20s nurse dies after 3 years of bullying; calls grow to legalize nurse-to-patient ratios
Translated from Korean, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.
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- A 20-something nurse died by suicide after enduring three years of workplace bullying, known as 'taem' in Korean, at a hospital in Gyeonggi Province.
- The incident has intensified calls for improved nursing working conditions, with a nurses' association demanding the legalization of a fixed nurse-to-patient ratio.
- While South Korea has a similar number of clinical nurses per capita as the OECD average, it has about three times the OECD average number of hospital beds, leading to severe understaffing.
A 20-something nurse died by suicide after enduring three years of workplace bullying at a hospital in Gyeonggi Province, a case that has amplified demands for better working conditions for nurses. The nurses' association 'Action Nurses' stated that nurses are collapsing due to overwork and chronic staff shortages, emphasizing the urgent need to legislate a fixed nurse-to-patient ratio.
Nurses in our medical field are collapsing due to overwork and chronic staff shortages. The legalization of the nurse-to-patient ratio is desperately needed.
'Taem,' a term for workplace bullying by senior nurses against new hires, was at the center of the tragedy. The nurse had reported the bullying to the labor ministry after resigning, but only one of the three perpetrators received a reprimand, leading to her death. This incident has prompted the Korean Nurses Association to call for the prevention of workplace bullying through adequate staffing, urging the passage of a revised nursing law to establish legal standards for the number of patients per nurse.
Adequate staffing is the most fundamental measure to prevent workplace bullying. We must establish legal standards for the number of patients per nurse through the revised nursing law currently being pursued.
The proposed revision, introduced by lawmaker Lee Su-jin in July last year, is currently pending in the National Assembly. It aims to set appropriate patient-to-nurse ratios by the Minister of Health and Welfare, considering factors like patient severity, hospital type, and nurse working conditions. Current laws only allow for policy establishment and support to reduce patient loads without specific numerical standards.
Our country has the highest number of hospital beds in the OECD, but the number of nursing staff to safely manage those beds in hospitals is severely insufficient.
'Action Nurses' highlighted that South Korea has a high number of hospital beds compared to the OECD average, yet lacks sufficient nursing staff to ensure patient safety. While the number of clinical nurses per 1,000 people is similar to the OECD average, the number of hospital beds per 1,000 people is about three times higher. This disparity creates an unsustainable workload, with some nurses in nursing hospitals reportedly caring for up to 70 patients, perpetuating a cycle of bullying and burnout.
The standard for the number of patients nurses can handle is not properly established according to patient severity or hospital size. In some nursing hospitals, one nurse cares for up to 70 patients, which is a dire situation. If these poor working conditions are not improved, the vicious cycle (of bullying) will repeat.
DistantNews Editorial
Originally published by Hankyoreh in Korean. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.
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