Welfare Needs of Female Officers in the Korean military

여군장교의 복지욕구

The objective of this study is to provide basic information for planning and practicing social welfare services for married nurse officers serving in the Korean military. For such a purpose, this study identifies the difficulties which married nurse officers have faced and the necessary services which are supposed to alleviate them. The data were collected by sending a questionnaire to 114 married nurse officers from July 16 to August 10, 2001. The results of this study are as follows: First, the married nurse officers were relatively dissatisfied with such domains as child care and education, health, and housing. And among the thirty-four problems, the married nurse officers expressed the most serious dissatisfaction with the difficulty in attending the events held in child's school, lack of children's dormitory run by the military, difficulty in adjusting to the school due to frequent house-moving, and limited access to dental care. Second, the married nurse officers needed services in domains such as housing, child care and education, and health. Specifically, they wanted the military-run housing, child care facility within military hospitals, maternity leave for child care and education, extension of risk allowances, and support for BOQ. Third, with regard to the seriousness of problems as well as the priority of services, the married nurse officers gave higher priority to such domains as child care and education, health, and housing. These results indicate that married nurse officers were to the largest extent concerned with these three domains and that they had the urgent need for services relevant to those domains. The importance of routine need assessments as well as solutions to the family-related problems for married nurse officers is therefore suggested in this study.