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| Participants of the International Council of Nurses Conference, the world's largest gathering of nurses, mark the opening of the conference at Olympic Park in Songpa-gu, southern Seoul, Friday. President Park Geun-hye gave a congratulatory speech at the opening ceremony, describing nurses as "guardian angels" who are devoted to maintaining the good health of people around the world. / Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk |
By Jung Min-ho
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| Rep. Shin Kyung-rim |
"Our world today is more connected than ever before," she said. "Infectious diseases easily spread beyond borders. In this environment, nurses can exchange information and cooperate in other ways to fight these plagues."
Under the theme "Global Citizen, Global Nursing," the gathering of nurses began Friday and will continue until Tuesday at the COEX Convention and Exhibition Center in southern Seoul.
More than 7,000 nurses from 112 countries are participating in the conference, which is the nation's largest event for nurses since the ICN Congress was held here in 1989.
Shin, a former nurse who is now a ruling Saenuri Party lawmaker, said knowledge about the science of nursing should be shared more broadly so participants can improve together, which she says is the key objective of the event.
She also hopes that, through this opportunity, the ICN can "set up a global standard for nursing."
World Health Organization Director-General Margaret Chan and Regional Director for South East Asia Poonam Khetrapal Singh are among the speakers. They will tackle various global health issues and the roles of nurses in solving such issues.
The science of nursing was one of the first academic fields Korea adopted from the West. Margaret Jane Edmunds, a late American nurse, founded Korea's first nursing school, the Pogunyogwan Training School for Nurses, in 1903. The school later became the Division of Nursing Science at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.
"Those who received nursing education were also the nation's pioneers for women's rights at a time when most women were not allowed to do anything other than household chores," Shin said.
"In many aspects, nurses have played a pivotal role in building the country to what it is today. They actively engaged in an independence movement under Japanese colonial rule in the early 20th century and worked abroad when Korea was in need of foreign currency in the 1960s and 1970s. I think they should be proud of what they have contributed to the country."
A photo exhibition on the history of Korean nursing will be held at the conference, where visitors can also see how some of the latest technologies are used in nursing here. Some conference programs will allow visitors to tour some of the nation's finest medical facilities.
Shin said Korea's highly advanced technologies can take the nation's nursing system to the next level and help more countries in need.
"This is a great opportunity for us to review what Korean nurses have done over the past century before we set new visions for the next 100 years," she said. "I want to encourage not just Korean nurses, but also those from other countries to see how earlier generations here marked a new era when there were few resources and many challenges."
Since Korea joined the ICN in 1949, the country has extended its global reach by engaging in many nursing forums and symposiums in Asia.
"I hope this conference can help raise awareness of the important roles nurses play for the country, and the world, among people who know little about them, as well as among nurses themselves," Shin said.
