Positive work environments for nurses improve patient safety and quality of care, and decrease nurses’ intention to leave work. A previous study suggested many nurses in Japan felt difficulties in interacting with people whose personalities were not inclined toward collaboration. However, such characteristics have not been documented as a set of facts. This study aimed to describe characteristics of hospital personnel in Japan who are difficult to work with.
Methods:
In a previous study, 445 nurses (return rate: 55.8%) returned a questionnaire. From these, 352 valid responses were analyzed to identify staff nurses’ perceptions of hatarakinikusa, a Japanese concept of expressing one’s negative or disagreeable perceptions about situations or other factors that make one’s workplace less agreeable. The present study focused on one of the categories expressing hatarakinikusa, as 225 descriptions derived from the category “presence of personnel whose characteristics are not desirable for collaboration” were subject to content analysis for nursing education based on Berelson’s methodology. Reliability of the analysis was confirmed by discussing with other researchers familiar with the qualitative approach.
Results:
Thirty-seven categories expressing characteristics of personnel who were difficult to work with included: 1) expressing one’s emotions too bluntly, 2) arrogance, 3) bullying staff nurses, 4) speaking ill of others either in private or in public, 5) not fulfilling one’s role, 6) not paying attention to others’ allocated tasks, 7) having different opinion, and 8) having a different view of nursing. Of the descriptions of 1, 2, and 3, 46% were described as doctors’ characteristics, 37% as staff nurses’, and 17% as nurse managers’. Descriptions of 1, 2, and 3 accounted for about 40% of the total.
Conclusion:
Thirty-seven categories expressing characteristics of personnel who were difficult to work with were described. It was suggested that not only nurses, but also other personnel, could greatly contribute to creating positive, collaborative workplaces through self-reflection on the results from an objective standpoint.