Clinical Nurses’ Experiences in Safety and Health

This study is conducted to assess clinical nurses’ experiences in safety and health in the profession. Clinical nurses who work at more than 300beds hospitals in Seoul were interviewed in depth from December 1st, 2010 to February 28th, 2011. There was a total of 8 subjects who took part in this study, and their experiences were analyzed via phenomenological methods suggested by Colaizzi (1978). There were a total of 43 significant statements that had been extracted from the protocols on the clinical nurses’ experiences in safety and health issues. There were a total of 36 formulated meanings from those significant statements, and they were organized under 21 theme clusters and 5 categories. The 5 categories derived from the experiences of the clinical nurses include ‘heavy and hard’, ‘fears of infection’, ‘exposure of harmful environment’, ‘guarantees on post-accident dealings’ and ‘sickness due to occupational cases’. Based on the clinical nurses’ experiences as demonstrated, it is necessary to develop a long-term and shortterm safety and health education programs