Abstract
The purpose of this study was to clarify the actual state of assertiveness and the reality of non-assertive situations among nurse administrators in facilities for persons with severe physical disabilities. A questionnaire was distributed to 102 participants in a workshop for nurse administrators working in such facilities all over Japan. We investigated their gender, age, position, experience, assertiveness (Japanese version of Rathus assertiveness schedule), and the situations where they could not be assertive. The respondents were 72 nurse administrators with an average age of 51.4 and the average assertiveness score of -8.5. A content analysis based on Krippendorff's method was carried out on their descriptions of non-assertive situations between nurse administrators and their staff. The situations where they felt "I wanted to say/decline, but I could not do so" yielded six categories: 1) "I can't educate nurse managers," 2) "I can't adjust working schedule/staffing," 3) "I can't control the dress and appearance of the staff," 4) "I can't improve the relation among the staff," 5) "I can' t coordinate the work appropriately," and 6) "I can't teach the staff how to receive the patient." The situations where they felt "I should not have said/forced it" also yielded six categories: 1) "I can't give enough consideration to human relations between the staff," 2) "I can't respect the staff in personal consultation," 3) "I can't respect the staff in adjusting working schedule/staffing," 4) "I can't respect the staff in continuing education," 5) "I can't act appropriately as an administrator," and 6) "I can' t respect the staff in work coordination." The nurse administrators tended to claim "I could not say it" in the situation where cautioning someone seemed to be natural and even necessary for their duty. Furthermore, their strong sense of responsibility and reflection of their performance were characteristic to the situation where "I should not have said so."
