International Journal of Human & Disaster

In today's modern society, risk applies to all people regardless of their social positions. Faced by a risk, the general public is exposed to various pieces of information about the risk intentionally or unintentionally and deals with it in various ways according to the risk information including eliminating and avoiding it. In a disaster situ-ation, it is the best option to deliver the risk information to the general public in a fast and accurate manner, thus minimizing additional risky situations and preventing social confusion. This study thus set out to search for risk communication plans for the government agencies to deliver the right risk information to the general public in an effective manner in a disaster situation by examining theories about risk communication and information. First, it is critical to provide the accurate information as fast as possible in a disaster situation. When inaccurate information is provided fast, it can have adverse effects on the risk man-agement of general public, which means that a focus should be placed on accuracy rather than speed. In a dis-aster situation, people first get disaster information through various sources and develop a prejudice against risk based on the primary risk information that they are exposed to. Their prejudices are under the easy influence of past experiences, reference groups, and pioneers and their opinions regardless of risk. Second, it is necessary to manage information thoroughly when a warning message is delivered to the public in a disaster situation. Thor-ough management is required for warning messages spread via the press, Internet, and SNS. It also found that they would accept the information of warning messages regardless of their reliability, thus implying that rumor-like information with uncertain sources and grounds could result in huge social ramifications. Third, it is im-portant to inform the general public of methods to cope with and manage a risk in a disaster situation through prognostic framing in case of risk communication so that their perception(anxiety) of objective and subjective risk can be put to rest. when risk communication continued to provide information through diagnostic framing, individuals would have excessive risk and anxiety awareness and thus cause a social amplification. It is important to inform the general public of methods to cope with and manage a risk in a disaster situation through prognostic framing so that their perception(anxiety) of objective and subjective risk can be put to rest. Finally, risk infor-mation should be delivered in a concise manner with a focus on the core content. When exposed to excessive information, common people get to experience fatigue about information and therefore undergo a judgment heuristic process to avoid useful information consciously. It is thus critical to deliver useful information to the general public in a concise manner. When the general public deals with a risk in a proper fashion through effective risk communication, it can generate various positive effects including the reduced social confusion, cost savings, and image improvement as well as safe personal life.

This study arises from the awareness that it requires a study about the method of preparedness from arson in our society and the study will present the literature based approach provided with evidences and theses in both domestic and foreign cases. Arson threatens people's life. Especially, it is noticeable that arson towards a large number of unspecified individuals can threaten public security because of its unpredictability. The preparedness from arson should set in with the prediction of the possible location that a criminal targets and the movement of minimizing the damage in case of arson. It requires government's role in supervising the arson criminals. It is important to acknowledge the risk of arson. For the preparedness from arson should make individuals equipped with ability to understand and cope with the risk of arson. We prepare ordinarily the structure of impact mitiga-tion, emergency care, rescue and relief, the cultivation of ability to control the unexpected situation is more needed, change in social understanding of arson fire and the establishment of accurate statistic system. Corpo-ration among agencies and establishment of the institution with overall charge in preparedness of arson fire. And we need education. The society, first, should take an effort to embrace the discriminated and weak members in response to the complexity and the diversity in the social trend. However, it is difficult to predict who the criminal is in case of arson that targets a large number of unspecified individuals. Therefore, the preparedness from arson should set in with the prediction of the possible location that a criminal targets and the movement of minimizing the damage in case of arson. It is difficult to predict who sets fire, however, there is high possibility that one can set fire again once he or she did. Therefore, it requires government's role in supervising the arson criminals. Moreover, it should bring up human resource to prevent arson by building a cooperative network among organizations and establishing the dedicated institution for the arson case. This will be applied to the arson control in the future and will establish a shared social thinking about the risk of arson through the statistics about the accurate result of close examination.

The purpose of this study is to provide useful information for developing the policy for securing nursing work force in a desirable direction based on the understanding of the present situation and structure related to secur-ing the nursing work force in Korean hospitals. In order to efficiently plan nursing work force and draft policy, data analysis and decision making based on objective data and systematic information collection are required. First, the structure of policies to secure nursing work force should be clarified and evaluated. The level of nurse workforce should be considered on the extension line of the supply and demand status of other medical personnel such as doctors. Therefore, the core data on the demand and supply status of the whole healthcare workforce at the regional and national level, data of the nurses' market economic situation, data demonstrating the effectiveness of nurses should be regularly updated and managed to be used as a rational decision-making material. Second, the policy of simply increasing the numbers of nursing college admissions and establishing nursing jobs is not a fundamental solution. Improvement efforts are needed, such as setting minimum standards for arranging nurses, legalizing nursing staff placement standards and linking with health insurance fee, improving quality of education such as curriculum, creating environment and culture that nurses do not leave jobs, support-ing for working place-home compatibility, increasing assignment life of nursing work force such as improving working condition of nursing work force and securing a stable supply condition by securing career nurses. Third, it is necessary to revise and supplement the differential of nursing care fees. The rating scale for nurse grades which affects shortage of nurses, should be changed from the number of beds per one nurse to the number of patients. The continuing claim of nurses and hospitals regarding the nursing management fee differential is that the added level of nursing care fees is low. It is also necessary to consider resetting the level of nursing care fees by reevaluating the admission fee including the nursing care fee. Fourth, we should shift attention from the aspect of expanding supply of nurses to the aspect of retention. With the expansion of supply of new nurses, consistent supply rationalization policy was not effective and pro-duced idle nurses. We should seek ways for nursing staffs to work for a long time without leaving the medical institution. In order to achieve the results, we should collect various cases in working hours and working forms of nurses in various working forms, such as short-time work system, flex time system, staggered office hours, telecommuting, intensive working time system, shift system of various patterns, and implement policies accord-ing to the hospital situation. Fifth, it is required to seek ways to prevent nursing staffs from concentrating on Seoul and the metropolitan area. We should consider introducing monetary incentives to encourage employment in affiliated local hospital.

When a fire breaks out in traditional markets, it is difficult for firefighters to put out early and thus causes bigger damage. This study set out to examine the fire vulnerability of traditional markets and the reasons for difficult fire suppression there and propose improvement measures to prevent a fire in traditional markets at a preliminary level. First, traditional markets are vulnerable to fires for the following reasons: property damage is a big characteristic in traditional market fires due to the goods stored in each store. There are many cases of using an electric heating appliance among the stores in traditional markets, which heightens the probability that a fire will spread and become a bigger one. In addition, traditional markets have existed for more than 20 years literally, being subjected to the greater risk of damage due to the deteriorated buildings and high density of stores and to the higher possibility of spreading fires due to the fire vulnerability of goods. Second, it is difficult to take firefighting measures in case of fire in traditional markets despite their fire vulnerability for the following reasons: it is an often case that fire trucks have a difficult time getting to the fire due to chaotic street vendors around the market, narrow paths, and vehicles that are illegally parked or stopped near the access road, fail to suppress the fire early, and witness the fire spread into a great one when a fire breaks out in a traditional market. There are many overhead arcades installed to block rain and sunlight in traditional mar-kets, where the roads and paths are narrow and complex. Helicopters thus face limits with fire suppression by sprinkling water. Finally, most of merchants in traditional markets are in their fifties or sixties and have a difficult time using a firefighting facility themselves. Third, the concerned authorities need to do active inspection activities beforehand in fire hazard districts in order to manage traditional markets. The local governments often fail to designate and manage fire hazard districts and engage in fire prevention activities or special activities, thus exposing their vulnerability to fires. Furthermore, the education and training sessions are formally provided to the merchants in many cases, and many of them are old and have limits with using a firefighting equipment themselves in traditional markets. Fourth, store owners also experience difficulties with recovering damage through insurance after a fire breaks out in traditional markets: first, most of store owners are small business owners in traditional markets and have a difficult time with receiving fire insurance benefits in case of a fire, which is partly because the insurance companies tend to avoid the undertaking of fire insurance for traditional markets with a high risk and partly because the small businessmen have a burden with purchasing insurance themselves. As a result, the fire insurance coverage is small in traditional markets, and the merchants face difficulties with minimizing their property damage in the recovery process after a fire break out. Based on those findings, the study proposed a couple of measures to prepare for the fire vulnerability of traditional markets: first, fire prevention education should be provided to the merchants to alert them to a fire and help them develop response capabilities. Secondly, the local governments and firefighting authorities should reinforce the designation and management of fire hazard districts, provide training in which the merchants participate themselves in winter when the frequency of fire is high, and strengthen the special management for fire-fighting purposes.