Ok-Im Park’s scientific contributions

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of job stress, self-efficacy and empowerment of 119 Emergency medical technicians in Jeollanam-do. Methods: This study used the data collected from 346 respondents working for first aid in a fire station. To answer research questions, this study employed frequency analysis, reliability test, F (t)-test, ANOVA, Scheffe' post-hoc test, and multiple-regression analysis. Results: In terms of demographic characteristics, marital status and age had significant impact on job stress, but sex and education did not. In terms of job characteristics, first placement, rank, and tenure made significant difference on job stress, whereas certificate, department, and area did not. These results address that general characteristics, self-efficacy and job stress are critical variables on empowerment. Conclusion: From the research findings, it is concluded that fire fighters' job stress can be reduced if professional development programs are given to them, which is likely to provide better public services such as first aids and welfare, as well as to increase job satisfaction.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the child care center director's transformational leadership on the organizational committment of the child care teachers. The research subjects were 292 child care teachers who worked in 43 facilities of the eastern part of Jeon Nam Province. The data analysis was performed by using SPSS Win 15.0 Program. The results of this study were as follows. First, the teachers rated the transformational leadership of the director as 2.39 points in a scale of 5 points which was recognized as a normal level. Among the transformational leadership categories, the category of vision setting was the highest and the category of setting an example was the lowest. Second, the level of organizational committment of the teachers is rated 3.70 points in a scale of 5 points. Among the organizational commitment categories, the category of normative committment was the highest and followed by the category of affective and continuance commitment. More transformational leadership was related to more organizational commitment from teachers.

This study examined the affect of work environment and work-related stress on the mental health of employees. It further sought to provide insights into how employees' work environment and mental health might be improved. Results showed that the relationship between parents of work environment is related to the obsession, depression, working burden is related to the obsession, depression, concern. The lower parts of the relationship with parents and working burden effects every factors. Furthermore, levels of financial compensation and working stability also seemed to have adverse affects on mental health. Secondly, excessive working hours and duty trouble have lots of mutual relationship with the mental health. The lower parts of working stress: excess working hours, duty trouble, and imprecise responsibilities affects the mental health. Especially, the excessive working hours affected all nine parts of mental health level which were examined.

The purpose of this study was to identify the level of care-givers' knowledge, their attitude towards the elderly and their stress levels within the job, and to apprehend the cause which has had an influence on job stress. The research subjects were 230 care-givers who work in a sanitarium for the elderly in the East of Jeollanamdo. The tool used to measure their knowledge of the elderly was FAQ1 and the semantic differential scale was used to determine the attitude. Job stress was measured by the tool which was used by sun-ju Park. The data analysis was carried out by SPSS Win 13.0. The results of this study are as follows; The care-givers' knowledge level point towards the elderly was relatively low at 44.6%. The average point of attitude toward the elderly was 3.91, which is relatively moderate. The percentages of job stress was generally low. The results showed us that there was no correlation with the knowledge level of the elderly, the attitude towards the elderly and job stress. Since the results indicated that care-givers' knowledge level for the elderly was low, we reached the conclusion that further education where care-givers can get general knowledge for the elderly and aging is necessary. Moreover, research for strengthening positive attitudes towards the elderly is also necessary.

Research method was a case study as narrative method through in-depth interviews around 21 sufferers of elder abuse in rural area and the researcher interviewed them directly. Conclusively, the majority of sufferers of elder abuse were physically very low in the ADL(activities of daily living) and had been bereaved with no spouse. The relations of abused parents and the adult children were much disagreed and divided as unrecovered. Their economic reliance and physical reliance were much overlapped and the majority of them were low educational background and low income level. In case of the abused old people, they had severe low self respect and melancholy, so they considered severely suicide so much as invaluable as their existing value. In spite of over 80.5 years old average, the abuse action had continued for 6 months to 50 years long and the intensity of the abuse was more strengthened. The majority of abused old people refused mostly the entrance of social welfare facilities for elders and also they desired to live in present living area and their own houses.