Comparison of working conditions among non-regular visiting nurses in public health centers based on their employment types

Abstract

Purpose: This study is to investigate working conditions including job stress among visiting nurses in public health centers in Korea. Methods: An social network based mobile survey was conducted in May 2017 (N=936, response rate: 47.0%). Results: The visiting nurses in this study had their average total career as a nurse is 13.7 years. The 68.3% of them were employed in an indefinite term, 17.0% were hired in a fixed term, and 11.0% came from outsourcing. They responded as high job-stress level including inadequate compensation (71.22/100) and job demands (71.91/100). They experienced down-talk (63.4%), swearwords (32.9%), being made a dirty face (39.9%), sexual jokes (30.8%), or being likened or evaluated with their appearance sexually (14.3%). Among the causes of job related conflicts and discrimination, deprived salary level was the most frequent reason (83.4%). The conflicts and discrimination were incurred by government officers (52.4%). There were no significant differences in overall job stress, emotional labor, organizational commitment, violence, and discrimination experience based on their employment types. Conclusion: The differences in working conditions among the non-regular nurses were trivial, and their overall working conditions were poor. It is necessary to improve non-regular nurses' working conditions in order to make up the limitations of the Korean healthcare system which is centered on hospitals. © 2018 Korean Academy of Community Health Nursing.