J Korean Community Nurs.  1999 Dec;10(2):455-466.

Missionary Public Health Nursing of Korea during Japanese Colonial Period

• Yi G
• Kim H

Abstract

Western missionary nurses practiced in Korea from 1891. and the first trial to begin missionary public health nursing service in 1909 could not put into practice for short of nursing staff and budget. The main focus of missionary medical practice was not in public health program but in the management of missionary hospitals. A few of missionary western R.N. tried district nursing in 1910s. but their activities were personal and focused on the rescue of poor and sick patients. In 1917 the North American Methodist Church dispatched R.N. Elizabeth S. Roberts to begin district nursing in Korea. Roberts began maternal and child district nursing service. Her service was focused on teaching the method of bringing up children. bathing service, and home visiting for delivery. She could not but stop district-nursing service in 1918 to serve for a hospital in Siberia. The North American Methodist Church dispatched a few of R.N. to Korea in early 1920s and the missionary public health nursing of Korea could be activated. R.N. E. T. Rosenberger began public health nursing program in Seoul with Korean graduate nurse, Shin-gwang Han, and missionary M.D. Hall. Their public health nursing program was focused on maternal and childcare. They did home visiting in the morning, and served at a well baby clinic in the afternoon. The first baby competition began in 1925. and contributed to the teaching the method of bringing up children. They expanded public health nursing activity to school health nursing and milk station. Their public health nursing program was such a success that In 1929 Severance hospital. Eastgate Hospital. Taehwa Social Evangelistic center organized Seoul Child Health Union. Maren P. Bording, another missionary R.N. and midwife dispatched by the North American Methodist Church began public health nursing program at Kongjoo in 1924. Her program was focused on the maternal and childcare and close to that of Seoul. She started the first milk station in Korea in 1926. As she was a midwife and could get M. D. license in Korea, her program was more focused on maternal care than that of Seoul. The first day nursery school in Korea and the first graduate course for public health nursing in Korea began at Kongjoo in 1930. As the city of Choongcheongnam Province moved from Kongjoo to Daejeon in 1932, missionary public health nursing service in Kongjoo extended to Daejeon. There were lots of public health nursing program in Korea in 1920s and 1930s by missionary western nurses and Korean nurses. There were 13 missionary public health-nursing center in Korea in 1932. But in the late 1930s. Japan extended colonial war and drove out western missionaries. The missionary service in Korea was daunted. and the missionary public health nursing service could not but shrink.

MeSH Terms

Asian Continental Ancestry Group*
Baths
Budgets
Child
Child Health
Chungcheongnam-do
House Calls
Humans
Japan
Korea
Licensure
Midwifery
Milk
Missions and Missionaries*
Nursing
Nursing Services
Nursing Staff
Protestantism
Public Health
Public Health Nursing*
School Health Services
Schools, Nursery
Seoul
Siberia