KJC Korea
Journal Central

Glivec (Imatinib) is a medication used in the treatment of chronic myelogenous leukemia. This medication, which is manufactured by Norvatis, was licensed for prescription in South Korea in 2002. After being found guilty of providing illegal rebates to doctors who prescribe Glivec, Norvatis was fined by the Korean Ministry of Health. However, this incident has given rise to a debate concerning how exactly Norvatis should be penalized for its illegal actions. On the one hand, some argue that stiffer punishments should be issued, including a moratorium on the sale of Norvatis medication in Korea. On the other hand, some argue that such actions will unfairly punish leukemia patients rather than targeting the company itself. In this article, we examine the medical, pharmaceutical, and ethical arguments that can be given on both sides of this issue.

The purpose of this study was to compare attitudes toward death anxiety and preferences for care near the end of life between nurses and physicians. Data were collected from 225 employees (150 nurses, 75 physicians) working in a tertiary hospital in South Korea. The study found a higher presence of death anxiety in nurses than physicians. Within the category of death anxiety, the “dying of others” was highest in nurses, whereas the “death of others” was highest in physicians. Among the five dimensions of the preferred care near the end of life, “pain” was the most preferred dimension while “decision-making by health care professionals” was the least preferred dimension for both nurses and physicians. Physicians preferred autonomous decision-making and decision-making by healthcare professionals; nurses preferred pain and spirituality. The results show that adequate pain relief is the most preferred care at the end of life for both nurses and physicians. This study indicates that nurses and physicians consider patient autonomy, pain control, and spirituality as important factors in end-of-life care. On the basis of these findings, we conclude that educational intervention programs are needed to reduce the death anxiety of nurses and physicians and thereby improve their terminal care performance.

This study is a descriptive survey research to examine knowledge and attitudes of social behavioral researchers on Institutional Review Board (IRB) reviews. The data for this study was collected from structured questionnaires sent by email to 650 social behavioral researchers, including graduate students, in South Korea. A total of 165 researchers answered the survey, and 124 of these answer sets were included in the study. The data were analyzed using IBM SPSS/WIN version 21.0. The level of objective knowledge (mean score 16.01±4.04 out of 24; average correct answer 66.7%) and subjective knowledge (39.95±19.81 out of 80) was low. The attitude score was slightly more positive than the norm (3.49±0.56 out of 5). The knowledge and attitudes scores varied in accordance with certain characteristics of the subjects, such as education level, major, research experience, etc. The level of objective knowledge was significantly and positively correlated with both subjective knowledge (r=.327, p<.001) and attitude (r=.221, p=.014). The main findings of this study can be used as a foundation for developing effective educational programs for social behavioral researchers.

Although nursing ethics education in South Korea continues to expand quantitatively in terms of number of courses offered, the quality and satisfaction of the education remains low due to the lack of a systematic curriculum. Many nursing colleges offer lectures on nursing ethics as a modules in other courses instead of as an independent subject. The purpose of this study is to contribute to the development of nurses’ sense of professional ethics by examining the present state and problems of nursing ethics education in Korea and to suggest directions in which to expand and strengthen nursing ethics education. There are three types of problems with nursing ethics education in Korea: a lack of recognition of nursing ethics; imprecise definitions of nursing ethics; and a lack of nursing ethics experts. This study proposes an evaluation plan as follows. First, it is necessary for a deeper reflection and understanding on the nature of nursing ethics. Second, it is necessary to set the goals of nursing ethics education as an independent subject and to develop a standardized curriculum according to these established educational goals. Third, it is necessary to hire nursing ethics specialists who can accurately grasp the academic characteristics of nursing ethics. Finally, it is necessary to link ethics education between nursing colleges and the work of practitioners in the clinical field.

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationships between moral self-concept (MSC), ethical sensitivity (ES), and empathy in college students in South Korea. This study was a descriptive investigation using a structured questionnaire administered to 625 college students in one city in Gyeonggi-do, South Korea. The data were analyzed by means of a canonical correlation analysis using PASW Statistics 18.0. The mean score for MSC was 3.11±0.34; ES and empathy were 3.92±0.53, 3.59±0.38, respectively. The complicated correlations between MSC, ES, and empathy were identified. The canonical variate indicated that the subjects had lower “moral self-identification,” “moral self-acceptance,” “moral self-action” ; and “ES” showed lower “perspective taking,” “do imagine,” and “empathic concern.” The results of this study indicate that there is a need for educational strategies to nurture MSC, ES, and empathy in Korean college students.