Current Status of Role Stress Among Certified Nurses in Japan Comparison Among Joint Appointees, Semi-Joint Appointees, and Non-Joint Appointees

Wednesday, 1 August 2012

Yumiko Miyakubi, RN, MNS
Department of nursing, Self-Defense Forces Central Hospital, Tokyo, Japan
Tomomi Kameoka, RN, DNSc
Nursing Education, National College of Nursing Japan, Kiyose, Japan

Learning Objective 1: The learner will be able to know the current status of joint appointment among Certified Nurses in Japan.

Learning Objective 2: The learner will be able to know the current status of the role stress among Certified Nurses in Japan.

Purpose: To compare role stress among Certified Nurses (CN) in Japan who are joint appointees, semi-joint appointees, and non- joint appointees.

Methods: A conceptual framework was constructed based on a literature review. Role stress was measured using a subscale of the Japanese Version of the NIOSH Job Stress Questionnaire. It has 14 items on a seven-point Likert scale. The CN Attribute Questionnaire was used to examine the 39 attributes of CN. One thousand and thirty one Certified Nurses, those in Emergency Nursing, in Wound, Ostomy and Continence Nursing, in Intensive Care, in Palliative Care, in Cancer Chemotherapy Nursing, in Cancer Pain Management Nursing and in Infection Control were asked to participate in the survey administered by postal mail and 524 agreed. The answers were analyzed statistically.

Results: Four hundred and seventy eight (91.2%) CN responded, and 470 valid data were analyzed. Three hundred and fifty three (75.1%) were joint appointees (Group A),53 (11.3%) were semi-joint appointees (Group B), 62 (13.2%) were non-joint appointees (Group C), two (0.4%) did not respond. The results showed that there were significant differences in ten attributes between these three groups such as the clarity of their role, the working time spent as a CN, agreement on the role of CN with their superior, self-evaluation of the outcome, satisfaction with their work (p<.05).The mean score of role stress for Group A was 56.6 (SD=11.6), Group B was 51.1 (SD=8.9), Group C was 50.8 (SD=12.9). The results showed that the score of role stress for Group A was very high, there was a significant difference between the three groups (p<.05).

Conclusion: Joint appointees of CN perceived role stress strongly. To consider the cause of stress for CN is an important issue for the future.