Learning Objective #1: Describe characteristics of the nursing workplace culture in Korea at the organizational, nursing practice, and individual levels

Learning Objective #2: Identify areas that require renewal and explore strategies to enhance the nursing workplace culture

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This study aimed to develop a systematic tool to diagnose the nursing workplace culture and to apply it to hospitals in Korea. Following a review of the literature, individual in-depth interviews with five nurses and a focus group with four nurses were conducted. Findings were merged to create a questionnaire, which was reviewed twice and modified by six nurse experts. This questionnaire was piloted (n=30) and subsequently used in a survey of 301 nurses at ten major hospitals in Korea. Descriptive statistics, ANOVA, and c² test were used to analyze the data. Seventy-nine statements describing the nursing workplace culture were identified and differences at the hospital level, nursing practice level, and individual level were analyzed. Statements with the highest ratings were "nursing is an excellent profession" (average= 5.090) at the hospital nursing organization level, "doing the work flawlessly" (average=6.013) at the nursing practice level, and "favoring superiors who can give satisfactory answers to a junior's inquiry" (average= 6.077) at the individual level. Twenty significant dimensions in the nursing workplace culture were identified: 1) at the overall hospital level, autonomy, service spirit, specialty, innovation, perfection, flexibility, responsibility, reprimands, nursing ethics, burden, and adaptability to change; and 2) at the individual level, vivacity, selflessness, competitiveness, conflict with superiors, uniformity, growth of the nursing profession, loose control, strictness, and responsible for patient condition were noted. Comparison of mean score and standard deviation for these characteristics found that some positive characteristics (perfection, selflessness, service spirit, vivacity, autonomy, strictness) as well as negative characteristics (burden, reprimands, conflict with superiors) were shared by many nurses across hospitals. Other positive characteristics (advancement of the nursing profession, nursing ethics, adaptability to change) had high average scores but were not largely shared by respondents. The presentation will also include responses on nursing leadership, job satisfaction, and other areas.