More than seven in 10 nurses in Korea have considered changing jobs within the past three months, according to a new survey. The turnover consideration rate was particularly high among three-shift workers and nurses with three to five years of experience.
The Korean Health and Medical Workers' Union released the results of its "2026 Regular Survey of Healthcare Workers" on Monday to mark International Nurses Day. A total of 45,062 healthcare workers participated in the survey, including 29,275 nurses.
According to the survey, 72.1 percent of nurses said they had considered changing jobs within the past three months. The figure was 7.5 percentage points higher than the 64.6 percent turnover consideration rate among all healthcare workers.
By work type, three-shift nurses had the highest turnover consideration rate at 75.2 percent, followed by two-shift nurses at 71.0 percent, night-duty nurses at 67.8 percent and regular-shift nurses at 63.6 percent. By tenure at current workplace, nurses with three to five years of experience had the highest rate at 79.9 percent. Among nurses who had worked three to five years at their current workplace and were on a three-shift schedule, the turnover consideration rate reached 81.4 percent.
Working conditions were the most commonly cited reason for considering a job change at 48.9 percent, followed by wages at 25.2 percent, workplace culture at 6.5 percent, childcare at 5.2 percent and health at 4.8 percent. Only 1.5 percent cited nursing work itself as the reason.
Staffing shortages emerged as a serious issue. In a survey on workplace satisfaction, dissatisfaction with staffing levels was the highest at 72.2 percent, followed by workload and labor intensity at 60.7 percent and wages at 58.4 percent. A total of 70.3 percent of nurses said their current department was understaffed.
The proportion of nurses skipping meals was also significant. The meal-skipping rate among nurses was 65.5 percent, 15.5 percentage points higher than the average of 50.0 percent for all healthcare workers. The meal-skipping rate among three-shift nurses reached 80.5 percent.
When asked whether they had experienced verbal abuse at work over the past year, 62.3 percent of nurses said they had been verbally abused by patients, guardians or doctors.
The Korean Health and Medical Workers' Union held a press conference in front of the National Assembly in Yeouido on the same day, appealing for relief from the nursing shortage and demanding that a standard for an appropriate patient-to-nurse ratio be codified into law. Song Geum-hee, senior vice chair of the union, said, "Patients can only be safe when nurses can work in good health," urging the National Assembly to swiftly pass an amendment to the Nursing Act that would mandate a standard for an appropriate patient-to-nurse ratio.
