Abstract

• Nursing is a discipline that helps to understand human being, to mitigate pains in life by promoting and recovering health, and to study the basic principles in sustaining and preserving life. To understand man and thus to nurse, it is essential to take the way of life of the specific person, his/her ideas, and natural environment into consideration. This means, the temperament, geography, environment and society peculiar to Korea have formed its own culture distinguished from those of other people. Thoughts and philosophy develop as a products of the specific culture and society. Therefore, accurate understanding of the concepts of nursing in the traditional thoughts and philosophy is indispensible to define Korean nursing. Modern Korean nursing at first rooted in the westernized nursing and western nursing intervention has been applied ever since its introduction in the late 19th century under the paradigm of western natural science. However, Koreans in the past made use of alternative therapy which put its emphasis on the organic and holistic view of life as well as a means for traditional medicine and nursing. This alternative therapy has been largely ignored since the introduction of western medical science, and was considered something used only by the aged or the uneducated. Moreover, Health concerned practices and customary traditional therapy have been discarded in the clinical medicine as "unscientific" or "unsystematic". As described above, it is true that Korean nursing has developed in the quantitative aspect only adhering to western nursing intervention. Now it is the time to stop to hold ourself and to look back our past. To find and develop the originality of Korean nursing to cope with the globalization, it is necessary to rediscover nursing (alternative) therapy in Korean culture ignored so far. For this purpose, this study examines the oriental philosophy to explore alternative nursing theory now under development. Also it aims to present ways to apply alternative therapy to nursing education, research and clinical practices and ultimately to show the desirable direction of the nursing to go in the future. Yangsaeng theory of Taoism and Yin-yang, Oh-hang(five elements) and khi theory in Dongeuibogam which gave enormous influences on Korean medical culture and treatment together with Sahsang(four temperaments) emphasized in Dongeuisusebowon will be examined as conceptual framework. Concepts of nursing are categorized into views on each the universe, the human being and nursing. Views on human being is classified into subcategories of body, life, health, and disease. Also it emphasizes the necessity of including alternative therapy in nursing intervention. Views on the universe is classified into yin-yang, khi, and temperament. Nursing will be available anywhere and easily accessible with this new nursing intervention. Trying to give a new thoughts to all those traditional concepts and alternative therapy, this article suggests the necessity of developing original Korean nursing theory and nursing intervention.
• Keywords: Korean Nursing intervention; Alternative

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