Eighty-three percent of Koreans agree on the need to fix the appropriate number of patients for a nurse by law to reduce their workload, a survey showed.
The Korean Health and Medical Workers’ Union released the results of its opinion poll on Wednesday, calling for the government to limit the number of patients a nurse should care for to five. Southern Post, a pollster, surveyed 1,000 adults from April 28 to May 4.
In the survey, 83.3 percent agreed that the government should work out a legal basis for an optimal number of patients per nurse.
Some 14.7 percent disagreed, with the other 2 percent remaining unsure.
More specifically, 68.5 percent of those surveyed replied that Korea needs to gradually lower the number of patients for a nurse to advanced countries’ level. Among the positive respondents, 20.3 percent said the nation should do so immediately. However, 9.1 percent said it is okay to maintain the current level.
Asked what is needed most to improve nurses’ working conditions, the largest share (30.6 percent) cited the legislation of patients’ number per nurse, followed by better treatment, including wages, with 28.0 percent, creating a workplace environment where work-life balance is ensured (23.5 percent), and improving the demanding night-duty system (15.2 percent), according to the survey.
Asked if it is necessary to amend the current law that restricts nurses’ role to “assisting treatment under the guidance of doctors” to a more horizontal and cooperative relationship, 67.6 percent of respondents said “yes,” and 26.3 percent said “no.”
Concerning the need to expand nurses’ role beyond medical institutions to include door-to-door care, 81.6 percent agreed, and 12.6 percent disagreed. On the query of including nurses in essential social personnel, like soldiers, police officers, and firefighters, 80.3 percent agreed on the need, and 17.6 percent disagreed.
Nearly nine in 10 respondents (88.3 percent) thought it a serious problem that nurses act on behalf of doctors due to the shortage of physicians, with only 9.7 percent replying it was not so serious a matter.
More than a majority (57.8 percent) said the wage gap between doctors and nurses should be narrowed. In contrast, 28.2 percent said the current wage levels are appropriate and should be maintained, with the remaining 8.8 percent saying it could be widened further.
“The Ministry of Health and Welfare announced a policy package on April 25, saying it would move toward restricting the number of patients per nurse to five,” the union said. “However, the criteria are ambiguous, and the timing of implementation is not transparent.”
Emphasizing that working out criteria for the nursing workforce is an essential task for patient safety and a systemic device to improve the treatment of nurses, the union said, “Moreover, nurses are pushed to conduct illegal medical practices by doing doctors’ jobs due to physicians’ shortage. Therefore, we will stage a general strike in July by putting forth the nurse-to-patient ratio of 1:5 as our core demand.”