This study aimed to examine the current status and key challenges of pediatric nursing clinical education in South Korea and to provide strategic directions for quality improvement based on competency-based learning outcomes. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 89 pediatric nursing faculty members working at various universities nationwide between February and July 2024. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, and qualitative responses were analyzed using inductive content analysis. Practicum objectives primarily focused on inpatient care (98.9%) and core nursing skills (83.1%), while communication and problem-solving (22.4%) and ethics (21.3%) were underrepresented. Although high-fidelity simulation use reached 33.7%, interactive tools such as virtual reality (17.9%) and nursing process evaluations (7.8%) remained underutilized. Six themes emerged from the analysis of faculty perspectives on enhancing clinical practicum education: structural barriers in securing sites, inconsistent learning environments, overcrowding, limitations of observation-only learning, regulatory constraints, and excessive faculty burden. This study proposes establishing standardized clinical protocols, expanding hybrid simulation-based models to compensate for shrinking clinical sites, and institutionalizing industry-academic cooperative frameworks to ensure the quality and equity of pediatric nursing education. These approaches are essential to enhancing the quality and equity of pediatric clinical nursing education in Korea.

Digital health literacy is essential for health management among children and adolescents, with multicultural youth being particularly vulnerable to challenges in accessing, appraising, and using digital health information. This study aimed to develop a digital health literacy improvement program (DHL-Up) tailored to multicultural children and adolescents and evaluate its effectiveness. Guided by the Transactional Model of eHealth Literacy and the ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation) model, a five-session program was developed to strengthen functional, communicative, critical, and translational digital health literacy. A non-equivalent control group pretest-posttest design was used. The participants included 31 multicultural children and adolescents aged 10-15 years (experimental group: 14; control group: 17). The experimental group participated in a 5-week online program (60 minutes per session) delivered to small groups via Zoom. Data were collected before and after the intervention and analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent t-tests, Mann-Whitney U tests, chi-square tests, and Fisher's exact tests. The experimental group showed significantly greater improvements in digital health literacy (t=2.73, p=.011) and the usefulness of Internet health information (t=3.11, p=.004) than the control group. No significant difference was found for information overload (t=-0.17, p=.854). This study developed and validated a tailored digital health literacy intervention for multicultural children and adolescents, demonstrating its applicability in schools, public health centers, and community settings. These findings provide foundational evidence to support the institutionalization of digital health literacy education and highlight its potential to mitigate digital health information disparities among vulnerable populations.

Adolescents with same-sex or both-sex sexual experience face disproportionate health risks, yet research has predominantly examined single health problems rather than their multidimensional patterns. This study employed latent class analysis (LCA) to identify distinct health typological classes among Korean adolescents and characterize the distribution of sexual behavior patterns across these classes. We analyzed 278,066 middle- and high-school students in the 2013-2016 Korea Youth Risk Behavior Survey. The LCA used 17 indicators encompassing sexual behavior patterns, health behaviors, health perceptions, and mental health. Complex-sample weighted analyses examined associations between latent classes and sociodemographic characteristics, sexual behaviors, and diseases. Four distinct classes were identified: mental health high-risk group (10.1%), substance use high-risk group (6.5%), average group (36.3%), and healthy group (47.1%). Adolescents with same-sex or both-sex sexual experience were disproportionately concentrated in the two high-risk classes, comprising 3.3% of the mental health high-risk group and 4.1% of the substance use high-risk group, compared with only 0.3% and 0.5% of the average group and the healthy group. The mental health high-risk group exhibited extremely elevated prevalence rates of suicidal ideation (96.2%), depressive symptoms (88.5%), and suicide attempts (27.5%), while the substance use high-risk group showed high rates of smoking (82.4%) and alcohol use (84.6%) but better mental health. Adolescents with same-sex or both-sex sexual experience demonstrate health inequality through disproportionate classification in the mental health high-risk group and the substance use high-risk group. The findings underscore the need for integrated interventions combining mental health support and substance use prevention.

This study compared healthy lifestyle (HLS) practices and awareness regarding the use of chatbots (A-uC) for health management between childhood and adolescent cancer survivors (CACSs) and their parents, with the aim of assessing the feasibility of tailored artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot-based interventions for holistic survivorship care. A descriptive comparative design was employed involving 80 CACSs and 80 parents (N=160) recruited through the Korean Pediatric Cancer Foundation. HLS practices were assessed using a validated seven-domain instrument encompassing physical activity, nutrition, interpersonal relations, stress management, positive life perspective, health responsibility, and spiritual health. A-uC was evaluated using an extended technology acceptance model-based tool. Responses to the open-ended question addressing unmet HLS practices were analyzed using latent Dirichlet allocation topic modeling. No significant differences were observed between CACSs and parents in overall HLS (CACSs: 3.16±0.80; parents: 3.18±0.36, p=.74). While perceptions across most A-uC domains did not differ significantly, parents demonstrated a significantly higher "intention to use" chatbots for health management than CACSs (p=.03). The mean A-uC scores exceeded 4 (out of 5) in both groups, reflecting positive perceptions of chatbot-based HLS support. Topic modeling identified "exercise," "healthy diet," and "regular lifestyle" as common unmet areas. CACSs and their parents share largely concordant views on HLS and A-uC, with a strong interest in chatbot interventions. These findings underscore the potential of tailored AI chatbot programs to address unmet lifestyle needs and promote holistic survivorship care.

This study aimed to identify differences in perceived task performance, task importance, and educational needs for novice-level tasks among neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) nurses with varying levels of clinical experience and to provide foundational data for developing systematic educational programs to strengthen the competencies of novice nurses. Participants were recruited from the NICUs of three hospitals-one university-affiliated hospital and two general hospitals located in B Metropolitan City, South Korea. Using convenience sampling, 116 staff nurses with at least 3 months of NICU experience were surveyed between March and November 2025. For comparative analysis, participants were divided into three career groups based on their NICU experience: <3 years, 3-9 years, and ≥9 years. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, analysis of variance, and the Scheffé test with IBM SPSS ver. 25.0, and importance-performance analysis (IPA) was conducted to prioritize educational needs. Across all career groups, the "direct nursing performance" domain showed the highest task performance. Novice nurses with <3 years of experience reported significantly higher performance in central line care and transfusion management than those with ≥9 years of experience. The IPA identified central line management, and transfusion management as priority areas for improvement, while vital sign monitoring, respiratory surveillance and discharge education for parents were common educational needs regardless of experience level. Educational programs for novice NICU nurses should focus on strengthening patient safety-related competencies and should be progressively structured with simulation and case-based learning to enhance clinical performance.

This pilot study aimed to develop and conduct an initial evaluation of a self-care improvement program for older school-aged children with atopic dermatitis (AD). A quasi-experimental, non-equivalent control group pretest-posttest design was used with 20 children in grades 4-6 diagnosed with AD. The experimental group (n=12) received a 5-week Information-Motivation-Behavioral Skills (IMB)-based program, which included five 40-minute sessions for children and one 50-minute session for mothers. The control group (n=8) received usual care. Data was collected at baseline, immediately after the intervention, and 4 weeks post-intervention. Outcome variables included AD knowledge, motivation for AD self-care, self-efficacy for managing AD, self-care behaviors, and AD severity. Generalized estimating equations were used for analysis. Time-by-group interaction effects were observed for AD knowledge (p<.001), personal motivation (p=.011), self-efficacy (p=.034), self-care behaviors (p=.027), and AD severity (p=.039). Improvements in knowledge, motivation, and self-efficacy persisted through follow-up, while changes in self-care behaviors and AD severity were significant only at posttest. This study provides preliminary evidence that an IMB-based self-care program can improve knowledge, motivation, and self-efficacy in children with AD, leading to better self-care behaviors and reduced symptom severity. These findings support the feasibility and potential usefulness of a structured, theory-based intervention. Further fully powered trials are needed to confirm effectiveness and identify strategies for maintaining long-term outcomes.

The majority of adolescents use smartphones, and their overdependence on smartphones has emerged as a serious social issue. Although studies have explored the effect of smartphone overdependence on adolescent problem behaviors, research on its influence on sexual behavior is scarce. This study aimed to examine the association between smartphone overdependence and sexual behavior among adolescents. This study used data from the 19th Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-Based Survey conducted in 2023. Smartphone overdependence was the independent variable, and sexual behaviors (sexual intercourse and contraceptive use) were the dependent variables. Multivariate regression analysis was performed to control for confounding variables. The study participants included 52,880 adolescents aged 13-18 years. Among them, 28.0% (n=14,672) were classified as smartphone overdependent, 6.5% (n=3,349) had sexual experience, and 65% (n=2,182) of those with sexual experience reported using contraception. Smartphone overdependence was not significantly associated with sexual experience but was significantly associated with contraceptive use. Adolescents in the non-overdependent group were 1.27 times more likely to use contraception than those in the smartphone overdependent group (95% confidence interval, 1.07-1.52; p<.007). The findings highlight a significant association between smartphone overdependence and contraceptive use among adolescents. Policy interventions and educational strategies that consider adolescents' smartphone usage patterns and trait factors are necessary.

This study explored the threat and efficacy factors influencing children's eye health behaviors using an Extended Parallel Process Model for parents of preschool children. Data were collected from October 30 to November 6, 2023, using a web-based survey. In total, 166 parents of preschool children participated in this cross-sectional study. Data were analyzed using Pearson's correlation coefficients and multiple regression analyses. Parents' eye health knowledge, eye health threat factors (perceived severity and susceptibility), and eye health efficacy factors (self-efficacy and response efficacy) related to preschoolers were measured. Eye health behavior was assessed by observing the children's behavior over the past week. The eye health behaviors of preschool children were positively correlated with their parents' eye health knowledge (r=.21, p=.006), perceived severity (r=.22, p=.004), response efficacy (r=.36, p<.001), and self-efficacy (r=.64, p<.001). Children's eye health behavior showed a negative correlation with perceived susceptibility (r=-.27, p<.001). As seen on multiple regression analysis, the factor influencing children's eye health behavior was self-efficacy (β=.57, p<.001), and the model's explanatory power was approximately 43% (F=24.09, p<.001). To promote eye health behavior in preschool children, it is necessary to strengthen the self-efficacy of parents. The results of this study can be used to develop eye health programs for preschool children and their parents.

This study aimed to develop a multicultural education program for Mother and Baby Unit (MBU) nurses by using concept mapping, and to evaluate its effectiveness in enhancing the nurses' cultural competence and multicultural acceptance. This study utilized the ADDIE model (which comprises the Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation stages) to design and implement a concept mapping-based multicultural education program for MBU nurses in a quasi-experimental pre- and post-test design. This program was structured into five sessions, each incorporating the use of concept maps to facilitate self-reflection and critical thinking. All sessions were conducted using the online Zoom platform, allowing participants to engage without restrictions on time or location. A total of 53 nurses participated, with 26 assigned to the experimental group and 27 to the control group. The program's effectiveness was assessed through changes in cultural competence and multicultural acceptance, measured using validated scales. The results demonstrated significant improvements in both cultural competence and multicultural acceptance in the experimental group compared to the control group, supporting the hypotheses that such educational interventions can enhance nurses' ability to provide culturally appropriate care. Concept mapping fosters self-reflection and critical thinking, effectively increasing MBU nurses' cultural competence and multicultural acceptance. This study offers a practical framework for integrating multicultural education into nursing training, ultimately improving care for foreign mothers and reducing the challenges faced by MBU nurses.

PurposeThis study aims to explore the factors influencing nursing professionalism among nursing students, focusing on the image of nurses, satisfaction with their major, and career metacognition.MethodsWe conducted a descriptive survey with 185 nursing students from D city and K region on June 10–30, 2024. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS ver. 27.0 (IBM Corp.), employing descriptive statistics, t tests, one-way ANOVA, Scheffé tests, Pearson’s correlation coefficients, and regression analysis. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to identify factors affecting nursing professionalism among nursing students.ResultsThe regression analysis revealed that the image of nurses (β=.69, p<.001) and monitoring aspect of career metacognition (β=.13, p=.025) were significant predictors of nursing professionalism, accounting for 64.5% of the variance.ConclusionThe findings indicate that the image of nurses and monitoring component of career metacognition are critical in shaping nursing professionalism among nursing students. Therefore, nursing education programs should aim to improve the image of nurses and promote self-reflective career practices as strategies to foster professionalism among nursing students.