B, C, and D Salmonella was 56.8, 64.7, and 43.5%, respectively. Overall, the rates of trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (SXT), chloramphenicol (CM), and ciprofloxacin resistance were 11.0, 22.0, and 0%, respectively. Two cefotaxime-resistant Salmonella were isolated in 2010. All of the V. parahaemolyticus were susceptible to SXT, CM, and tetracycline. In conclusion, NTS and V. parahaemolyticus were the major enteric pathogens isolated from stool during the eight years examined, and the rate of Salmonella resistance to antimicrobial agents showed a significant increase. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing is mandatory for proper treatment of patients with Salmonella spp. infection.