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.

Keywords

gender equality Korean nurses Korean War nursing history nursing profession professionalism U.S. Army nurses veterans

In the early months of 2018, North Korea returned the remains of a number of U.S. soldiers killed in the Korean War to the United States. The war began on June 25, 1950, and hostilities ceased on July 27, 1953. It was one of the most disruptive wars in history (Omori, 2000), with more than 54,000 Americans killed and more than 103,000 injured (Tomedi, 1993).

After the war, South Korea became a manufacturing powerhouse, and poverty and illiteracy were all but eliminated (Emmott, 2010). Due in large part to economic and military assistance from the United States, South Korea was able to develop quickly and is ranked 12th in the world in GDP (gross domestic product) today.

U.S. policies involving foreign relief and rehabilitation began from a sense of world responsibility as well as mutual interests. The U.S. Constitution provided Congress the right to use tax money to aid foreign countries devastated by war. Current foreign aid policies originated after the beginning of World War II with the U.S. Foreign Relief and Rehabilitation Operations, which became the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration as additional allies joined. The goal was to rebuild shattered economic systems by providing countries with supplies they could sell to their citizens when possible and use the money for internal rehabilitation projects.

The Truman Doctrine, followed by the Marshall Plan, was designed to assist European countries with postwar rebuilding. The Korean War had not yet occurred; however, the United States recognized the importance of protecting foreign countries from communist aggressions by providing both military and economic assistance. U.S. forces fought alongside South Korean forces against Soviet-backed North Korea and China until 1953 (Stack, 2018). From the Korean War onward, the U.S. military continues to have a presence in South Korea.

During the post–Korean war period, the United Staets provided South Korea with about $137 million worth of civilian supplies (Coyle, 1957). The U.S. military also assisted the country by providing the U.S. Army Nurse Corps, which was stationed in South Korea, resulting in the development of professional nursing in South Korea. In this article, we discuss the influence of U.S. Army nurses on the development of Korean nursing leadership, nursing practice, and on Korean culture as a whole.

The estimated number of U.S. Army nurses who served in the Korean War ranges from 540 to 1,502 (Sarnecky, 2001). In addition, an undetermined number of Army Nurse Corps officers served in the Far East Command during that time. The uniqueness of our research involves the perspectives of Korean nurses on the contribution of U.S. Army nurses to Korean nursing and culture. Korean nurses report that through their interactions with U.S. Army nurses, they learned about gender equality and pride in the nursing profession. Korean nurses who had learned from U.S. Army nurses then conveyed that sense of equality and pride to other Korean nurses and ultimately helped diffuse those views throughout Korean society. Korean nurses’ experiences with U.S. Army nurses resulted in the integration of gender equality and pride into Korean nursing education and practice.

During the Korean War, South Korean nurses risked their lives to help wounded soldiers and civilians in the battlefield. They also risked being captured and taken as war prisoners to North Korea. Some of those who were taken captive escaped (Yi, 2015). After the war they, like most South Koreans, suffered malnutrition and economic hardships. To support their families, they pursued careers in nursing, in South Korea, Germany, or the United States. South Korean nurses and the nursing profession, however, were not properly recognized at the time, because of the Confucian motto of “Honorable Men, Inferior Women.” In spite of their ability and professionalism, Korean women were not allowed to speak in public and were permitted only to assist males (J. S. Lee, 2000).

In general, nursing research on the Korean War has largely focused on war tragedies and efforts to overcome them. With nine Korean War veterans as subjects, Jee (2004) conducted phenomenological research regarding the experiences of nurses treating wounded soldiers with limited medical supplies. However, there has been very limited research on how U.S. Army nurses contributed to the development of the Korean nursing profession. Dressel, Glass, Jun, and Choi (2016) examined the contributions of U.S. Army nurses to the nursing profession in South Korea from the American nurses’ perspective. To date, however, there has been no research of Korean nurses’ experience and understanding of the contributions to their nursing practice by U.S. Army nurses.

Our research team includes two Korean nursing researchers, two American nursing researchers, a Korea American veteran, and a Korean American feminist. We chose to investigate the influence of U.S. Army nurses on Korean nurses from a cultural perspective. Our study was conducted with a sense of urgency. Firsthand witnesses to the interactions of Korean and American nursing professionals are rapidly becoming fewer in number and soon will be gone. Our study was also conducted with a sense of neglected importance. Senior Korean nurses who worked with the U.S. Army nurses during and after the war have many times reported to us that professionalism and gender confidence were the most important lessons learned from their interactions with U.S. Army nurses. We believe that we should take seriously their testimony regarding the impact of their interactions and their subsequent influence on cultural norms. We say “neglected importance” because there are no studies of the cultural impact of U.S. Army nurses during and after the Korean War from the Korean nurses’ perspective.

To reiterate an important point, our research must be conducted before it is too late. Not only are the Korean nurses who worked with U.S. Army nurses rapidly aging and passing away, but many nurses who are still alive have memory deficiencies and cannot recall or articulate their experiences with U.S. Army nurses. Thus, this research is timely and allowed us to examine the activities and contributions of U.S. Army nurses in South Korea from the perspective of South Korean nurses.

Finally, it is worth noting that many U.S. Army nurses claimed that their service in Korea was the hardest assignment they ever had, but they almost uniformly stated that they would not have missed the experience for anything (Bland, 2013). Yet these U.S Army nurses often paid a heavy psychological price for their service. Some were reluctant to speak to friends and families about their wartime experiences, believing that others would not understand the harsh environment and unspeakable cruelty they witnessed (Sarnecky, 2001).

For clarity and brevity, hereafter in this article, “Korea” will refer to the Republic of Korea, which is commonly known as South Korea.

Background

The U.S. Army Nurse Corps was established in 1901 (Sarnecky, 1999). The Corps’ mission was “to provide responsive, innovative, and evidence-based nursing care integrated in the Army Medicine Team to enhance readiness, preserve life and function, and to promote health and wellness for all those entrusted to our care” (U.S. Army Medical Department, n.d.). Comprehensive histories have been written about the U.S. Army Nurse Corps’ involvement during the Korean War, but most of them focused on humanitarian relief, experiences on the battlefield, or posttraumatic stress syndrome. “Little information exists about the Army Nurse Corps’ activities in Korea” (Dressel et al., 2016, p. 64). Because South Korea and North Korea are technically still at war, most civilian researchers cannot access military-related information that would contribute to our understanding of the nature of and subsequent changes in Korean nursing practice during and since the Korean War.

After the country’s liberation from Japan in 1945, and after the Korean War in 1953, foreign missionaries, universities, and U.S. Army nurses Westernized modern nursing education and clinical practices in South Korea. Countless innovative institutional changes in nursing, both voluntary and forced, occurred in South Korea from 1945 to 1965. The country saw growth in the number of nurses, improvement in the quality of nursing, and standardization of nursing practices (Dressel et al., 2016). During this period, the U.S. Army Nurse Corps had an uninterrupted presence in South Korea and worked with the Korean Nurses Association, the Republic of Korea Army (RKA), and other institutions to make lasting contributions to the advancement of the South Korean nursing profession. However, there is virtually no literature about these changes from the Korean nurses’ perspective.

Traditional Korean Culture: Patriarchal Confucianism

For the past 2,000 years, Korea has been dominated by Confucian social, political, and ethical patriarchal norms. The mottos of “Three Bonds” and “Honorable Men, Inferior Women” summarize the role of women in their families and social relations. “Three Bonds” refers to society’s three most fundamental social relationships. The bond refers to allegiance, and allegiance means service and obedience. A minister should serve and obey the king, a son should serve and obey the father, and a wife should serve and obey the husband. According to this norm, a woman’s identity lies in being an obedient wife, and the norm defines a woman’s place in family relationships.

The second motto, “Honorable Men, Inferior Women,” provides the underpinning of the first norm, underscores its strength, and has vast implications for women’s place in society outside the home. Because of this norm, girls were not allowed in education, women could not hold political office, and women could not divorce or remarry. The two mottos reinforced each other and prevented women from having the opportunity to live as autonomous and professional human beings (Kim, 2016).

Two historical events, however, demonstrate how American culture influenced Korean culture and norms. The first was the influx of Christian missionaries from America to Korea. Missionaries such as Elizabeth Shepping (1880-1934), Margaret Edmonds (1871-1945), and Rosetta Hall (1865-1951) built schools for girls and founded hospitals and nursing schools. Their efforts to educate girls and to create professions for women inspired Korean women and indirectly influenced the creation of the New Women’s Movement in Korea in the 1920s.

The New Women’s Movement was the first feminist movement in Korea. It was highly critical of male-centric social norms and the oppressive conditions under which women lived. Although there was difficulty at the beginning of the movement in recruiting girls for education, parents soon began to see the benefits of educating girls, especially the benefits of professional education. The financial advantages of professional women became obvious, as did their overall contribution to societal welfare.

Unfortunately, this first awakening of Korean women did not last long, partly because of harsh conditions during the Japanese occupation of Korea from 1910 through 1945 and partly because of the strong grip of Confucian cultural customs. The deeply implanted social norms of “Three Bonds” and “Honorable Men, Inferior Women” did not die easily. Even though nursing was one of the few socially acceptable women’s professions in Korea, it was regarded as a lowly profession, fit only for servants or assistants. In fact, according to Lucka (1946), Korean nurses worked almost as servants to male doctors.

Before the War: The Unrealized Potential of the Korean Nursing System

In 1946, nursing educational institutions were unified as technical nursing schools under a U.S. military education ordinance (Hong, 1973; Ko et al., 2011; Shin et al., 2012). Nurses in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps in Korea provided instruction to Korean nursing school faculty. The instruction included how to implement and teach a standardized nursing curriculum (Adams, 1966; W. H. Lee, 2008).

In 1945, after the U.S. Armed Forces liberated Korea from Japan, Captain Lucka, the chief of the Bureau of Nursing Affairs in the military government in Korea, became the first U.S. Army nurse to have a major impact on Korean nursing. As she worked to establish hospitals and improve public health nursing in Korea, she soon discovered major problems. According to Lucka (1946), medical supplies were largely depleted, equipment was lacking or unusable, professional nursing had almost disappeared, and public health nursing was nonexistent. Lucka (1946), however, voluntarily assumed the responsibility of raising the consciousness of Korean nurses, making them aware of their full responsibilities for the care of the sick, and instilling a sense of pride in their profession. She identified three major problems that prevented Korean nurses from becoming fully professional: (1) the traditionally inferior status of Korean female nurses, (2) the absence of professionalism in the nurses themselves, and (3) the absence of an organized and rigorous curriculum for training in nursing. Another challenge stemmed from the fact that most of the nursing instructors were male physicians. The male doctors did not teach proper nursing procedures and gave few lectures on medical or surgical topics, which contributed to the low standards in Korean nursing (Lucka, 1946).

In addition to Lucka’s efforts, the U.S. military established the Hygiene Bureau, which was in charge of public health and became the Health and Welfare Department in 1946. The Nursing Bureau was established under the Health and Welfare Department and was the first central administrative bureau for nursing in Korea. Under the Nursing Bureau, administrative subdepartments of nursing were established. These included the nursing education department, the hospital nursing administration department, the midwifery department, the public health nursing department, the registration department, and the general affairs department (Lucka, 1946; Yi, 2013). With the help of U.S. Army nurse officers, a nationwide nursing education system was designed, and various nursing practices were planned and developed. Dressel et al. (2016) described the development as follows:

U.S. Major Mildred I. Clark also was stationed in Korea in 1947 and 1948. Major Clark developed a program that provided classroom and clinical training for twenty Korean nurses in Ascom City. These nurses became the core of the new Korean Army Nurse Corps, which was formed in 1948. During Clark’s next assignment in Korea, she continued her work with the Korean nurses and was instrumental in getting the Korean nurses recognized by the International Council of Nurses. (p. 64)

Unfortunately, 3 years later, when the Korean government was established, the Nursing Bureau shrank and was assimilated into a smaller nursing department. Most of the planned nursing projects were stopped, and the role of nursing in Korean society also shrank accordingly.

The preceding paragraphs summarized the U.S. Army’s involvement in the Korean nursing profession prior to the start of the Korean War. Unfortunately, the situation for the Korean nursing profession did not improve as rapidly as planned after the Japanese were expelled from the country in 1945. The birth pains associated with the founding of a new government after so many years of foreign occupation delayed the progress of the nursing profession, and the effort to create a modern and competent nursing profession in Korea foundered. This sad state continued until the outbreak of the Korean War.

During the Korean War: U.S. Army Nurse Corps

U.S. Army nurses worked in MASH (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) units, evacuation hospitals, hospital trains, prisoner-of-war camps, and makeshift shelters (Blake, 1951; Sarnecky, 2001). Despite daunting field conditions and severe shortages, U.S. Army Nurse Corps officers provided nursing care to countless troops and civilians during the Korean War.

U.S. Army nurses regarded Korea as a poor and unsanitary country. In particular, they did not trust Korean nurses’ nursing practices and were dubious about their cleanliness (Sheehy, 2007). Roberts (1954) was shocked to see an “appalling ignorance of hygiene” and “apathy toward suffering” among Korean nurses. She reported that “some of the native nurses grew up in mud huts” (p. 790). During the Korean War, however, the country was devastated, and extreme poverty and unsanitary conditions were the norm. Everywhere, material resources were scarce. Foreigners were advised “not [to] eat the food that Koreans give [them]” because it would be dirty and infested (Lockertsen & Fause, 2018). Even though Koreans lived in poverty and under unsanitary conditions, many U.S. Army nurses were awed to see that they were very polite and that family members stayed with patients (Ragan, 2009).

Methodology

This qualitative research study includes a historical document review and semistructured interviews. Primary sources were 24 Korean and 21 American documents (n = 45), which included news items, professional articles, and books related to nursing experiences during the Korean War. In addition, the researchers interviewed three Korean nurses who served in the Korean War. Two of the participants were referred to the researchers through the Korean Armed Forces Nursing Academy and College of Nursing of Seoul National University. A third participant was found from a newspaper interview with Korean War army nurse veterans. The interviews were conducted from March to June 2018. The interviews were conducted in Korean, audiotaped, and transcribed. Qualitative analysis was done in Korean, and the themes that emerged were then translated into English by a bilingual researcher. The analysis and themes were verified by two other bilingual members of the research team. The purpose of the in-depth interviews was to clarify or elaborate on the themes that arose from the content analysis of the primary source documents. The ages of the three interviewees ranged from 84 to 89. They were freshmen in high school in Korea when the Korean War broke out and were promoted to the RKA Nurse Corps during the war. One nurse graduated from college, and one received a master’s degree after the Korean War.

After obtaining approval from the primary author’s university’s institutional review board and the consent of the participants, the researchers conducted interviews with the three Korean nurses, who were veterans of the Korean War. The participants completed a brief sociodemographic information questionnaire and participated in semistructured interviews under clinical supervision. In addition, the participants brought diaries, pictures, and other documents to their interviews, to refresh their memories and prompt additional questions.

The three participants included two who were freshmen in nursing high school (Participants J and M) and one who was a senior in a regular high school (Participant P) when the Korean War broke out. All three volunteered to nurse wounded soldiers on the battlefield and were promoted to nursing officers in the RKA Nurse Corps. All three also served in the RKA Nurse Corps after the truce in 1953, which “ended” hostilities.

Participant J was the first certified nurse anesthetist in Korea and served in the army until she retired. After retirement from the RKA, she immigrated to the United States and worked as a nurse anesthetist there. Participant M was also certified as a nurse anesthetist and served in the RKA Nurse Corps. After retirement, she worked as a nursing educator and as nursing director at a number of general hospitals. Participant P served in the RKA after the truce and worked as nursing director at a number of general hospitals after she was honorably discharged from the RKA.

Results and Discussion

Lack of Professional Nursing Training and Demeaning Treatment

As noted, two of the interviewees were first-year nursing students in 1950 when the Korean War broke out. They said that there were only a small number of nursing instructors at the time and they taught only morals or fundamental nursing techniques, such as making beds. The nursing staff took charge of supervising dormitory life as a part of nursing education.

The nursing chief in my nursing school did not do much but check on us when we left the school. We learned most [of what we did] from our upperclassmen, as they told us just what to do during the clinical practicum. (Participant J)

Concerning the treatment of nurses by instructors, who were all male doctors, Participant M said, “The doctors always looked down on us and spoke to us without respect. In a nutshell, they were lords, and nurses were servants. They spoke to us in an insolent manner.”

The demeaning treatment of Korean nurses was deeply associated with traditional Confucian and colonial values, which institutionalized gender discrimination. In addition, in the Confucian tradition, professions for women that required technical knowledge and technical skills were looked down on, which included nursing. Participant J described the position of women and nurses at the time:

We, the nurses, were looked down upon. People said, “How dare women want to have a job?” Only smart and courageous women could become nurses at that time. Still, people did not approve of women having a job, and believed that women had to get married, change their babies’ diapers, [and] stay inside [the] house only serving their husbands.

Awakening: The Professional Confidence of U.S. Army Nurses

Hardships During Wartime

The work environment for Korean Army nurses was harsh. Whereas U.S. Army nurses enjoyed a relative abundance of supplies and some leisure time, Korean nurses had to rely on the U.S. Army for supplies, including cloth, medical equipment, textbooks, stationery, and virtually everything else. As she explained a photo taken during the Korean War, Participant J remembered wearing a U.S. soldier’s uniform: “There was the [U.S.] Army hospital in Gyeongju, South Korea, in 1951, during the war. I was there. This uniform was provided, an American soldier’s uniform.”

Korean nurses, nevertheless, held hidden pride and courage in spite of social disapproval. Participant J emphasized the benefit of being a Korean Army nurse. At that time, becoming a nurse was the only way for a woman to support her family and maintain a respected social status during the war: “We had to evacuate. We had nothing to eat. Being in the army was the best. It was an honorable job to feed [the] family and we, nurses, were served well as army personnel at least during the war.”

Encountering and Awakening

After the Korean nurses met and began working with U.S. Army nurses, they were deeply impressed by the confidence, professionalism, and compassion U.S. Army nurses exhibited in their practice. Participant M remembered,

The U.S. Army nurses did not hesitate expressing what they believed was right when they saw male doctors do or say anything wrong. I realized that if I had their professional expertise, I, though a woman, could perform my duties with the same kind of self-assurance as the U.S. Army nurses.

Participant P’s lasting impression of U.S. Army nurses was this:

American nurses back then were confident, [and] therefore had [the] emotional capability to stay calm and maintain composure. I was envious of that because Korean nurses had neither support nor calm composure due to the harsh war in the mother country.

Participant M was similarly impressed by the confidence and professionalism of U.S. Army nurses:

I realized that I must learn as much as possible and be skillful in my field after watching the American nurses. They were confident. The confidence came from the knowledge they have in their profession. I tried to be as confident as they were in my profession. The anesthetist nursing instructor confidently prevented doctors from performing wrong operations. This authority and confidence can be produced only by professional expertise. Confidence is directly related to knowledge and expertise.

Admiration for U.S. Army nurses’ confidence and authority was not limited to these participants. Participant J was deeply impressed by the outstanding administrative ability of U.S. Army nurses. The interviewees were especially impressed by the assertiveness of U.S. Army nurses in expressing their views in meetings, by their employment of rational discussion to determine policies and protocols, and by their faithful observance of agreed-upon policies and protocols. Being accustomed to receiving instructions and orders from male superiors, Korean Army nurses observed U.S. Army nurses’ autonomous and self-disciplined job performance with fascination and aspiration. Women did not need to merely take orders from male superiors or blindly obey their instructions. The nursing profession was an independent profession that had its own expertise and area of excellence.

According to the interviewees, another lesson learned from U.S. Army nurses was compassion. The interviewees explained that compassion cannot be shown by inferior, subjugated personnel, and that compassion exemplifies moral and professional excellence. Korean nurses understood this when they observed the interactions of U.S. Army nurses with patients. Participant P, for example, was deeply impressed by a U.S. Army nurse’s compassionate caring of a soldier who had suffered a severe bullet wound to his face:

There was one time when we had the patient who had a bullet injury, which was penetrating his eyeball. Half of his face was gone, and it was beyond our capability of treatment, so the American nurse came in. She cared for the patient with tremendous compassion, as if she were treating her own child. I told myself that I had to learn this compassion, patience, and motherly love. I told myself that is what a nursing officer had to do. I learned so much from her.

The admiration for U.S. Army nurses led Korean nurses to realize that confidence, professional excellence, and human compassion are based on solid nursing knowledge. This realization led them in turn to further their own knowledge. Furthermore, Korean nurses realized that a more solid knowledge base would empower nurses and the nursing profession and ultimately lead to greater confidence and gender equality.

Striving for Education and Professional Excellence

As discussed, Korean nurses admired the professional excellence and confidence of the U.S. Army nurses, which motivated them to acquire more nursing knowledge from their American colleagues. The thoughts of Participant M were typical of the attitude of Korean Army nurses at the time:

I think the early Korean nurses tried very hard to learn the nursing materials themselves. Learning about nursing back then required us to read the complex English textbooks, and not many people in Korea were proficient in English. We had about 15 nurses in the group trying to translate and interpret what the textbook was saying, so we assigned a paragraph for each nurse and met an hour before our worktime to share our interpretations and discuss what was said based on our knowledge and past experiences. It was sort of a daily conference that enabled Korean nursing to come further.

Participant J was sent to Ascom City to observe and learn advanced nursing knowledge and nursing skills from American nurses. The experience was a crash course in education that required bravery, dedication, and hard work:

We learned all the techniques from the U.S. Army nurses. We did a kind of shadowing rather than attending of lectures. We were not able to touch the patients while they were operating, but we tried our best to understand and ask questions with our broken English. It was difficult to learn, but we had to learn everything, and we quickly did. We were nursing officers. As such we had to learn and [we did] learn quickly.

Participant J also reported acquiring data analysis skills and learning documentation methods from a U.S. Army nurse, Colonel Harriet Werley. Werley was an expert nurse and a confident teacher and role model for Korean nurses. Participant J stated,

I heard [that] before Colonel Harriet Werley came to Korea, she was in Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C. She was there [as a] research worker like all the administration. . . . Because she’s smart, she’s good at that. . . . She gave lectures and knew about rules, ethics, how to do things. . . . She was a specialist, so expert at everything, that’s why. That’s why she was the chief nurse. She did all the paperwork.

More Than Relief: Self-Empowerment

The impact of U.S. Army nurses on the development of Korean nursing during the Korean War included cultural dimensions as well as teaching them technical skills, imparting content knowledge, and inspiring them to achieve dignity and pride as women in an honorable profession. In fact, the interactions between Korean nurses and U.S. Army nurses were the start of Korean nurses’ quest for confidence, assertiveness, autonomy, and a professional nursing practice informed by knowledge and administrative efficiency (Leifer, 2004).

However, U.S. Army nurses’ influence on Korean nursing was more ongoing, complex, and systematic than the above may suggest. For example, U.S. Army nurses tried to train Koreans “to do for themselves,” that is, become self-sustaining (Roberts, 1954, p.790), and the U.S. Army Medical Corps continued to reside in Korea after the war for the purpose of “increasing [the] numbers of (Korean) medical personnel.” Within a short period of time, American-led surgical teams were being assisted by Korean surgeons, American anesthetists by Korean anesthetists, and American nurses by Korean nurses. In each medical specialty, the objective was “to train Koreans to do for themselves” (p. 790). In addition, years after the war (1959–1961), the nursing faculty of Indiana University went to Korea under the auspices of the U.S. Department of State to conduct a workshop for Korean nurses on ways in which Korean nurses could manage their own issues in nursing service and nursing education (Adams, 1966; Allen & Adams, 1964; Allen, Murphy, Allen, & Adams, 1962). The U.S. Army Nurse Corps’ presence after the Korean War also contributed to Korean nurses’ achieving professionalism and a sense of pride in their profession, in a culture in which gender discrimination was rampant. The U.S. Army Nurse Corps’ presence helped Korean nurses begin to overcome the professional and cultural problems that had long plagued nursing in the country (Chang, 1973; Hammarlund, 1955; Park, 1964).

Although Korean Army nurses’ encounters with U.S. Army nurses during the Korean War and their admiration for their confidence, professional excellence, assertiveness, and compassion helped Korean nurses overcome the traditional gender discrimination and prejudice against the nursing profession, the impact that U.S. Army nurses had on Korean nurses was historically special because of the unique circumstances of Korean women.

As previously noted, Korea was a patriarchal and hierarchical society dominated by a few members of the male governing class (Kim, 2016), and women were not allowed to be educated or to hold a job. The Japanese colonization of Korea lasted 36 years, which did not afford Korean women the opportunity to have their voices heard or to take a meaningful place in society. The early efforts of Western missionaries to educate Koreans, especially Korean women, at the end of the 19th century did not bear fruit because of colonization by Japan. Women suffered under the traditional norms of the Korean and Japanese societies. During the Japanese occupation, Korean nurses suffered more than most women because they were the first to try to stand up as women, become educated, and attain professionalism and a meaningful place in society. In addition, Korean nurses during the Korean War had to have tremendous courage and dedication to their families to be there at all, and it is not surprising that their encounters with U.S. Army nurses instilled in them a strong desire to become competent female professionals with more than marginal power and status in society. As Participant M emphasized,

From the U.S. Army nurses we learned that women could do whatever they do with professional expertise and confidence. This learning came from the realization that if we are responsible for whatever little tasks we do and follow the protocols for the tasks, we could handle all matters confidently and professionally even if we were women.

Conclusion

U.S. Army nurses helped Korean nurses raise their sociocultural consciousness about gender equality and professionalism. U.S. Army nurses played an essential role in inspiring Korean nurses and imparting a sense of pride in their profession. The raised consciousness of Korean nurses motivated and empowered Korean nurses to pursue professional excellence and strive for a less marginal place in society. These findings help inform ongoing discussions in nursing theory surrounding the development of a professional identity in nursing (Hoeve, Jansen, & Roodbol, 2014; Willetts & Clarke, 2014).

Their encounters with U.S. Army nurses gave Korean nurses a glimpse of a possible future, especially what the future for their daughters could be. Their aspiration to become confident and successful women in a profession equal to any practiced by men was the seed for their efforts to educate themselves to the highest standards of nursing practice. These Korean nurses’ experiences provide an early example of how the relationship between health care professionals, in this case the U.S. Army Nurse Corps, contributed to the education of and high aspirations for professionalism among Korean nurses. Korean nurses learned to understand, embody, and promote the evolving social norms of the profession (Mitchell & Ream, 2015).

Their efforts were largely successful. Today, nursing is one of the most respected and accomplished professions for women in Korea (Lockertsen & Fause, 2018). The inspiration provided by U.S. Army nurses to a limited number of Korean Army nurses more than 65 years ago contributed in a major way to the establishment of professional nursing in Korea and promoted gender equality. Their experiences could provide a foundation for future research on the intersection between the nursing profession and gender equality, a discussion that is lacking in the literature.

Finally, these findings could help inform nursing education and practice in current conflict zones or disaster-prone areas, such as Afghanistan, Iraq, or Haiti. The experiences of Korean nurses, working together with the U.S. Army Nurse Corps, could provide an example for successful collaboration and profession building in other parts of the world.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was supported by the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay Spring 2018 Grants in Aid of Research Award. The authors wish to thank the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay for its support.

Author Biographies

Myunghee Jun, PhD, RN, taught undergraduate and graduate nurses in South Korea for 32 years. She has published more than 80 articles in Korean and international nursing journals and has authored/coauthored more than 40 books. Her research is focused on the improvement of nursing services, cultural competency in nursing, and nursing education. She is currently assistant professor of Nursing at the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay.

Hyekyung Kim, PhD, is associate professor of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay. She has published articles on Aristotle’s metaphysics, the nature of critical thinking, ethical relativism, Confucianism and feminism, and other topics.

Anne Dressel, PhD, CFPH, MLIS, MA, is the director of the Center for Global Health Equity and an assistant professor in the College of Nursing, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. She is a past recipient of the Fulbright International Education Administrators-Korea Award and has directed University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee’s efforts to internationalize the curriculum with grant support from the U.S. Department of Education’s Title VI National Resource Center Program in Global Studies.

Hearyun Cho, BA, is a Korean American currently serving in the U.S. Army Reserve. She is a graduate student in occupational therapy at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.

Hacksun Kim, PhD, RN, is a professor in the Department of Nursing, Wonkwang Health Science University in South Korea. She teaches adult nursing and oncology. She has published many articles in the areas of nursing for cancer patients and medical-surgical part. She is also an author of three books based on her experiences of nursing practices and education in Korea and the United States.

Christine Vandenhouten, PhD, RN, APHN-BC, CPH, is an associate professor of nursing and chair of the Nursing and Health Studies unit at the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay. Her academic career spans more than 25 years teaching at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Her research foci include nurses and health professionals’ political participation and advocacy, interdisciplinary pedagogy, program evaluation, nursing leadership, and community/public health nursing innovations. She has published in numerous international and national journals and presented papers in several conferences. She is an alumna of Marquette University’s PhD program with a focus on vulnerable populations and nursing education. She was honored with the Brown County United Way’s Community Impact Award and has received awards for teaching excellence from Bellin College.

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