2003 Volume 6 Issue 2 Pages 27-45
In order to clarify the attitudes toward policies in the field of nursing and health care among nursing professionals, and to identify the factors that strengthen the interest of these professionals in these policies, a postal survey was conducted using a self-administered questionnaire. The subjects of the survey were nursing professionals (nurses, public health nurses, midwives, licensed practicing nurses) in Japan, and valid replies were obtained from 5,602 respondents (57.6 %).
1. Approximately 80 % of the respondents expressed interest in nursing and health care policies. Interest tended to be greater among the more senior nursing professionals, among those in administrative positions, and among those who had attended lectures or seminars on nursing and health care policies. To the question on what acted as the motivating factor for their interest in nursing policies, the most frequent reply was, "reports of malpracrtices by the mass media", followed by "I was faced with problems in the medical workplace."
2. Only 60% expressed intertst in the decision-making process before the promulgation of nursing policies. When asked why they had no interest in this decision-making process, more than half of the respondents cited the fact that they "weren't given any information" about the policy decision-making process.
3. The primary sources of information on nursing and health care policies were the mass media, the Japanese Nursing Association and "word of mouth"; however, 80 % of the respondents felt that these sources did not provide adequate information about nursing policies.
4. More than half of the respondents answered that they did not take nursing policies into consideration when voting in the elections. This main reasons were as follows; "there were other hot political issues", "I did not know which candidates were supporting nursing".
5. It was speculated that lack of information about nursing policy or the attitude toward nursing of each candidate also influenced their voting behavior, and this was remarkable in the younger group.
6. When the right or wrong information disclosure about the attitude toward nursing of each candidate was asked, 54.4 % agreed and only 2.1 % disagreed.
7. In order to strengthen interest in nursing policies among nursing professionals, the courses on nursing and health care policies must be made a mandatory part of the nursing curriculum, and the number of opportunities for practicing nurses to study policy must be increased. In addition, the results of the surver suggest that a reliable system needs to be developed and maintained for disseminating the latest news regarding nursing health care policies and the policy decision-making processes.
