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| A civic coalition's members call for an improvement in the work environment for nurses during a rally in front of the Korea Workers' Compensation & Welfare Service, central Seoul, Wednesday. / Yonhap |
By Kim Rahn
A state organization has recognized the death of a nurse, who took her own life due to a heavy workload and bullying at work, as a work-related accident.
The Korea Workers' Compensation & Welfare Service said Thursday that it decided to provide compensation to the bereaved family of Park Seon-wook, who was a nurse at the Seoul Asan Medical Center, by accepting the family's claim that her death resulted from work pressure.
This is the first time that a work-related death has been recognized in the nursing community, where there is a culture termed "taeum" (burn-to-ashes in English), meaning senior nurses harass juniors with hierarchical leverage and control over them.
"Park, a newcomer who had been trying to do better at work, had great pressure while working at the intensive care unit," the state agency's review committee said. "She carried out a heavy workload without any proper training or support. She committed suicide following accumulated fatigue and depression.
"In this case, we recognized occupational factors for the suicide that resulted from systematic problems in the nursing industry, such as heavy workloads and a lack of proper training. This will become a precedent in making decisions in similar cases."
In February last year, Park killed herself, leaving a memo on her cellphone that read: "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."
Her death revealed rampant hazing in the nursing community, which includes assigning a harsh work schedule, spreading malicious rumors and holding back important work-related information.
Going through similar hardship, Park's colleagues and nurses groups have staged rallies to call for changes in the culture. They claimed the problem cannot be solved without addressing the shortage of nurses and changing the preceptor system. Preceptor nurses, already under a heavy workload, are further burdened and stressed from teaching young nurses, and this leads to a stressful work environment and hazing, according to the group.
