Nurses' job preferences on the internet plus nursing service program: a discrete choice experiment

Background The Internet Plus Nursing Service (IPNS) is being instigated in all provincial-level regions throughout China, in which registered nurses (with more than five years of experience from qualified medical institutions) will provide services to those in their communities or homes after receiving online applications. The growing shortage of human resources in nursing is a critical issue for this project, so effective policies for recruiting and retaining nurses are critical.

Objective This study aims to pinpoint the significant job characteristics that play a crucial role in shaping the job decisions of sharing nurses in the IPNS program, and to estimate the strength of job attributes.

Methods A discrete choice experiment (DCE) was used to assess job attributes influencing sharing nurses’ preferences. A qualitative design, including in-depth interview and focus interview methods, was conducted to determine the inclusion of attributes. The final included six attributes were: work modes, duration per visit, income per visit, personal safety, medical risk prevention, and refresher training. This study was conducted at 13 hospitals in Guangdong Province, China, from April to June 2022, and a total of 220 registered sharing nurses participated in the survey. The multinomial logit model explored attributes and relative valued utility. Preference heterogeneity is explored via latent class analysis (LCA) models.

Results A total of 220 participants answered the questionnaire. Income was the most influential characteristic of a sharing nursing position, followed by personal safety management, duration per visit, medical risk prevention, and refresher training, and nurses’ preferences differed among different types of classes.

Conclusions Sharing nurses place most value on income and personal safety with career-related decisions, which indicates an urgent need to develop complete security for personal safety. This study can be helpful to decision- makers in the Chinese government.

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