Quality of Nurses' Work Experience, Nursing Care, and Their Relationships With Nurses' Attributes

Thursday, July 22, 2004
9:30 AM - 10:00 AM
Thursday, July 22, 2004
2:30 PM - 3:00 PM

Miwa Suzuki, RN, DNSc¹, Kumiko Hongo, RN, MNs², Tomomi Kameoka, RN, DNSc³, Naomi Funashima, RN, DNSc¹, and Midori Sugimori, RN, BLL⁴. (1) School of Nursing, Chiba University, Chiba, Chiba, Japan, (2) Research Student, School of Nursing, Chiba University, Chiba, Chiba, Japan, (3) National College of Nursing Japan, Kiyose, Tokyo, Japan, (4) Gunma Prefectural College of Health Science, Gunma Prefectural College of Health Science, Maebashi, Gunma, Japan

METHODS: 1,060 nurses in Japan were asked to answer the instrument packet, which included the Quality of Nurses' Work Experience Scale (QNWES), the Self-Evaluation Scale of Nursing Care based on Patient Behavior (SES of NP), and the Questionnaire for Nurses' Attributes (QNA). The each three instruments have well-established validity and reliability. The data were analyzed statistically (correlation coefficient, t-test, and ANOVA).

FINDINGS & CONCLUSIONS: 730 (66.3%) nurses returned their answers by mail, and 540 valid responses were analyzed. The result indicated that there was a significant correlation between the score of QNWES and that of SES of NP (r=.437, p<.001), and thus it was found that the higher the nurse self-evaluated the quality of work experience, the higher she self-evaluated the quality of nursing care. The result of the exploration of the attributes of nurses associated with both quality of work experience and nursing care identified 15 attributes among 30 examined (p<.05 ),in this study. The 15 attributes were as follows; "position", "years of clinical experience", "years of working experience at one's hospital", "worthwhileness of the job", "agreement with the hospital policies", "need for academic degree or another license related with nursing", "conducting of self-evaluation on nursing care", "functional specialization in one's unit", "satisfaction for one's job", "satisfaction for work conditions", "age", "marital status", "having children", "resource persons to continue working", and "income". It is necessary to conduct multivariate analysis among the 15 attributes of nurses and both quality of work experience and quality of nursing care, in order to specify important relationships among them.