Review for legislation of telenursing: Focusing on telecare law in France

The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted significant transformations in the traditional face-to-face provision of healthcare services, leading to a global surge in diverse forms of digital health. Internationally, there is a growing focus on fostering the digital health industry for disease treatment and health promotion, beyond just teleconsultation and telemedicine. Various healthcare professionals are actively participating in a broad range of telehealth practices, including tele-education, tele monitoring, and telecounseling, with corresponding legislative frameworks being put in place. In response to the COVID-19 crisis, South Korea temporarily permitted telemedicine between physicians and patients. Subsequently, as positive public sentiment towards telemedicine emerged, a revised bill concerning telemedicine was reintroduced. However, the proposed amendments to the medical law still primarily revolve around teleconsultations between doctors and patients, predominantly within hospital. Within South Korea, nurses have been actively engaged in telenursing tasks, encompassing support for teleconsultations, remote monitoring of patients, telecounseling, remote explanations, remote observations, telesurveillance, and tele-education of patients’s family. This involvement extends beyond the context of the COVID-19 infectious disease crisis, encompassing routine scenarios, as part of the Ministry of Health and Welfare's community-based telehealthcare pilot program. Nonetheless, the existing legal framework in South Korea fails to adequately address this reality. Given the actual landscape of remote healthcare in the country and its potential for further advancement, it is crucial to establish legal provisions that encompass the expected roles and responsibilities of nurses, which currently remain unaddressed within the prevailing medical laws. This study considered France which stipulated and legislated the scope of nurse roles, conditions and fees for performance within Telecare Act that was added in Telehealth law in 2019. Through this, this paper discuss the problems and implications of the pilot project about telemedicine in South Korea and matters that should be included in the revision of the law.