Fact-finding Survey on Years of Experience in Operative Nursing Request for Assignment, and Work Continuation

Abstract

Purpose: To clarify the years of nurses' experience in surgical nursing, their wish to be assigned to an operating theater, and the actual conditions of their continued work.

Methods: An anonymous, self-administered questionnaire survey was conducted among operating room nurses nationwide. The survey comprised 35 items related to the attributes and experiences of their continued work; responses were given on a four-level ordinal scale. Respondents were classified into five groups according to their years of experience and two groups according to their wish to be assigned to an operating theater. Analyses were performed via Kruskal–Wallis and Mann–Whitney U tests. The significance level was set at 5%.

Results: Among the 560 (58.0%) respondents, 56.3% wished to be assigned to an operating theater and 42.3% did not. There was no difference in the mean of 2.9 (±1.1) years of experience for "ever wanted to quit working." Conversely, the mean of 2.1 (±1.1) years of experience for "quit working" was higher than the overall mean of ≤1, 2–3, and 4–5 years of experience. The nurses' wish to be assigned to an operating theater revealed no differences.

Conclusion: The reasons for quitting the operating room were mostly the desire to transfer to a ward or another department. Nurses with 6–7 and 8 years or longer experience had lower values for many items than the overall average, suggesting that their sense of self-worth and satisfaction with the current situation led them to continue working in the operating room.