Kim Hyun-bin began his journalism career at Arirang TV from 2012 to 2017, specializing in defense, foreign affairs and the economy. In 2018, he joined The Korea Times, covering society and business, and is currently responsible for embassy affairs.
'Shortage of nurses creates bullying culture'
Over 40 percent of nurses in Korea suffer from workplace bullying, a recent study shows. GettyImagesBank
By Kim Hyun-bin
By Kim Hyun-bin
A year has passed since Park Seon-wook, a nurse from Seoul Asan Medical Center, committed suicide due to intense bullying at work.
“Too much pressure from work... the look on the preceptor's face… these depressed me and my anxiety has become worse. It is not easy to recover while sleeping only three to four hours a night and skipping meals,” Park wrote on her cellphone memo before taking her own life.
Park's death shed light on the rampant hazing in the nursing community. Such abhorrent behavior has become prevalent, creating a culture of so-called “taeum,” or burn-to-ashes in Korean, meaning senior nurses harass junior nurses and new staff with hierarchic leverage and control over them.
Taeum includes spreading malicious rumors, holding back key work-related information and assigning a harsh work schedule.
Even after Park's death, the taeum culture lives on and hospitals continue to turn a blind eye. On Jan. 5, another nurse at Seoul Medical Center, Seo Ji-yoon, committed suicide, leaving a note which read: “I don't want hospital employees to come to my funeral.”
Over the weekend, the nursing community and their supporters gathered in downtown Seoul to mourn the deaths of Park and Seo.
“The death conveyer belt is rolling in hospitals, cruelly. A person who cannot keep up with the speed of the belt either leaves the hospital or gets their whole body torn into pieces and burnt,” Eom Ji, a nurse and a member of the joint committee commemorating the late Park, said during the rally.
The nursing community says it will be impossible to eradicate workplace bullying as long as the current preceptor system continues. At most hospitals, nurses four to six years into their careers become preceptors (mentors or tutors) for junior nurses and are supposed to act as role models and mentors.
Some nurses even call their preceptors “mom,” which shows the significant leverage they have on their subordinates.
Most nurses point out that the first two months are crucial to obtain critical work-related knowhow and information from the preceptors, as no excuses or mistakes are allowed beyond that point.
“It is much different from what nurse hopefuls learn in university and the reality of the field, so a nurse preceptor system is implemented to help new recruits adapt,” said Baik Chan-ki, general manager of the Korean Nurses Association. “However, teaching the new staff on top of their already heavy workload adds burden and stress. So many become short-fused, unable to treat others in a polite manner and the stressful work environment tends to lead to hazing.”
A survey conducted last year by the association of 7,225 nurses showed preceptors were the leaders of hazing.
Over 30 percent of respondents said they had encountered bullying within the past year. Among them, 27.1 percent said it was from fellow nurses, 13.3 percent from the head nurse at their department, and 8.3 percent from doctors.
Experts point out the lack of nurses makes the work environment additionally harsh and stressful.
“The biggest problem is the lack of nurses. In Japan nurses are responsible for an average of seven patients, and U.S. nurses have 5.4 patients. However, in Korea a nurse has over 13 patients on average, double the figures of other advanced countries. To better reduce workplace hazing, hospitals need to employ more nurses and reduce their workload,” Baik said.
Well aware of the severity of the taeum issue, the Ministry of Health and Welfare announced a set of policies to improve working conditions for nurses.
The government plans to allocate 7.7 billion won ($6.6 million) to acquire 259 education specialized nurses, who will focus solely on training new nursing staff at national hospitals. The ministry has also established a taskforce in charge of managing nursing personnel and enhancing their working conditions.