The purpose of this study is to analyze domestic ethical issues and discussions related to the COVID-19 pandemic and to provide basic data for improving various policies and systems to solve ethical issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 28 documents included in this study are domestic literature conducted or published in 2020 and 2021, immediately after the outbreak of COVID-19, and domestic academic papers or thesis papers including 'Corona OR Covid OR corona' and 'Ethics OR morality' were searched throughout the paper. According to the literature analysis, a total of six topics were found: ethics theory needed in the COVID-19 pandemic, citizens' rights, research ethics such as COVID-19 vaccine development, COVID-19 ethical behavior and experience research, medical resources and vaccine distribution in the COVID-19 pandemic. Since numerous ethical issues are involved in newly created policies and institutions in the process of responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been shown that these ethical discussions are essential to create policies and institutions in reality, not stay at the theoretical level.

This study aimed to investigate the levels of perception of, knowledge of, and attitude toward patient safety and identify factors that affected patients’ attitude towards patient safety. In this descriptive study, participants included 196 patients hospitalized at a tertiary hospital in South Korea. Data were collected using self-reported questionnaires. Perception of and attitude towards patient safety were measure with a tool developed by Ahn Jin-ok, and the questionnaire for knowledge of patient safety was developed by researchers based on a literature review and validated by an expert group. Data were analyzed with Pearson’s correlation coefficients and multiple regression. The average perception of patient safety was 35.48(±6.80) out of 50; the average knowledge of patient safety was 84.33(±8.66) out of 100; and the average attitude towards patient safety was 36.88(±3.74) out of 50. The perception and knowledge of patient safety, level of hospital safety, and age were identified as influential factors explaining 13% of the variation in attitude towards patient safety. The results showed that the direct and indirect educational experience of patients may increase their perception and knowledge of patient safety that can influence their attitude towards patient safety. Therefore, patient education would be an important intervention to improve patients’ attitude towards patient safety. We recommend further studies with educational interventions for improving patient safety activities.

Purpose: This study was attempted to investigate the relationship among workplace bulling, organizational silence, organizational justice, ethical climate, and intent to leave in hospital nurses. Methods: This study was a cross-sectional survey. Data were collected from 267 full-time nurses working at one general hospital in South Korea from June 10 to 30, 2022 and analyzed using the SPSS 25.0 program. Results: As a result of the study, workplace bullying averaged 1.81 (out of 4), organizational silence 2.60 (out of 5), organizational fairness 3.06 (out of 5), ethical climate 3.57 (out of 5), and intent to leave was 2.88 (out of 5). The higher workplace bullying and organizational silence, the lower organizational justice and ethical climate, the intent to leave of hospital nurses was high. Organizational justice, workplace bullying, and age could explain their intent to leave of 37.0%. Conclusion: It Is found that it is important to increase organizational justice and prevent workplace bullying in order to lower hospital nurses' intent to leave. So it is concluded that managers should disclose the process and results of organization operation, and prepare measures to prevent bullying in the workplace centered the vulnerable.

This study was conducted to understand the current status of regional health inequalities and nurse supply and demand policies, and to suggest ways to supply nurses to regions where nurses are scarce. Secondary data such as academic papers, government announcements, and related laws were analyzed, and the results were reviewed from various perspectives to derive policy proposals. Health professions were distributed around large cities including Seoul, and those regions had relatively high health levels. However, the number of hospital beds increased steadily, mainly in the non-metropolitan area. This seems to be one of the reasons why there is always a shortage of nurses in the local medical field despite the supply of nurses, and it can be a factor that aggravates regional inequalities. In order to solve the chronic shortage of nurses, supply-oriented policies such as increasing the admission quota and utilizing inactive nurses, and demand-oriented policies such as regulations on the nurse staffing level and improvement of the incentive scheme for quality evaluation of hospital service have been implemented. In the past, the focus was simply on the quantitative expansion of nurses, but recently, policies that emphasize the qualitative aspect of nursing are being promoted. However, the policy for the distribution aspect of nurses is still somewhat incomplete. Therefore, to solve this problem, strengthening the nurse staffing level in medical institutions, promoting nursing policies led by local governments, developing standard wage guidelines, and training nurses as public health personnel were proposed.

With the enforcement of the “Act on decisions on life-sustaining treatment for patients at the end of life” in February 2018, discussion on advanced care planning (ACP) has increased. However, as decisions on life-sustaining treatments are still made in the intensive care unit, deaths related to the suspension of life-sustaining treatment account for a large proportion of deaths in the intensive care unit. The nurses encounter challenges in supporting the patient's dignified death; they experience an ethical dilemma in the ambiguity due to a lack of guidance on legal responsibilities regarding decisions on life-sustaining treatment. In order for the nurses to perform as a supporter providing care to the patients and as a advocate during the process of decision-making on life-sustaining treatment, there should be a systemic change to ensure the nurses' participation. In addition, an open and continuous discussion should be proposed to cultivate nurses’ ethical sensitivity and moral courage. This paper reports two ethical examples related to the decisions on life-sustaining treatment occurred in intensive care units of a tertiary hospital.

The restraints are used in the intensive care unit as a way to restrict the movement of the whole body or part of the body for the safety of the patient, such as maintaining medical equipment, preventing falls and patient self tube removal through regulating the patient's behavior. However, the physical restraints are used for the physical safety of the patient, but that is cause a variety of physical and psychological complications. Thus, nurses in intensive care units who apply restraint on face an ethical dilemma in the confrontation between the nurse's duty to improve the patient's health and protect the patient's safety and the value of the patient's autonomy and dignity. We have two examples are proposed to identify the ethical dilemma situation faced by nurses, to induce an active attitude towards elimination by establishing exactly restraint - removal criteria. In addition, it is proposed to seek a balance of individual values through active communication between the patient and the medical staff regarding the application of the restraint.