NHRC recommends the Chief of Seoul National University Hospital to caution the chief nurse with regards to management and to correct practices
In February of 2005, a petition was filed by the Trade Union of Seoul National University Hospital with the National Human Rights Commission against the Chief of Seoul National University Hospital. In the complaint, the Union stated that Ms. Kang (43), a chief nurse of the hospital had forced Ms. Ku (29), a nurse, to write an explanation and an essay of self reflection on a medication mistake she had made. Furthermore, she was asked to write a letter of resignation without a date on it. The hospital fired Ms. Ku, a victim of neglected structural problems and wrongful practices.
NHRC investigated the case and found the following:
1. The victim, Ms. Ku wrote statements on the medication mistake ten times for the chief nurse over the course of her one and half year employment at the Hospital.
2. In December of 2004, the victim corrected the same statement for 20 days and wrote a reflection paper without a title saying that the mistake will not happen again and that she apologizes for it.
3. Most notable, in April of 2004, the chief nurse forced the victim to submit notice of resignation without a date (she signed the hospital’s resignation form without a date or reason).
Also, (1) the chief nurse has frequently received written explanations from other nurses besides Ms. Ku. However, the Seoul National University Hospital does not have any objective standards or regulation on writing the statement, leaving the decisions up to the chief nurse for requesting, storing, shredding or utilizing the statements. The statements prescribe what happened in an incident and the relevant person’s admittance of the mistake and reflection. They also state that the person in question would take all the charges for the mistake or resign. Meanwhile, (2) Ms. Kang, the chief nurse, had received letters of resignation without dates from other nurses. In some cases, she later added dates and reasons by herself to fire the nurses.
NHRC recognizes prompt and appropriate responses and the necessity to address problems through evaluative measures because such efforts could prevent medical or nursing incidents for the sake of patients’ lives and safety. However, in modern employment contracts, employees are not subject to employers in terms of status or morality.
Therefore, (1) to force a person to reflect upon him/herself in the form of a statement or reflection paper beyond the incident report, and (2) in particular, to demand the person to write a letter of resignation without a due date are beyond the power of the chief nurse. Thus, (3) if it is a grave mistake or repetitive to an extent where the relevant person shall be disciplined, the hospital should have taken action through due disciplinary procedures based on personnel regulations.
Hence, NHRC concluded that the practice in which the chief nurse forces nurses to write ‘letters of resignation without a date’ is unreasonable and violates personal rights, freedom of consciousness, freedom to choose a job (freedom to perform a job) and other human rights. To prevent this from recurring, NHRC recommended (1) the Chief of Seoul National University Hospital to take action to warn the chief nurse and (2) to correct the practice of the department advising persons to quit based only on the discretion of the chief nurse.
Also, regarding other problems identified during the investigation, NHRC recommended that (1) reasonable grounds and standards must be established when it is necessary to write a report or statement related to a medical or nursing incident and that (2) the measures to dispatch a nurse or to evaluate the performance of a nurse shall be taken in a reasonable manner.
However, NHRC left out the part of the petition that the concerned person shall be reinstated in their job, reasoning that the party had already sought remedy through the Seoul Labor Relations Commission.
