In 2022, 80.6 percent of nurses left hospitals after working less than five years in their current workplaces. Those who left after less than a year accounted for 43.4 percent. Among those who quit, 10.8 percent gave up their job for good, and 57.4 percent of new nurses quit within a year of their workplace.

The Korea Nursing Association (KNA) released these figures on Tuesday after reanalyzing data from the Hospital Nurses Association's 2023 survey. The survey data analyzed by the association was based on 2022.

The resignation rate of hospital nurses after working less than a year was 43.4 percent. The comparable rate for nurses working between one and three years was 20.5 percent and that for nurses working between three and five years was 16.7 percent. The resignation rate for those working between five and 10 years was 8.1 percent.

Of the nurses who left the hospital, 20.8 percent said they did so because of "overwork and maladjustment to work,” followed by "moving to another hospital," at 14.4 percent.

Nurses who quit due to "illness" increased by 1.6 percentage points, from 9.6 percent in 2018 to 11.2 percent in 2022. Those who quit nursing and left the medical field increased by 1.4 percentage points, from 9.4 percent to 10.8 percent.

The overall resignation rate for hospital nurses also rose, from 14.5 percent in 2020 to 16.0 percent in 2022. Among new nurses, the resignation rate within one year jumped 14.7 percentage points, from 42.7 percent in 2018 to 57.4 percent in 2022. Some 40.2 percent of new nurses who quit cited "overwork and maladjustment" as the reason.

"Hard-working professional workers are leaving the healthcare field unable to stay for the long term. A fundamental solution is urgently needed," the association said. "Measures must be taken to protect nurses from harmful and dangerous factors to which they cannot help being exposed."

The association pointed out that excessive workloads, frequent shifts, and night work make it difficult to reconcile work and family and are contrary to the government's birthrate reduction measures. It also emphasized that special measures are needed for the female-dominated nursing profession.

KNA said the association hopes the mandatory deployment of education-specialized nurses at medical institutions with hospital levels or higher will take effect in May. According to the Healthcare Service Act, hospital-level medical institutions are obligated to deploy nurse educators to train new nurses and nursing students to perform their duties. Hospitals can receive a state subsidy for related expenses.

"The resignation rate of new nurses will likely considerably fall if hospitals deploy teaching nurses," the association said.