Upon opening the National Assembly’s extraordinary session this month, a war of nerves intensifies between nurses and other medical professionals, including doctors, over whether the nation should have a separate law for nurses.
Recently, even international organizations representing the two conflicting sides – the World Medical Association (WMA) and the International Council of Nurses (ICN) -- have joined the “medical workers’ war” in Korea.
The Assembly’s Health and Welfare Committee, which deliberates the three related bills, has yet to fix its meeting schedules. However, officials from 10 health and medical organizations, including the Korea Medical Association (KMA) on the one side and the Korean Nurses Association (KNA) on the other, visit the parliament every day.
Details vary among the three bills.
However, most noticeable is the different targets of its application, and that tells much about the ongoing dispute.
The bill sponsored by Rep. Kim Min-seok of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) targets three different groups – nurses, assistant nurses, and care workers. The second one submitted by Rep. Choi Yeon-suk of the splinter opposition People’s Party (PP) covers one more vocational category – midwives. The third bill, written by Rep. Suh Jeong-suk of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP), deals only with nurses and nursing aides.
As the Assembly committee is about to begin considering the bills, almost not a day passes without KMA, KNA, and other related groups holding rallies or news conferences in front of the parliament building.
On Tuesday, a joint emergency response committee of 10 organizations led by the KMA and the Korean Association of Nursing Assistants (KANA) held a rally and called for the withdrawal of the bills.
The rally organizers showed the video message sent by WMA Chairperson Heidi Stensmyren. The WMA head opposed the proposed law, saying it would “damage and destroy the existing team-based healthcare system.”
At an executive board meeting in Paris on April 9, the WMA also adopted an official statement, stating, “We object immediately to the Korean legislative branch’s attempt to let nurses engage in medical practices independent from doctors.”
In response, the KNA drew support from its international version, ICN.
ICN’s CEP, Howard Catton, held a news conference at the National Assembly on Tuesday – an hour after the KMA’s rally ended -- and expressed his support for the legislative attempt, saying it is “necessary for both nurses and patients.”
Catton emphasized that enacting a nursing law does not mean nurses would infringe on doctors’ domain.
ICN Chairwoman Pamela Cipriano also stayed in Korea from April 5-7, expressing her position supporting the legislation on several occasions.
KNA also formed the “Pan-national Movement Headquarters for the Legislation of the Nursing Act.” The nurses’ group said 22 organizations from various walks of life, including health, medicine, labor, consumer, and religion, would take part in the movement.
“We will continue to call for the legislative and executive branches to enact our law with the participation of more groups representing various walks of life,” the KNA said. “In the launching ceremony of the movement headquarters on Wednesday, the participants agreed that the law has nothing to do with the interests of specific vocational groups and aims at only promoting public health and patients’ safety.”
Observers said all this could boil down to a “turf war, in which nurses want better treatment and job discretion while doctors and nursing assistants fear that would inevitably infringe on their respective domains.