초고령사회 대비와 간호의 역할

Abstract

It is predicted that South Korea will enter a super-aging society in 2025, with the elderly population over 65 years old reaching 20% of the total. In addition, as the per capita medical expenses borne by the elderly population increase every year, the medical expenses of the elderly population are approximately three times higher than that of the entire population. This means that in Korea, medical expenses are concentrated in old age, and the death rate in medical institutions among the elderly population is high compared to developed countries. However, with the development of medical science and technology, with the advent of the centenarian era, life after retirement is getting longer, and there is an increasing number of people who want to die while taking care of their health at home rather than spending their old age in pain at a medical institution. If so, there is a need to explore ways to provide appropriate nursing and care at home to improve the quality of death in cases where medical need is low. As a way to achieve this, as in the examples of the United States, Japan, and Germany, it is necessary to subdivide qualifications and training courses beyond general nurses and solidify their status as intermediate medical providers with the authority to meet the demand for nursing care. In addition, in the case of Japan, as the need for home medical care increased for the elderly, the granting of authority to nurses to independently perform designated visiting nursing services can be evaluated as a flexible response to the trends of the medical market. The direction of these foreign cases has significant implications for South Korea, which is entering a super-aging society.