We found consistency in the effects of RN staffing on resident outcomes acceptable. By assessing nurse staffing levels and compositions of nursing staffs, this study contributes to more effective long-term care insurance by reflecting on appropriate policies, and ultimately contributes to the stable settlement of the long-term care insurance system for elders.

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The use of dolls as a therapeutic intervention for nursing home residents with dementia is relatively new. The current article describes a research study implemented with nursing home residents in Korea to examine the effects of doll therapy on their mood, behavior, and social interactions. A one-group, pretest-posttest design was used to measure the impact of doll therapy on 51 residents with dementia. Linear regression demonstrated statistically significant differences in aggression, obsessive behaviors, wandering, negative verbalization, negative mood, and negative physical appearance after introduction of the doll therapy intervention. Interactions with other individuals also increased over time. Findings support the benefits of doll therapy for nursing home residents with dementia; however, further research is needed to provide more empirical evidence and explore ethical considerations in the use of doll therapy in this vulnerable population.

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The purpose of this article is to review the advantages and disadvantages of using Minimum Data Set (MDS) data for nursing research, the psychometric characteristics of the MDS 2.0, and threats to the validity of its psychometric characteristics. The defined major advantages of the MDS are: (a) it provides continuous evaluation of residents' health and functional status, and (b) it enables facility evaluation at the nursing home level. The reviewed articles from the literature report that MDS 2.0 has moderate to moderate/high validity and reliability; however, the psychometric properties of MDS 2.0 are still controversial, mainly because the instrument has failed to identify depression in older nursing home residents.