A bill that would see nurses gain an expanded role in health care gained approval from a parliamentary subcommittee Tuesday for a plenary vote Wednesday afternoon. 

The Health and Welfare Committee's legislation subcommittee met Tuesday night to discuss the Nursing Act, which would introduce a new category of medical professional, the physician assistant nurse. 

Under the bill, physician assistant nurses would be authorized to provide certain patient services that currently only physicians can offer, in the wake of massive resignations of trainee doctors earlier this year. 

The bill, expected to pass in a plenary parliamentary session on Wednesday afternoon, does not stipulate the precise roles and responsibilities of a physician assistant nurse as ruling and opposition lawmakers of the committee agreed to set details in an enforcement ordinance later. 

Meanwhile, the Korea Medical Association denounced the subcommittee’s decision and threatened to call for a doctors’ strike, saying the Nursing Act would threaten public health and cause confusion about the duties of different health care providers. Ultimately, the association said, its passage would lead to the collapse of the health care system.