Biography
Mayumi Hashimoto has been actively involved as a Technical Advisor on Nursing and Midwifery Education System and legal framework for human resources for health in low-middle income countries
Abstract
Background: The Ministry of Health of the Government of Laos established the Guidelines for the Scope of Nursing Practice in 2007, held national dissemination seminars frequently in 2008 and set up a committee to implement the guidelines in public central hospitals in 2013. Objective: To explore the effectiveness of the guidelines for the scope of nursing practice for nursing leaders that has been implemented at hospitals in Laos. Method: A qualitative, exploratory, descriptive research design was used. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews conducted with 13 clinical nursing leaders (five nursing directors, five members of nursing departments and three chief nurses) in 2016. Inductive data analysis was performed using a modified grounded theory approach. Findings: Five categories and 10 sub-categories were identified regarding the effectiveness of the guidelines for the scope of nursing practice. The analysis revealed that clinical nursing leaders faced difficulties in implementing the guidelines at hospitals because of a lack of nursing competency and inadequate understanding of the scope of nursing practice by medical doctors; however, they could cope with the situation flexibly. The implementation process cultivated the nurses’ awareness of the nursing profession as typified by their identity as a nurse, encouraged them to develop their professional way to work, such as by organizing training and meetings by themselves and helped them transform their relationships with medical doctors into professional partnerships. The nursing leaders also described their ideas of professional nursing in Laos. Conclusion: These findings suggest that the guidelines affected not only the scope of nursing practice at hospitals, but also the awareness of nursing leaders regarding the nursing profession and their relationships with medical doctors. Although some difficulties were seen among clinical nursing leaders in implementing the guidelines at hospitals, overall, the implementation process enhanced nursing practice in Laos.
Biography
Hyunsung Ban is currently an MS candidate in the Department of Clothing and Textiles at Yonsei University. Her research interests include application of emerging technologies to design and product development, functional apparel design for active ageing population and functional, expressive and aesthetic attributes of wearable technology
Abstract
Recently, there has been a rapid increase in the aging population due to the increase in lifespan of humans resulting from the improvements in living standards and health care technology. Especially, the baby boomers, which currently comprise 15% of the Korean population, will become part of the ageing population in about 10 years and will exert strong influences in many areas of society as the new mainstream. This generation is greatly concerned about health care, especially to prepare for elderly age and their demands of efficient health management are constantly increasing. Owing to this current trend, there is a consistent increase in demand for smart sportswear for health management and improving exercise efficiency, among middle-aged people. Recently, body signal measuring sensors have been implemented in sportswear to measure the body signals of the wearer (muscle activity and heart rate) during exercise and give feedback to the wearer so that the exercise quality can be improved. These requirements and technology have led to the development of smartphone application connected sportswear, which have received considerable attention from middle-aged people. This research analyzes consumers’ needs and explores solutions for the design and product planning of smart fitness wear for middle-aged people that improves the efficiency of walking exercise based on their needs. For this purpose, this study examines the existing researches in literature related to wearable technology and the current development of smart wear technology and conducts in-depth interviews of 6 and survey of 150 middle-aged consumers who exercise by walking. Based on these positive data analyses, we have sign-posted design and product planning for smart sportswear in order to improve the efficiency of walking exercise performed by middle-aged people