More than half of student nurses experienced some form of sexual harassment while undergoing training at hospitals, a survey showed Friday.

As many as 97 students, or 50.8 percent of the 191 surveyed, said they experienced unwanted attention, according to the survey carried out between May and June last year that was featured in the December edition of the Korean Journal of Women Health Nursing.

The students reported 147 harassment cases such as intentional blocking of passage, overt gazes, hugging and other forms of unwanted physical contact.

Also reported were 72 verbal and 55 visual harassment cases.

Verbal harassment included obscene jokes, conversations and phone calls, while visual harassment centered on staring at parts of their body. 

(Yonhap)

They also reported 46 cases of gender-role-related harassment such as forcing them to sit next to someone regardless of their preferences.

About 71.1 percent of victims said they were harassed more than twice, with 93.8 percent or 91 assailants being patients and 6.2 percent or 6 being their guardians.

By age, those in their 40s and 50s accounted for 77.4 percent of harassment cases.

About 84.5 percent or 82 victims of the sexual harassment, however, did not take any action against the perpetrators, while only 15.5 percent said they lodged a complaint.

The reason why they did not respond was that they did not know what to do (59.2 percent), they felt they would not be able to get help (46.1 percent), they did not have the courage to respond (39.3 percent) and they were afraid of retaliation by those they reported on (33.0 percent). (Yonhap)