KHMU Info No. 6(July 18, 2019)
Around 68% of medical workers consider job changes.
Around 81% of respondents said yes to “there is a high risk of medical and safety accidents” due to short manpower.
The KHMU (Korean Health and Medical Workers’ Union)’s annual survey with its union members had been conducted for one month between February and March this year. A total of 36,447(54.5%) out of 66,974 union members participated in the survey. Among them, 36,447 effective responses were analyzed. The sampling error is ± 0.35% at 95% CI.
Around 68% responded that they are considering job change, four out of which said they actively considers job change.
According to the survey, around 68% of the total respondents have ever considered job change over the past three months. Out of them, 8,314 respondents (23%) said they actively consider job change. The number of those who chose the option “I think of job change sometimes” was 16,281, equivalent to 45%. As for the reasons why they think about job change, the absolute majority (80.2%, 20,072), which is higher than 79.6% in 2018, mentioned ‘poor working conditions and high labor intensity’. The second most reason is a low level of wage (51.6%), followed by change to other occupations (26.6%) and workplace culture and social relationship (25.9%).
It is noteworthy that a very high number of respondents (81.2%) marked a negative option regarding the staffing level in work satisfaction section. Following it, wage level (66.1%) and HR policies and promotion issues (60.1%) were mentioned as factors leading them to think about job change.
In contrast, about ‘pride in job’, around 75.7% chose a positive response.
To identify labor intensity in medical and health workplaces, a question on meal break was asked. While around 46.7% said that they skipped meals due to workload last year, this year, almost a half of the total respondents said they skip meals at least once a week. Around 21.8 % said they skip meals over three times a week. Among job positions, nurse recorded the highest ratio of 63.2% in over one time meal skip per week and 31.3% in over three times.
About the use of annual leave for sustainable labor, almost a half of the total respondents (48.2%) said they couldn’t freely use the leave.
According to the survey, the lack of manpower has made negative impact on medical services provided to patients, caregivers and subjects. Around 81.0% said ‘there is a high risk of medical and safety accidents’ and 80.1%, ‘the quality of medical services for patients, caregivers and subjects has been declining’.
Independent of this survey, a survey on turnover rate of nurses in 36 hospitals shows that a total of 2,535 nurses out of the total 16,296 changed the job, with the turnover rate reaching 15.6%. Those leavers between their first and third years of career reaches 66.54%.
<Table 1> Considered Job Change over the Past 3 Months
|
No. of Respondents |
Percentage (%) |
Effective Percentage(%) |
I have thought of it with a concrete plan. |
8,314 |
22.8 |
23.0 |
I have thought of it from time to time. |
16,281 |
44.7 |
45.0 |
I have rarely thought of it. |
6,700 |
18.4 |
18.5 |
I have never thought of it. |
4,915 |
13.5 |
13.6 |
Missing value |
237 |
7 |
- |
Total |
36,447 |
100.0 |
100.0 |
<Table 2> Reasons for Considering the Job Change over the Past 3 Months (multiple choices)
|
No. of Respondents |
Percentage (%) |
Percentage out of the no. of cases |
Low wage level |
12,921 |
20.5 |
51.6 |
Poor working conditions/ Labor intensity |
20,072 |
31.9 |
80.2 |
Low name value/ brand value of the organization (hospital) |
2,842 |
4.5 |
11.4 |
Workplace culture, Social relationship |
6,493 |
10.3 |
25.9 |
Moved to another occupation |
6,654 |
10.6 |
26.6 |
Childbirth, Child-raising, Family-care, etc. |
3,962 |
6.3 |
15.8 |
Health Conditions |
5,698 |
9.1 |
22.8 |
Pursuit of Academic path and other self-development plans |
4,297 |
6.8 |
17.2 |
Total |
62,939 |
100.0 |
251.5 |
<Table 3> Turnover Rate in 39 hospitals surveyed
Total no. of nurses |
No. of leavers |
Leavers at their first year |
Leavers at their second year |
Leavers at there third year |
Leavers at between first and third year |
16,296 |
2535 |
942 |
430 |
315 |
1687 |
37.15% |
16.96% |
12.42% |
66.54% |
KHMU members in hospital.