PPP proposes new nursing act ahead of general elections

The ruling People Power Party (PPP) proposed a new nursing act Thursday after an earlier opposition-led proposal was scrapped following President Yoon Suk Yeol's veto, a move seen as aimed at wooing nurses for support in the upcoming general elections. The proposal, led by Rep. Yu Eui-dong, also came as the government is trying to have physician assistant nurses take on greater roles amid a protracted walkout by trainee doctors in protest of a hike in the country's medical school admission quota. In May last year, Yoon vetoed a nursing act led by the main opposition Democratic Party (DP), citing concerns that it could lead to confusion in the medical sector by allowing nurses to open clinics without doctors' supervision and potentially discriminate against nursing assistants. The PPP said the new proposal removed such contentious clauses. The party plans to pass the legislation through before the current National Assembly ends its term in late May. The proposal came as official campaigning kicked off for the April 10 general elections earlier Thursday amid growing predictions that the DP could win a resounding victory. In a meeting with the presidential director of national policy, Sung Tae-yoon, on Wednesday, a group representing nurses reportedly requested the government legislate a new nursing act that resolved some of the contested points in the previous version. Source: Yonhap News Agency