Total Number of Male Nurses in Korea Surpasses 40,000
Men Account for 18% of Newly Licensed Nurses
It has been 63 years since the first man received a nurse license, and the number of male nurses in Korea has surpassed 40,000.
The Korean Nurses Association announced on the 20th that two out of every ten people who passed this year's national nurse examination were men.
According to the Korean Nurses Association, 4,292 men passed the 65th national nurse examination for the 2025 academic year, accounting for 18.1% of the total 23,760 successful candidates.
As a result, the total number of male nurses has increased to 40,305, surpassing 40,000 for the first time in 63 years since male nurses first obtained licenses in 1962.
The proportion of men among all licensed nurses (over 560,000) has also exceeded 7%. Male nurses were first trained at the Seoul Hygiene Hospital Nurse Training Center (the predecessor of Samyook Health University) in 1936, and 22 men were trained until 1961. However, since nurse licenses were only granted to women at that time, these men were not recognized as nurses.
In Korea, Mr. Jo Sang-moon, who served as the principal of Seoul Hygiene Nursing School, was the first man to receive a nurse license in 1962.
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