Reality of Nurses’ Work Roster Culture

Abstract

This research examined the values, actions and decisions that nurses have in common with respect to roster scheduling, which was defined as the "work roster culture," in their respective departments, and sought to find the connections between the constituent factors and the attributes of the nurses' roster and their degree of satisfaction with the roster. An anonymous, self-administered questionnaire survey was conducted on 1,565 full-time nurses working in hospitals with over 200 beds (excluding those who produced the rosters) throughout Japan. Nine hundred and seventeen valid responses were obtained (with a response rate of 58.6%). The factor analyses found that the "work roster culture" comprised three factors; "consideration for other nurses," "respect for other individuals' rights and lifestyles," and "respect for the hierarchical relationship between senior and junior nurses." In terms of the connection between the "roster culture" and marriage status of the nurse in the "consideration of other nurses" (t=3.759, p<.001) and "respect for the hierarchical relationship between senior and junior nurses" (t=4.661, p<.001), unmarried nurses had significantly higher scores than married nurses. Moreover, nurses with children younger than school age had significantly higher scores for "respect for other individuals' rights and lifestyles" (t=2.114, p<.005) and "respect for the hierarchical relationship between senior and junior nurses" (t=2.233, p<.005) than nurses with school-age children.