Nurses working at hospitals mostly work in teams to provide nursing care. Due to the rapid increasing number of nursing colleges, introduction of adult entrance examination systems, increasing number of male nurses, employment of foreign nurses, and so on, the nursing community in Japan has changed over the years, and nursing teams currently comprise nurses with various backgrounds. It is therefore essential that majority nurses, who share similar backgrounds, and minority nurses, whose backgrounds differ from those of the majority nurses, cooperate with each other and provide high-quality patient care. Hence, it is necessary for both majority and minority nurses to understand each other. This paper introduces research findings that contribute to the understanding of the experiences of minority nurses and provide suggestions for individual the occupational activities of nurses.

View full abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify the criteria contributing to staff nurses' perceptions of "Hatarakiyasusa" in hospitals and to discuss how to increase the "Hatarakiyasusa " in nurses' workplaces. The concept of "Hatarakiyasusa" is a specific Japanese concept expressing one's positive or agreeable perceptions about situations or other factors in one's workplace which make it a good place to work. A questionnaire including two types of open-ended questions asking for their perceptions of "Hatarakiyasusa" and the opposite of "Hatarakiyasusa" in their workplace was created for this study. Content validity of the questionnaire was established by conducting two pilot studies. Content analysis for nursing education based on Berelson's methodology was applied. Four hundred and forty-five nurses returned (return rate 55.8%) and 368 valid responses were analyzed. Thirty-nine criteria contributing to staff nurses' perceptions of "Hatarakiyasusa" were identified. The reliability of them was confirmed by calculating agreement rates using Scott's formula. They were all over 70%. The results indicated that the criteria by which staff nurses judge whether a situation or other factor occurring at their workplaces contributes to "Hatarakiyasusa" or the opposite can be grouped into three types; 1) criteria that could be influenced by continuing education or career development, 2) those connected directly to hospital or nursing management, and 3) those influenced by one's values and the circumstances of one's life. It is suggested that not only organizational structure but also individuals' contributions are very important in increasing nurses' perceptions of "Hatarakiyasusa" in hospitals.

View full abstract