Abstract
The purpose of this study is to clarify the attributes of psychiatric nurses and psychiatric hospitals that are characteristic in the organizational commitment of nurses. The study subjects were 1,313 registered or practical psychiatric nurses working in 13 Japanese psychiatric hospitals located in Kanto and westward. The survey used a Japanese version of Allen & Meyer's three-dimension commitment scale and questionnaires concerning the attributes of nurses and hospitals. The result was that psychiatric nurses scored high in continuous commitment. Affective commitment was influenced by their relationship with superiors, colleagues, and specialist apart from nurses in the hospital, patients' family members and patients' family organizations, and management. Continuance commitment was effected by length of working and income. Affective commitment has been found to be associated with increased productivity of organizations. So, these results suggest that improvement in relationships with hospital staff, patients' family members, and patients' family organizations will increase the affective commitment of psychiatric nurses.
