The Impact of U.S. Army Nurses on the Development of the Nursing Profession in South Korea

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to identify the influences of U.S. Army nurses on the nursing profession in South Korea, focusing on the interactions between U.S. Army nurses and Korean nurses during the Korean War. The U.S. Army Nurse Corps, stationed in South Korea during the Korean War, greatly influenced Korean nursing practices. U.S. Army nurses helped professionalize nursing, exemplified gender equality, and influenced traditional cultural and gender norms in South Korea. In this article, we discuss the contributions made by U.S. Army nurses to the nursing profession in South Korea. We qualitatively analyzed 21 American and 24 Korean historical articles (n = 45) and conducted in-depth interviews with three Korean veterans who were nurses during the Korean War. According to the Korean nurses, the U.S. Army Nurse Corps helped to shift cultural attitudes about gender and the nursing profession in Korea and to motivate Korean nurses to empower themselves. The U.S. Army Nurse Corps provided more than humanitarian relief by raising the consciousness of Korean nurses about gender roles and their profession. The U.S. Army Nurse Corps helped pave the way for modern, scientific, and professional nursing in Korea.