2008 Volume 19 Issue 3 Pages 233-252
Background: Demand for nursing care is expected to increase in Japan based on factors such as a graying of society and changes in disease structure. However, not all workplaces currently have an enough nursing staff. Specifically, Home-visit Nursing Care Stations（Stations）are expected to be an important role in at-home care, but they are currently understaffed. Surveys have been conducted on the workplace attributes when nurses are seeking employment with the objective of eliminating this labor shortage, but little research has been done to quantitatively evaluate the relative importance among attributes.
Objectives: The objective of this study was to investigate workplace selection behavior among visiting nurses.
Methods: An initial survey was conducted covering all 313 Stations in Kanagawa Prefecture to confirm willingness to participate in the survey. A mail survey was then conducted targeting 369 nurses working at 77 Stations based on the initial survey results. Ten hypothetical workplace scenarios were presented to the nurses based on 5 attributes {（full-time/part-time situation, monthly salary, overtime, workplace environment and organizational culture (such as clear delineation of work responsibilities and presence of a backup system）, education and training（participation in training outside the station and the holding of case review meetings within the station.）} The respondents were then asked to indicate their order of preference for these hypothetical workplaces from 1 to 10. A conjoint analysis was used to determine the relative importance among attributes in the hypothetical workplace.
Results: The employment preference order for hypothetical workplace scenarios was analyzed for 221 respondents. The gender of the respondents was 99% female with a mean age of 41 years old and a mean of 5 years of home visiting nurse experience. Nurses place the most relative importance on full-time/part-time. Workplace environment and organizational culture was next. A relationship was found between full time/part-time preference in a hypothetical workplace and the actual full-time/part-time situation of the nurses. The monthly salary utility value was related to household annual income and respondent's actual salary.
Conclusions: We found the attributes which are important in attracting Station employees included offering several full-time/part-time options, a well-established workplace environment and organizational culture that clearly delineates responsibilities and provides organizational backup system and opportunities for education and training. In future study, an additional attribute covering the different types of workplaces should be added to the current 5 attributes and all nurses seeking employment should be surveyed.
