Purpose This study explored the lived experiences of physician assistants (PAs) in Korea during the 2024 medical workforce shortage, focusing on how they perceived and adapted to their rapidly changing roles. The study investigated both the challenges PAs faced and the professional growth they experienced throughout the adaptation process. Methods: A phenomenological qualitative design was applied using Colaizzi’s method. In-depth interviews were conducted with 15 PAs at a tertiary hospital in Seoul between September 25, 2024 and February 1, 2025. Data were analyzed thematically. Results: Four major theme clusters emerged: changes in work environment and quality of life, role conflict and ambiguity in professional identity, dual aspects of role expansion including autonomy and burnout, and coping strategies and structural policy demands. Participants reported physical and emotional strain, but also described greater involvement in care decisions, improved patient relationships, and a stronger sense of professional identity. Conclusion: Amid the medical staffing crisis, PAs adapted to their expanded responsibilities and became key healthcare providers. While facing substantial burdens, they simultaneously experienced personal and professional growth. Institutional and legal support is essential to stabilize their roles and improve long-term healthcare outcomes.
Purpose This study analyzed and evaluated qualitative studies of nurses' experiences with cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) to understand their awareness and develop effective strategies. Methods This study used an integrated literature review method developed by Whittemore and Knafl (2005). The scope of the literature search was broad and encompassed qualitative research exploring the experiences of nurses involved in CPR in hospitals.
This search was conducted on March 27, 2023. For domestic literature, databases such as KOREAMed, KMBASE, and RISS were used, while foreign literature was sourced from PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, and COCHRANE databases. Results After careful analysis, nine relevant literature pieces were selected, leading to the derivation of four key themes: “Perception of CPR,” “Positive Experiences during CPR,” “Barriers Impacting CPR Execution,” and “Strategies for Enhancing CPR Effectiveness.” Conclusion: To positively reinforce the CPR experiences of nurses, it is necessary to establish educational programs and debriefings that reflect situations for effective coping with sufficient consideration of the medical environment of individual hospitals. Future research should consider comparative analyses of nurses' CPR experiences based on cultural factors and their respective working departments to identify areas for improvement.
Purpose This study aims to provide essential data for measures to enhance the professionalism of nursing experts and improve understanding of the explanationnurse's identity by examining their working experience in depth. Methods Data were collected from August 12 through October 07, 2021. Participants were 13 explanation nurses with more than five years of nursing experience. Verbatim transcripts were analyzed using Colaizzi's phenomenological analysis. Results Three theme clusters emerged from the data analysis: “Confusion from work that does not affect the identity of an explanation nurse”, “Entirely fulfilling role as a nursing professional”, and “Crave for the organization's support system for independent job performance”. Conclusion Earlier in the department change, nurses had difficulty establishing their identity regarding the explanation duties they must perform. Still, they wanted to continue their explanation work after struggling to pioneer and carry out their duties with expertise . Therefore, hospitals must support explanation nurses with a structural system as they begin their role to adapt to their work and strengthen their professionalism so that these nurses may provide a higher level of explanation nursing and patient-centered care.
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Purpose The purpose of this study was to explore the meaning of nurses’ experiences of working at Drive-Thru COVID-19 Screening Clinic.
Methods: Participants in this study were 8 nurses who worked for more than two weeks at the Drive-Thru COVID-19 Screening Clinic Screening Clinic in P-city, Gyeongbuk, which was declared a Corona19 disaster area. Data collection was conducted through individual in-depth interviews from June to August 2020. For data analysis, Max van Manen's analytical phenomenology research method was applied.
Results: The essential theme of the Drive-Thru COVID-19 screening clinic nurse's experiences was ‘A sense of calling as a nurse’, ‘Physical and psychological stress’, ‘Daily life tailored to the work of the screening clinic’, ‘Time to live together in the fight against the virus’, ‘New perception and rewarding for nursing’.
Conclusion: The results of this study provide basic data for preparing a support system and understanding the work of nurses who are put on the front line in the event of a disaster by vividly describing the experiences of nurses working at the Drive-Thru screening clinic.
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Purpose This study was done to explore the meaning of the intensive care unit (ICU) nurse’s alarm reaction and identify essential structure of the reaction experience.
Methods: Data were collected through in-depth interviews with 10 intensive care unit nurses working in higher general hospital. Data collection and analysis were conducted simultaneously by applying Giorgi's phenomenological method.
Results: The ICU nurse’s alarm reaction was shown to be in a dynamic structure to recognize and respond to alarms. Medical device alarms were recognized through alarm sounds and the importance of alarms was determined through previous experience of alarms and whether alarms were true or false. The problem solving ability to manipulate the alarm devices increased with reaction to alarms, and the nurses showed flexibility to individualize alarm settings according to patients’ situations, or respond to alarms according to priority considering the degree of emergency of alarms. In addition, nurses resolved alarms while feeling a sense of mutual responsibility among colleagues in emergency situations.
Conclusion: The essential structure of ICU nurses’ alarm reaction revealed through this study was the recognition of and reaction to alarms, and the major characteristics explaining this structure were sensitivity, judgment, problem solving ability, flexibility, and mutual responsibility.
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PURPOSE This study was done to provide fundamental ontological understanding of caring and inquiring into the possibility of a caring practice in nursing based on existential phenomenology. METHODS According to Heidegger's existential phenomenology, caring has been interpreted as a fundamental ontological basis for caring practice in nursing. Further, based on Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology, the meaning of the lived experience of illness and the way of caring practice have been described from the aspect of the existential involvement in the embodied life world. RESULTS Heidegger's phenomenology provided ontological thinking about caring, which is understood in a basic way as the possibility of human existence and dwelling in oneself in the confrontation of the illness experience. Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology offered a meaning of human existence according to bodily intention and situated freedom in the life world. This perspective of embodiment enables nurses to understand bodily experiences of patients and recovery of their bodily capacity in responding to the situation in caring practice. CONCLUSION Existential phenomenology gives insight into fundamental reflection for caring attitude and practice in nursing. Existential phenomenological nursing research can provide descriptions and meaning of the lived experience of illness and a way of coping with the crisis of human existence in caring practice.
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