Relief in Securing Nursing Staff at Chungnam Provincial Medical Center... Positive Effects of Treatment Improvement

[Asia Economy (Hongseong) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The shortage of nursing staff at four local medical centers in Chungnam has eased.

According to Chungnam Province on the 10th, as of the end of last month, the nursing staff retention rate at local medical centers was 89.5%, with 765 out of 855 positions currently filled.

This is 8.5 percentage points higher than last year’s 81% retention rate, when 668 out of 825 positions were filled, indicating that the chronic issue of nursing staff shortages at local medical centers has somewhat improved.

As of the end of last month, the nursing staff retention rates by medical center were: Seosan at 92.5%, the highest, followed by Hongseong at 91.9%, Gongju at 88.1%, and Cheonan at 85%.

The province believes that the increase in nursing staff retention rates is largely due to the introduction of the public nurse system and improvements in working conditions last year.

This year, a budget of 2.78 billion KRW was invested in the four medical centers to implement projects such as ▲improving treatment for night-shift nurses ▲expanding integrated nursing and caregiving services ▲appointing dedicated preceptor nurses ▲supporting wages for nursing assistants ▲providing scholarships to recruit nurses, which positively impacted the retention and recruitment of nursing staff at local medical centers.

For example, last year, 105 nurses resigned from the four local medical centers, averaging 8.75 resignations per month. The main reason cited was a preference for transferring to hospitals in metropolitan areas due to the poor working conditions at local medical centers.

However, as the province began improving the treatment of nursing staff at these local medical centers, the number of resignations for job transfers decreased. Specifically, from January to August this year, 50 nurses resigned, averaging 6.25 per month, which is 2.5 fewer per month than last year, according to the province.

Additionally, the public nurse system introduced last year is expected to create conditions for professional nursing staff to be permanently stationed at local medical centers.

The public nurse system is designed to train local talent as public nurses at regional universities and have them serve for a certain period at local medical centers.

Universities recruit students through special admissions to train public nurses, and the province along with the Chungnam Talent Development Foundation supports tuition fees as living scholarships for public nurse training. Local medical centers then appoint public nurses to work for four years.

Through this, the province expects to resolve staffing shortages at local medical centers and improve the quality of public healthcare.

A provincial official stated, “The chronic shortage of nursing staff at local medical centers has mainly been caused by over 50% of nurses in their first or second year leaving for hospitals in metropolitan areas due to poor working conditions. Reflecting this situation, the province has developed and implemented measures to improve nursing staff treatment, which has somewhat eased the staffing shortage.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.