2014, Vol.17, No.2

Korean Journal of Medical Ethics 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 1.21

pISSN : 2005-8284 / eISSN : 2234-3598
https://journal.kci.go.kr/medethics

According to Erikson, gerotranscendence involves the development of effective personality traits andpositive attitudes toward life and death. The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of gerotranscendentallife-styles on the quality of life of middle-aged persons in Korea. The results of the analysisshow a positive correlation between gerotranscendental life-styles and quality of life. Thinking about dyingand death and preparing for it seem to be closely related to living well. Medical institutions in Koreathat place too much emphasis on sustaining life may be hindering the dying process. This article arguesthat in order to improve patients’ quality of death, gerotranscendental life-styles should be introducedin the context of educational programs concerning death preparation.

This study had two objectives: (a) to compare the level of patients’ understanding in the consent process when information is provided in text-based form with patients’ level of understanding when information is provided in photo-novella form (Wave 1); and (b) to compare the level of patients’ understanding when the routine informed consent process is supplemented with text-based information sheets (Wave 2). Twenty healthy male volunteers were consecutively recruited and randomly allocated to Group A (text-based form) or Group B (photo-novella form). Understanding was measured three times: at Wave 1, at Wave 2, and one week after Wave 2 (Wave 3). The choice type objective understanding (OU) measured at Wave 1, Wave 2, and Wave 3 was significantly higher in Group B than Group A. Both OU and subjective understanding (SU) increased from Wave 1 to Wave 2, but the changes were not statistically significant between the two groups. In conclusion, OU was higher for the photo-novella group than for the text-based group after receiving the information and remained so up until one week after the routine informed consent process. These results suggest that medical information for informed consent should be provided in photo-novella form.

The purpose of this study was to identify the influence of moral sensitivity and critical thinking dispositionson the biomedical ethics awareness of nursing students. Data collection was done using aself-report questionnaire answered by 508 nursing students from six universities located in G city and Jprovince. The collected data was analyzed using a t-test, ANOVA, Pearson's correlation coefficients, andstepwise multiple regression using SPSS 20.0 program. Biomedical ethics awareness had a significantpositive correlation with moral sensitivity (r=.55, p<0.001) and critical thinking dispositions (r=.59,p<0.001). Ethical values, critical thinking dispositions, moral sensitivity, intent to attend biomedical ethicsclass, religion, academic year, and university transfer significantly predicted 60.4% of the biomedicalethics awareness of nursing students. The results of this study suggest that the biomedical ethics awarenessof nursing students may be increased through curricula and teaching strategies that aim to nurturestudents’ moral sensitivity and critical thinking dispositions.