132 Annual Meeting Logo - Go to APHA Meeting Page  
APHA Logo - Go to APHA Home Page

Conflicts with Other Professionals in Home Care Nursing and Public Health Nursing Practices

Masako Sakai, MN, PHN, RN1, Hiroko Nagae, MN, PHN, RN1, Mutsumi Nakagima, RN2, Noa Miyata, PHN, RN2, Kiyomi Asahara, PhD, PHN, RN1, Toshie Miyazaki, MN, PHN, RN1, and Yumiko Momose, MA, RN3. (1) Community health nursing, St.Luke's College of Nursing, 10-1, Akashi-cho,Chuoku, Tokyo, 104-0044, Japan, 81-3-3543-6391, m-sakai@slcn.ac.jp, (2) Master's student, St.Luke's College of Nursing, 10-1, Akashi-cho,Chuoku, Tokyo, 104-0044, Japan, (3) School of Health Sciences, Shinshu University, 3-1-1, Asahi, Matsumoto,Nagano, 390-8621, Japan

Introduction: Japan has two kinds of nurse professionals in the community; public health nurses (PHNs) and home care nurses (HCNs). Each has different knowledge and approaches to community care; in common, their practice involves collaboration. Our purpose was to describe practice by focusing on conflicts with other professionals. Methods: Fifty-five HCNs and 66 PHNs in one prefecture responded to a questionnaire that included forced-choice and open-ended questions. The data were analyzed using statistics and content analysis. Results: Almost half of HCNs and PHNs have felt conflict with other professionals. The professionals who had different ideas from HCNs included care managers (51.9%), home helpers (18.5%), physicians (18.5%), and others (11.1%), whereas for PHNs, they were physicians (22%), social workers (17%), care managers (11%), nursery school teachers (11%), HCNs (8%), and others (31%). Compared with HCNs, PHNs experienced conflicts with many kinds of professionals. The conflict situations of HCNs with care managers were about resources allocation and care planning; with home helpers, the focus was concrete approaches to care. In contrast, those of PHNs included not only planning and approaches to care, but also obligations, priorities, and understanding of roles. Conclusions: Understanding professional conflicts may help create a basis for developing stronger community systems for clients and families. And, as a first step, collaboration between HCNs and PHNs should be encouraged.

Learning Objectives:

  • At the conclusion of the session, the participant in this session will be able to

    Keywords: Conflict Resolution, Collaboration

    Presenting author's disclosure statement:
    I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.

    Nursing and Global Health

    The 132nd Annual Meeting (November 6-10, 2004) of APHA