"Providing Direct Care Too" Nursing Assistant Promotion Sparks Outrage Among Nursing Students

Over 2,000 Negative Comments on Awareness Improvement Video
Ganmu협 "Baseless Claims Without Proper Understanding of Medical Law"

Some nurses and nursing students have left malicious comments on a promotional video for the nursing assistant profession, escalating the controversy. Amid this, the Korea Association of Nursing Assistants (hereinafter referred to as KANA) dismissed the controversy, stating that "there is no problem under the Medical Service Act."

The controversy began with an offline advertisement campaign launched by KANA on the 30th of last month under the theme "We are nursing assistants who are here for you and connect your health."

On the 30th of last month, the Korean Assistant Nurses Association aired image and video advertisements for a month on YouTube, subways, large supermarkets, and moving walkways to encourage assistant nurses to report their qualifications and participate in continuing education, as well as to improve public awareness.
[Photo by YouTube]

KANA has been broadcasting image and video advertisements for a month on platforms including YouTube, subways, large supermarkets, and moving walkways to encourage nursing assistants to report their qualifications and participate in continuing education, as well as to improve public awareness.

However, nurses and nursing students have collectively opposed the description of nursing assistants' roles in the video advertisement, which includes phrases like "assisting medical treatment under the supervision of a doctor," "providing direct nursing," and "assisting in the operating room." The opposition stems from the fact that nursing assistants assist medical treatment under the supervision of nurses, not doctors, and that under the Medical Service Act, medical personnel are nurses. They argue that the video misleadingly suggests that nursing assistants can perform all nursing activities.

As of the morning of this day, one week after the YouTube video was posted, it had received about 2,200 comments. Most comments are negative, such as "Stop impersonating medical personnel and nurses, nursing assistants," and "Patients are not guinea pigs."

'Guseul Unni,' a nurse-turned-YouTuber with over 240,000 subscribers, also criticized the video, saying, "I am very upset," and called it "a video that deceives both nursing assistants who work quietly and nurses."

KANA states "Produced based on authoritative interpretation," dismisses controversy

On June 16, at the National Assembly, participants held signs urging the promotion of specialized college training for nursing assistants during the 50th anniversary policy forum of the Korea Nursing Assistant Association.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

As the controversy grew, KANA issued a press release on the 7th, stating, "According to the Medical Service Act, 'nursing assistants may perform nursing and medical assistance for patient care under the supervision of doctors, dentists, or oriental medical doctors only in clinic-level medical institutions,'" and explained that the description of working under doctors' supervision is appropriate.

Furthermore, KANA cited an authoritative interpretation by the Ministry of Health and Welfare in 2017, which stated that in medical institutions at the hospital level or higher, nurses and nursing assistants can coexist within the same institution where supervision is possible, even if they are not physically side by side, and roles can be divided accordingly. KANA emphasized that this means a nurse does not have to be physically next to a nursing assistant, nor is the assistant merely performing simple side-by-side support.

Moreover, KANA countered that "some netizens presumed to be nurses and nursing students are disparaging and looking down on nursing assistants with notions such as 'nurse superiority' and 'caste-like status' without knowing the proper facts."

Finally, KANA pointed out, "There is a lack of the understanding that nursing assistants are colleagues working together in the medical field who handle patients' lives and health. Instead, there is a mistaken belief that only nurses can perform nursing activities and that nursing assistants cannot. We hope people realize that the medical field system cannot function with nurses alone."

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