This file photo shows Seoul Medical Center in southern Seoul. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, June 9 (Korea Bizwire) – Samsung Medical Center, one of South Korea’s major general hospitals, has introduced a flexwork program for nurses working at wards for hospitalized patients, enabling them to choose their particular hours of work instead of following a typical three shift work schedule.
In addition to the typical three shift work schedule, the nurses can choose among four different work schedules – a fixed day or night shift, a rotating shift in the order of daytime-evening, daytime-night, or evening-night, a fixed night shift, and a 12-hour two shift option, on a monthly basis.
The flexwork program is currently implemented at 48 of the hospital’s 56 wards. In other words, 86 percent of the hospital’s wards have adopted the new system.
During the six-month trial before the implementation of the flexwork program, the share of the nurses who selected the typical three shift work schedule remained low at around 1 percent.
At 30 percent, roughly one third of the nurses chose the fixed day-time work schedule, with the share of the nurses who chose the 12-hour two shift work schedule estimated at 50 percent.
“The typical three shift work schedule felt like jet lag. Now, I can work harder and feel less fatigue since I can sleep more.” said one of the nurses who participated in the trial.
Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
