ScholarWorks@숙명여자대학교

초록

This study examines the establishment and development of the Red Cross College of Nursing, founded on October 15, 1945, based on the humanitarian spirit of the Red Cross, among the many nursing education institutions established in Korea after liberation. The origins of the Red Cross College of Nursing can be traced back to the Red Cross Nursing Training School established in January 1920 under the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea in Shanghai by the Korean Red Cross. Although the training school produced only thirteen graduates from its first class and closed after one year due to financial difficulties and challenges in recruiting students, nursing education continued when the Japanese Red Cross Society established a nurses’ training institute at the Chosun Headquarters Hospital (present-day Seoul Red Cross Hospital) in 1923, which operated until Korea’s liberation. Following liberation, the nursing education system was reorganized under the U.S. military government, which established a Bureau of Nursing within the health administration. In accordance with newly promulgated nursing education regulations, nursing schools across the country revised their institutional systems. As part of this process, the Korean Red Cross opened the Red Cross Higher Nursing School affiliated with Seoul Red Cross Hospital. Since its establishment, the school underwent several name changes reflecting government nursing policies and social demands: it became the Red Cross Nursing School in 1962, the Red Cross Nursing Junior College in 1973, and the Red Cross College of Nursing in 1979. The institution was renamed the Red Cross College of Nursing in 1998 and continued under this name until 2011, when it was integrated with the Department of Nursing at Chung-Ang University and reorganized as the Chung-Ang University Red Cross College of Nursing. In the process of evolving from a hospital-affiliated training institution into a higher education institution for professional nurses, the Red Cross nursing school played a significant role in society based on the humanitarian principles of the Red Cross. During wartime, it provided nursing care for soldiers and trained military nursing students. In response to the persistent shortage of nursing personnel, the school established a night program in 1982―the first among nursing education institutions in Korea―to admit licensed nurse assistants and provide education equivalent to the daytime program. Since the 1990s, the institution has also introduced new curricula and research institutes to address emerging social issues such as childcare and large-scale disasters. Despite the political and social changes of modern Korean history, the Red Cross nursing school consistently sought to cultivate nursing professionals grounded in humanitarian values. As such, it represents an important educational and social practice that formed a significant part of the history of medical workforce development in modern Korea.

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