Press Roundtable on International Nurses Day 2021
An insufficient number of clinicians drives nurses to
conduct some medical procedures and operations that must be done only by
clinicians – such illegal practices in hospitals were testified.
In the run up to the 50th
anniversary of International Nurses Day, the KHMU held a roundtable session in
the grand auditorium of Hi Seoul Youth Hostel on May 12. The talk includes
testimonies on illegal medical practices in hospitals experienced by PA nurses
in surgery related departments and ICUs.
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PA stands for Physician Assistant,
meaning assistants for medical doctors. PA is not an officially defined job as
per the Korean Medical Act but in reality, most of hospitals do have PA
positions. Nurses titled with PA have been working on physicians’ jobs such as
prescriptions, fill-out of medical records, operations, procedures, etc. In
fact, they have played a role of medical doctors especially since the Special
Act on Residents (80 working hours per week) took effect and the number of
students in medical schools was reduced and set at the level.
The KHMU President Na Soon-ja said,
“The government is already aware of such issues as illegal medical practices
but has had difficulties in solving the problems. The KHMU will go in a general
strike if need be in order to solve the illegal medical practice issues and
lack of workforces in hospitals this year.”
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According to a survey conducted by the
KHMU, around 1,680 nurses in 26 national and private university hospitals alone
work as physician assistants. In the meantime, out of 26 large scale hospitals,
15.4% have over 100 PA nurses. PA nurses have mostly been working on ▲prescriptions,
▲medical records, ▲medical treatments and procedures and ▲operations on behalf
of clinicians while on ▲pharmacy on behalf of pharmacists, which are all
violations against law.
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Many of non-PA nurses as well have
experiences of working on such illegal practices in ICUs. As per responses to
the survey, as for PA nurses, around 68% of entire working hours are spent on
working on physicians’ jobs while for non-PA nurses, 37%.
Ahead of the roundtable session,
videotaped testimonies of nurses were run. Nurse union members commonly said,
“Such illegal practices have been much parts of daily work, to an extent to
which hospitals cannot provide medical services to patients like today without
such substitute work done by nurses.”
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Two PA nurses and two ICU nurses joined
in the roundtable session wearing masks for self-protection.
According to what they said, some
problems occurred due to nurses operating medical devices. Nurse D said,
“forcing nurses to operate and run devices is like having kids drive without a
driver’s license. The government should set up a penalty system on illegal
practices that hospital managements should observe.”
Nurse A’s testimony was shocking. She
said she had experiences of performing a surgery before busy scheduled
operating surgeon comes in. “My work is almost no different from work done by
fellows who are qualified with a medical license. Our work goes even beyond
residents’, she added.
Nurse C who work as a PA pointed out,
“we are like invisible people. What we have done illegally is never recorded or
tracked on any systems, like computers, charts, etc. This is also a measure
taken by employers. They intentionally made it so to hide illegal practices
ordered by them.”
President Na noted, “To maintain doctors’
vested interest, nurses are forced to do illegal medial services. Patients are
deceived and the Ministry of health and welfare have kept silence. If this
continues, illegal practice issues will not be solved. The MOHW should come out
to talk with the KHMU on this issue.” She continued, “We have consciences as
healthcare workers. Let’s create safe medical sites for patients.” She also
proposed to hold open-discussion forum on this issue, jointly organized by each
association of doctors, hospitals and residents together with the KHMU.
In the meantime, those testimonies
gained attentions from media. They were broadcast at major media such as KBS,
SBS and JTBC while The Kyunghyang Shinmun carried a headline about them.
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