Not only the government but also other healthcare sector organizations, including young doctors, have expressed support for a bill aimed at eradicating workplace harassment in medical institutions, commonly known as “taeum” (a form of severe hazing and bullying among nurses).

The National Assembly’s Health and Welfare Committee has been reviewing an amendment to the “Nursing Act” since September, which was initiated and proposed last July by Rep. Lee Soo-jin of the Democratic Party of Korea, a former nurse.

The core of the amendment is to add the prevention of workplace harassment and support for victim recovery to the duties of the Nursing Workforce Support Center operated by the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

Furthermore, it adds the “response” status regarding human rights violations against nurses and other personnel as a subject of the 5-year regular fact-finding surveys conducted by the Minister of Health and Welfare.

Rep. Lee Soo-jin proposed the amendment following the government's order for strict punishment regarding an incident this year in which a nurse at a medical institution in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, died after complaining of being a victim of taeum.

The government stated that it has no disagreements with this amendment. The Ministry of Health and Welfare announced, “As there is a high demand in the field for improving the working environment of nursing personnel, we agree with the provision to specifically and explicitly regulate investigations into medical institutions' responses to workplace harassment.”

The nursing community also agreed with the amendment but urged the establishment of effective systems.

The Korean Nurses Association argued, “The amendment does not clearly define the scope and methods of support,” adding, “Specific details such as the scope and methods of support for victim recovery must be clearly determined in subordinate statutes.”

The Korean Nursing Assistants Association emphasized, “Currently, the Nursing Workforce Support Center is commissioned to the Korean Nurses Association and operated centering around nurses, so human rights protection measures for nursing personnel must be applied effectively to nursing assistants as well.”

“Systematically Preventing Human Rights Violations, Including the Hierarchical Organizational Culture of Hospitals”

The Korea Intern Resident Association (KIRA) also fully agreed with the legislative intent. KIRA stated, “We agree with the intent to systematically prevent and remedy human rights violations originating from the hierarchical organizational culture within hospitals and to continuously monitor improvement progress at the national level.”

At the same time, they emphasized guaranteeing effectiveness. KIRA stated, “A channel independently accessible from individual medical institutions' grievance handling desks must be established within the Nursing Workforce Support Center, alongside a system where support performance is linked to fact-finding surveys to be fed back into policies, as well as effective punitive measures.”

In addition, the Korean Physical Therapy Association and the Korean Health Information Management Association also voiced their approval.

Opinions emerged that the duplication of functions within the Nursing Workforce Support Center should be taken into consideration.

The Health and Welfare Committee’s Professional Member’s Office pointed out, “Even currently, the Nursing Workforce Support Center is carrying out tasks such as developing manuals for the prevention of and response to human rights violations within medical institutions, conducting visiting human rights education, and supporting psychological counseling for victimized personnel.”

Meanwhile, it is anticipated that there will be numerous inquiries regarding workplace bullying and taeum in medical institutions during the National Assembly Health and Welfare Committee's national audit, which is set to begin on October 7.

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