Nurses are vulnerable to mental health challenges, including burnout, as they are exposed to adverse job conditions such as high workload. The mental health of this population can relate not only to individual well-being but also to patient safety outcomes. Therefore, there is a need for a mental health improvement strategy that targets this population. This cross-sectional survey study investigates emotional labor, burnout, turnover intention, and medical error levels among 117 nursing staff members in a South Korean university hospital; it also analyzes correlations among outcomes and conduct correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis to determine relationships among these factors. The participants had moderate to high levels of emotional labor and burnout, and 23% had experienced medical errors within the last six months. Save for medical errors, all outcomes significantly and positively correlated with each other. These results can be used to improve the mental health outcomes of nurses working in the hospital and their consequences. Specifically, the job positions of nursing personnel may be a major consideration in such a strategy, and job-focused emotional labor and employee-focused emotional labor may be promising targets in ameliorating turnover intention and client-related burnout, respectively.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) sequelae (or long COVID) has become a clinically significant concern. Several studies have reported the relationship between heart rate variability (HRV) parameters and COVID-19. This review investigates the long-term association between COVID-19 and HRV parameters. Four electronic databases were searched up to 29 July 2022. We included observational studies comparing HRV parameters (measurement durations: 1 min or more) in participants with and without a history of COVID-19. We used assessment tools developed by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute group to evaluate the methodological quality of included studies. Eleven cross-sectional studies compared HRV parameters in individuals who recovered from acute COVID-19 infection to controls (n = 2197). Most studies reported standard deviation of normal-to-normal intervals (SDNN) and root mean square of the successive differences. The methodological quality of the included studies was not optimal. The included studies generally found decreased SDNN and parasympathetic activity in post-COVID-19 individuals. Compared to controls, decreases in SDNN were observed in individuals who recovered from COVID-19 or had long COVID. Most of the included studies emphasized parasympathetic inhibition in post-COVID-19 conditions. Due to the methodological limitations of measuring HRV parameters, the findings should be further validated by robust prospective longitudinal studies.

This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to investigate the status of emotional labor and its related factors among nurses in general hospital settings in Korea. A total of seven electronic databases were comprehensively searched to find relevant cross-sectional studies published up to 28 January 2021. The meta-analysis was performed using Stata version 13.1. In total, 131 studies were included. The population showed a standardized mean difference of 3.38 (95% confidence interval, 3.34 to 3.42) in emotional labor assessed by a 1–5 Likert scale. The level of emotional labor had significant negative correlations with job satisfaction, social support, organizational engagement, coworker support, resilience, and nurses’ work environment, while it had significant positive correlations with emotional labor and burnout, turnover intention, and job stress. Although the methodological quality of the included studies was generally good, 24 of the included studies (18.32%) were evaluated as lacking generalization potential or otherwise as unclear. In conclusion, nurses in general hospital settings in Korea experience mild-to-moderate levels of emotional labor. There is some evidence that the emotional labor of nurses and its detrimental effects can be buffered at both the individual and hospital levels, and future research should focus on developing targeted interventions and evaluating their effectiveness.

Background: Anxiety is a very common psychiatric symptom and can also occur in many physical conditions. Due to the limitations of conventional pharmacotherapy, the discovery of nonpharmacologic treatments that alleviate anxiety effectively is clinically important. Yintang (EX-HN 3), an acupoint located between the eyebrows, is known to have a mentally stabilizing effect in Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Objectives. We aimed to summarize and critically evaluate the available evidence regarding the efficacy and safety of acupuncture for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Methods. We searched 13 databases for studies published up to December 2016. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) evaluating the efficacy of acupuncture for children with ASD were included. Outcome measures were the overall scores on scales evaluating the core symptoms of ASD and the scores for each symptom, such as social communication ability and skills, stereotypies, language ability, and cognitive function. Effect sizes were presented as mean differences (MD). Results. Twenty‐seven RCTs with 1736 participants were included. Acupuncture complementary to behavioral and educational intervention significantly decreased the overall scores on the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) (MD −8.10, 95% CI −12.80 to −3.40) and the Autism Behavior Checklist (MD −8.92, 95% CI −11.29 to −6.54); however, it was unclear which of the ASD symptoms improved. Acupuncture as a monotherapy also reduced the overall CARS score. The reported adverse events were acceptable. Conclusions. This review suggests that acupuncture may be effective and safe for pediatric ASD. However, it is not conclusive due to the heterogeneity of the acupuncture treatment methods used in the studies.