A new survey has found that confusion over job responsibilities, emotional labor, and staffing shortages remains a serious problem across Korea’s healthcare sector.
On Wednesday, the Korean Health and Medical Workers’ Union (KHMU) released the results of its “2026 Regular Survey of Healthcare Workers,” highlighting widespread structural issues in hospital workplaces. The survey was conducted from last Jan. 12 to 31 and included responses from 45,062 healthcare workers.
The Korean Health and Medical Workers’ Union announced the results of its “2026 Regular Survey of Healthcare Workers” on Wednesday, calling for urgent, customized policy measures that reflect the diverse characteristics of occupations, departments, and employment types in healthcare settings. (Credit: Getty Images)
According to the survey, 50.5 percent of respondents said they regularly perform tasks outside their assigned responsibilities. In addition, 35.9 percent said they perform duties from other occupations in addition to their original work.
Departments with the most frequent patient contact over a 24-hour period showed the highest rates of performing duties assigned to other professions.
More than half of workers in surgical departments (50.6 percent) reported handling tasks outside their professional roles, followed by internal medicine general wards (48.9 percent), VIP rooms, special wards, and isolation wards (48.8 percent), general outpatient departments (46.9 percent), and other specialized nursing and treatment units (44.5 percent).
In contrast, departments with relatively less direct patient contact showed lower rates of cross-occupational duties, including rehabilitation therapy teams (12.5%), laboratory medicine teams (12.7%), nutrition teams (16.5%), pharmacy teams (18.7%), and radiology departments (20.2%).
By work schedule, employees working three-shift rotations reported the highest rate of performing outside duties at 43.9 percent, compared with 30.9 percent among regular daytime workers, a gap of 13 percentage points.
The survey also found that while healthcare workers clearly understand their responsibilities, they often perform tasks outside their scope because job classifications within departments are not systematically organized or because of workplace realities. About 32.3 percent of respondents said their department's job responsibilities were not clearly structured. Nevertheless, 93.8 percent answered that they “accurately know what tasks they are responsible for.”
77% of healthcare workers experience emotional suppression amid a lack of institutional protection
The survey revealed that emotional labor is severe in healthcare settings, while institutional protections remain insufficient.
Among respondents, 77.3 percent said they had experienced suppressing their emotions while performing their duties. An additional 46.1 percent said they faced difficulties at work due to unreasonable or excessive demands from patients or others. Furthermore, 67.6 percent said those emotional burdens persisted even after work hours.
The highest rates of emotional suppression were found in departments involving direct patient interaction. General outpatient clinics recorded the highest rate at 87.5 percent, followed by internal medicine general wards (87.2 percent), dialysis units (87.2 percent), administrative and customer service departments (86.6 percent), VIP rooms, special wards, and isolation wards (85.8 percent), and integrated nursing care service wards (85.7 percent).
However, formal protections for emotional labor were lacking. Only 39.4 percent said their workplace had official regulations or procedures to address emotional labor, while 36.1 percent said manuals for handling emotional labor situations were available.
68% support AI adoption, but few expect reduced workload
Healthcare workers generally viewed artificial intelligence as beneficial for improving work efficiency, but fewer believed it would reduce labor intensity.
A total of 67.8 percent of respondents said introducing AI technologies would help improve work efficiency. However, only 48.4 percent believed AI adoption would reduce workload intensity within their institutions. Notably, 84.0 percent said healthcare workers’ opinions should be sufficiently reflected during the AI implementation process.
Departments most optimistic about AI improving efficiency included administrative and operational support units (87.8 percent), insurance review departments (85.2 percent), general administration (83.0 percent), health screening and occupational medicine centers (77.8 percent), other clinical support departments (76.5 percent), and laboratory medicine teams (76.2 percent).
Meanwhile, 29.9 percent expressed concerns that AI could replace their jobs, while 28.1 percent worried AI could threaten areas requiring professional expertise and judgment.
Concerns over AI replacement were highest in departments focused on data processing and administrative work, including insurance review departments (75.6 percent), administrative and customer support services (59.2 percent), laboratory medicine teams (52.4 percent), general administration (50.4 percent), and other administrative support departments (48.9 percent).
In contrast, departments involving direct patient care showed relatively low concern over AI replacement, including rehabilitation therapy teams (16.7 percent), VIP and isolation wards (19.4 percent), delivery rooms and neonatal units (20.2 percent), dialysis units (21.2 percent), psychiatric wards (21.7 percent), intensive care units (23.6 percent), and integrated nursing care service wards (23.9 percent).
Staffing levels, workload, and labor intensity drive turnover considerations
The survey also found that dissatisfaction with staffing levels, workload, and labor intensity increased in departments with frequent direct patient contact.
Internal medicine wards, operating rooms and recovery units, surgical wards, and VIP or isolation wards ranked among the top five departments dissatisfied with both workload and labor intensity.
Notably, a high proportion of workers reported considering leaving their jobs within the past three months. The rate reached 84.2 percent in VIP, special, and isolation wards, followed by internal medicine wards (76.9 percent), surgical wards (74.9 percent), delivery rooms and neonatal units (72.6 percent), and operating rooms, recovery rooms, and anesthesiology departments (72.4 percent).
Analysis of the data showed an 81.0 percent correlation between dissatisfaction with staffing levels and dissatisfaction with workload and labor intensity by department. In addition, staffing dissatisfaction was correlated with turnover consideration at 65.6 percent, while dissatisfaction with workload and labor intensity showed a 74.3 percent correlation with turnover consideration.
“The survey clearly demonstrates complex structural problems in healthcare workplaces, including unclear division of labor, intense emotional labor, differences in labor intensity between departments, and turnover risks linked to employment conditions,” the union said. “There is an urgent need for customized improvement measures that reflect the characteristics of different occupations, departments, and employment types.”
Kim Jung-hyun
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