Trends of Occupational Health Nursing Research in Korea

Kim, Young Im; Lee, Bokim

Abstract

PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to identify the trends of occupational health nursing research by analyzing the Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing for the last 20 years.
METHODS
A total of 268 published papers during the 20 year period were analyzed with structured analysis forms.
RESULTS
Most of the articles were descriptive, but the number of experimental studies increased. Fifty-five percents of the subjects were healthy workers. Most common selection of subjects appeared to be based on convenience. Sixty-eight percent of research instruments were questionnaires and the reliability and the validity of instruments were described in approximately half of the studies. Parametric statistics were the main methods of data analysis, but some advanced statistics were often used rather than simple descriptive statistics. Mainly "health" has been studied (47.9%) among four meta-paradigms of nursing science.
CONCLUSION
It is necessary to develop more rigorous and various research methodology such as longitudinal design, experimental study, or randomized controlled trial. Also, special attention must be paid to studying the environment of workers.