Verbal Abuse Toward Nurse Requesting Prescription Sparks Controversy... "Doctors Fueling Misandry"

Spreading Fake News Centered on Communities
Resignation Manuals Circulate Mainly Among Some Residents

As doctors opposed to the government's plan to increase medical school quotas decided to submit collective resignation letters, a message sent by one doctor to a nurse was revealed, sparking controversy. On the 19th, an online community shared a post titled 'Doctor's Attitude Toward Nurses at a Certain Hospital.'

When a nurse conveyed the patient's side by saying, "Please prescribe. They want to be discharged on Tuesday if possible," the doctor replied, "X annoying," and added, "Tell them to shut up and leave. From tomorrow, the resident won't be at the hospital." The last message exchange between the doctor and nurse was at 4:55 PM the previous day.

A message sent by a doctor to a nurse has been made public, sparking controversy. On the 19th, an online community shared a post titled "Messages exchanged between a doctor and a nurse at a certain hospital."
[Photo source=Online Community]

It has not been confirmed whether the post is an actual message exchange between a doctor and a nurse. However, netizens who saw the post reacted strongly to the content. One netizen expressed outrage, saying, "The doctor's attitude toward patients and nurses is arrogantly unacceptable." Another netizen commented, "It seems like they called the patient's words 'X nonsense,' but this is not a conversation with a friend; it's a work-related messenger. Disrespecting nurses and patients seems to be the norm." "Maybe they lost social skills because they only studied. Or maybe they lacked proper home education." "What do they see nurses as?" "Seeing this makes me even more supportive of increasing the number of doctors," and other comments expressed public anger.

Additionally, a post titled 'Resident Resignation Manual' was recently uploaded on the workplace community app Blind. The author, who identified themselves as an employee of Severance Hospital, posted on the anonymous workplace site Blind, saying, "They are amazing. Erasing company data and running away," along with the post.

The author, A, attached a notice posted on the doctor community app 'Medi Staff.' The screenshot included a title reading '[Important] Residents Leaving the Hospital Must Read!!' and stated, "Delete the handover notes from the desktop and the department's shared folder. Also, change the set orders (sets of essential prescriptions grouped for easier prescribing) in strange ways before leaving. Some hospitals can restore deleted data, so it's best to change them arbitrarily."

The authenticity of this post, including whether it was written by a doctor, has not been verified, but it spread across multiple communities. In response, the police have begun investigating by tracking the author's IP address. Doctors explained this by saying, "If the remaining staff issue prescription orders under the resident's ID, the resident must take responsibility."

One netizen who identified as a doctor argued regarding the controversy, "Set orders are organized by individuals for their convenience, so deleting them is not a problem." They added, "It refers to shortcuts saved to make prescribing easier," and countered that it does not significantly affect patient handovers. However, some netizens criticized, "These are clearly hospital-owned materials, so isn't this an act of deliberately harming the public?"

Moreover, a netizen who identified as a lawyer pointed out, "Materials created by employees on company computers during work hours belong to the company." Another netizen criticized, "If this happened in a private company, they would be immediately sued. They said to 'change arbitrarily, not delete,' but is this really personal data? Anyone can see this is to prevent successors from using it."

Furthermore, most netizens expressed critical attitudes, saying things like, "They are an incredible group to bargain with people's lives," "Look at how doctors write; they have no remorse," "Don't they have any heart when taking the Hippocratic Oath?" "This concerns people's lives. Where is the sense of duty?" As hatred toward doctors spread mainly online, the Korean Medical Association's Emergency Response Committee stated, "Doctors are being demonized and subjected to a witch hunt," and announced plans to prepare countermeasures against fake news.

'Big 5' Residents to Submit Collective Resignation Today

Medical staff are moving at a university hospital in Seoul on the 18th, the day the government announced a public address regarding the necessity of increasing medical school quotas and the collective actions of doctors.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

Earlier, the Ministry of Health and Welfare announced that as of 6 PM on the 16th, 715 residents had submitted resignation letters at 23 of the top 100 training hospitals by resident count. The total number of residents working at the top 100 hospitals is 12,461, so the 715 who submitted resignation letters represent about 5.7%.

Additionally, residents at the 'Big 5' hospitals?Seoul National University, Severance, Samsung Seoul, Seoul Asan, and Seoul St. Mary's Hospitals?decided to submit resignation letters by the 19th and to stop working starting at 6 AM on the 20th. As residents, who play a key role in essential medical care, leave hospital sites, urgent surgeries such as cancer operations, childbirth, and disc surgeries are being canceled or postponed in many cases.

The government is also taking the resident shortage seriously and preparing countermeasures. It plans to issue a 'medical service maintenance order' to residents at all 221 training hospitals to prevent departures and is reviewing manpower management plans in case the situation prolongs. Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said on the day, "In the event of collective action by residents, we will activate emergency medical systems at public medical institutions and fully allow non-face-to-face medical care during the collective action period."