Nurses Take to the Streets Against Split PA Training System

The Korean Nurses Association (KNA) declared a campaign of protest Tuesday, strongly opposing a government plan to split the operation of training programs for physician assistant (PA) nurses from the designation and evaluation of training institutions.

Shin Kyung-rim, president of the KNA, held a press conference at the fountain plaza in front of the former presidential compound in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on the same day. "Separating training from evaluation is a measure that undermines nursing expertise," she said.

PA nurses, who perform some of the duties of doctors but had faced legal disputes due to the absence of a legal basis, were brought into the institutional framework through the enactment of the Nursing Act. However, controversy surrounding the development, operation, and management system of the training programs that will determine the success or failure of the system is still ongoing. The Ministry of Health and Welfare is reviewing a plan to divide the agencies responsible for the operation support and certificate management of PA nurse training programs from those responsible for the designation and evaluation of training institutions, but the KNA opposes the plan, saying it will cause confusion and inefficiency in operations.

"PA work is not a simple auxiliary domain but a significant professional domain assigned to provide patients with stable and continuous medical services," Shin said, raising her voice. "We cannot help but express strong regret, beyond serious concern, over the direction of the dualized training system the government is pursuing." She argued that a structure that reflects on-site training data in evaluations and links those results back to advancing training is the core of ensuring patient safety, and therefore the plan must be immediately withdrawn and a unified management system centered on the KNA must be established.

In a resolution issued the same day, the KNA demanded the immediate withdrawal of the policy to separate the designation and evaluation of training institutions, the establishment of an integrated training-evaluation management system, and the creation of an institutional foundation centered on the Korean Nurses Association. About 2,000 nurses from across the country gathered at the "Rally Calling for Normalization of Physician Assistant Nurse Training System" held following the press conference. They delivered a letter to the Presidential Office's Senior Secretariat for Public Engagement urging the implementation of integrated management of the PA nurse training system. Starting from that day, the KNA plans to continue its protest every Tuesday until its demands are met.

"If the government forces through the dualized training system while ignoring the voices from the field, 580,000 nurses will respond resolutely by mobilizing all possible means," Shin said. "If the government ignores its promise to the end, we will not rule out a tent protest."