[A Study on Dispatched Nursing during the Japanese Colonial Era]

This study aimed to explore the characteristics of dispatched nursing, a type of private nursing called Hasutsu, during the Japanese colonial period in Korea. This specialized and professional nursing was a form of a dispatched nursing service provided by nurses associations.

This study reviewed a literature on visiting nursing, a literature on dispatched nursing, focusing on data collected during the Japanese colonial period from August 1910 to August 1945. Study design was a document research study of historical records.

The dispatched nursing service was established by the Japanese nurses in Korea. More than 60 nurses associations operated to meet the demands in the modern Korean nursing period. It was found that some associations tried to raise the nursing fees. Also, the practice of employing visiting nurses who did not have a license was criticized severely in the newspapers. Considering that the data was limited in this study, the existence of Korean nurses association employing Korean visiting nurses has not been specifically identified.

The findings reveal some aspects of dispatched nursing provided by the nurses associations in that era. The nurses associations developed their own specialized service independently by dispatching nurses to fulfill the needs of people not only with cheaper nursing fares than hospitals but with convenient nursing care services, including customized care for infectious diseases. A study of modern historical records of Korean nurses would facilitate deeper research into Korean nursing history.