[News Terms] 'Jeong-ui' Who Resigned Collectively and Left the Hospital

General Physicians, Residents, Junior Fellows, Fellows, Specialists... Confusing Terms
As of 10 PM on the 21st, 9,275 Residents Resigned from 100 Training Hospitals

'Jeongong-ui (專攻醫)' refers to doctors who undergo a certain period of clinical training at a hospital to obtain specialist (專門醫) qualifications. More precisely, one can be called a Jeongong-ui only after passing the 'Jeongong-ui exam' taken before advancing from intern to resident at a training hospital. Doctors who have not completed the intern or resident course are usually called 'general practitioners.' Since general practitioners do not have specialist certificates, they work in fields that require relatively less expertise, such as dermatology and cosmetic treatments, health checkups (excluding ultrasound, endoscopy, and imaging), and on-duty work at nursing hospitals.

On the 20th, when residents at the Big 5 hospitals stopped working at 6 a.m., medical staff were moving at a large hospital in Seoul. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

After graduating from a domestic medical school (or medical graduate school) and passing the national medical licensing examination, one receives a medical license from the Minister of Health and Welfare. Upon obtaining the medical license, they typically apply for the intern course at university hospitals or medium to large general hospitals with 400 or more beds, which are designated as training institutions.

Each training hospital selects interns according to the number designated by the Korea Hospital Association, and the selected interns (general practitioners) are exclusively assigned to the training hospital to practice clinical skills in various departments. Even graduates from regional medical schools often do their internships at hospitals in the Seoul metropolitan area, not because of the popularity of metropolitan hospitals, but because the number of intern positions in the provinces is less than the number of graduates from regional medical schools.

After completing a one-year intern course and passing the Jeongong-ui exam, one enters the resident course. This stage is considered the 'Jeongong-ui' phase. Jeongong-ui choose one of the specialized fields such as family medicine, internal medicine, neurology, psychiatry, surgery, orthopedics, neurosurgery, thoracic surgery, plastic surgery, anesthesiology and pain medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, ophthalmology, otolaryngology, dermatology, or urology, and typically undergo a 3 to 4-year resident course.

Jeongong-ui is an important stage where doctors deepen their knowledge and experience in various fields, enhancing their expertise. Only after completing the resident course and passing the 'specialist exam' can one become a specialist.

When the media reported on the large-scale collective resignation and hospital withdrawal of Jeongong-ui in protest against the government's medical school expansion, terms such as 'Jeonim-ui (專任醫)' and 'lecturer' also appeared.

On the 21st, after the resignation letters were submitted by residents nationwide, including those at the Big 5 hospitals, visitors filled the corridors of a large hospital in Seoul. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

Jeonim-ui means doctors who specialize in clinical practice. 'Jeonim' is translated into English as 'full-time.' Jeonim-ui is a form of employment for specialists who work and learn under university hospital professors. They are commonly referred to as 'Fellows.' Sometimes, since they also give lectures at medical schools, they are called 'lecturers.'

Some work as fellows to become professors, while others work as fellows to learn surgeries or techniques before opening their own hospitals. Fellows and Jeonim-ui are doctors who have obtained specialist qualifications.

According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Ministry of Education on the 22nd, as of 10 p.m. on the 21st, an inspection of 100 major training hospitals revealed that 9,275 Jeongong-ui, accounting for 74.4% of the affiliated Jeongong-ui, submitted resignation letters in opposition to the government's medical school expansion. Additionally, as of 6 p.m. the previous day, 3,025 medical students applied for leave of absence, totaling 11,778 students from 34 medical schools over three days, following 1,133 on the 19th and 7,620 on the 20th.

The Korean Intern Resident Association (Daehan Jeongong-ui Hyup-uihoe, Daejeonhyeop), a Jeongong-ui organization, demanded at an emergency general assembly on the 20th that the government ▲ completely scrap the medical school expansion plan ▲ fully abolish the work commencement order ▲ improve the training environment for Jeongong-ui. Although they did not announce future collective action plans, since the demands are unlikely to be accepted by the government, the resignation and hospital withdrawal of Jeongong-ui are expected to continue.

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