Comparative study of public health nurses and administrators in terms of the required competence of experienced public health nurses working at prefectures in Japan

As Japan becomes more decentralized, the responsibility of providing many community health services to the residents moved from prefectures to municipalities. A prefecture's public health center is involved in community health management and coordination of health organizations. Public health nurses (PHN) working at the prefecture's public health center are required to have greater management skills and political competency. They cooperate with administrators in an agency; however, their interrelationship and mutual understanding require further development. A self-administered questionnaire was sent by mail to 1,967 PHNs and 935 administrators, and in total, 1137 (39.2%) responses were returned that were analyzed. Required competencies were measured on a 4-point scale in terms of practical competencies in five areas. Data analyses used the Mann–Whitney U-test. PHNs with 10 years' experience were required to be able to “do and teach this to others” in basic competency, and “can do” in community health care competence, policy-making competency, and administrative competency. PHNs with 20 years' experience were required to be able to “do and teach this to others” in all domains. The administrators expected significantly higher levels of community health care, policymaking, and administrative competencies for PHNs with 10 years' experience, as compared with the PHNs' ratings. There were no significant differences in the competencies for the PHNs with 20 years' experience. It is important for PHNs to match the competence levels of administrators so as to establish a standardized criterion of competency of public health nurses in the agency.