Development of advanced practice nurses in South Korea.

In Korea, since the first specialized areas of nursing were first recognized in 1973, 10 areas have been established by the Medicine Law, 2003: public health, anesthesia, mental health, home care nursing, gerontological nursing, critical care nursing, industrial nursing, hospice, emergency nursing, and infection control. Education for advanced practice nurses is the MSN level curriculum requiring 33 credit semester hours or more. However, there are several problems to be solved and challenges to be overcome before offering advanced nursing practice to the population. Those tasks and their plausible solutions were discussed in the article.