Taira Kazuya, Hosokawa Rikuya, Shiomi Misa
Department of Human Health Sciences, Graduate school of Medicine, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.
SAGE Open Nurs. 2022 Nov 24;8:23779608221140718. doi: 10.1177/23779608221140718. eCollection 2022 Jan-Dec.
Prefectural public health centers in Japan conducted epidemiological surveys of all COVID-19 patients, which subsequently increased their workload as the infection rate increased. The survey was conducted by public health nurses (PHNs); therefore, an increase in their workload was expected. However, changes in the number of PHNs have not yet been examined. This study focused on recruiting PHNs to local governments in Japan during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This cross-sectional study of 150 local government public health centers was conducted from November to December 2021. The survey items included the number of full-time and part-time PHNs, number of PHNs who resigned or retired from the job, and number of PHNs recruitment examinations conducted between 2017 and 2021. For all variables, the mean, standard deviation, and minimum and maximum values for each municipality and year were calculated, and a one-way analysis of variance was performed.
The response rate of the questionnaires was 54.0% (81/150). The change in the employment status of PHNs from 2019 to 2020 was not statistically significant in 2020, which was the COVID-19 outbreak year. However, the number of full-time PHNs increased by 2.6, while part-time PHNs almost doubled from 5.2 ± 8.3 to 10.8 ± 9.6 ( = .61) for prefectures, from 13.6 ± 13.1 to 21.5 ± 34.8 ( = .23) for cities, and from 16.8 ± 26.8 to 52.3 ± 132.5 ( = .70) for wards. The survey revealed that since the COVID-19 pandemic, the ratio of part-time to full-time PHNs significantly increased. Current status reports of public health centers will encourage political decisions and research on the factors necessary to balance the supply and demand of full-time PHNs.
日本各县公共卫生中心对所有新冠病毒疾病患者进行了流行病学调查，随着感染率上升，其工作量也随之增加。该调查由公共卫生护士开展，因此预计其工作量会增加。然而，公共卫生护士数量的变化尚未得到研究。本研究聚焦于新冠疫情期间日本地方政府招聘公共卫生护士的情况。
本横断面研究于2021年11月至12月对150个地方政府公共卫生中心进行。调查项目包括全职和兼职公共卫生护士的数量、辞职或退休的公共卫生护士数量，以及2017年至2021年期间进行的公共卫生护士招聘考试数量。对于所有变量，计算了每个市和年份的均值、标准差以及最小值和最大值，并进行了单因素方差分析。
问卷回复率为54.0%（81/150）。在2020年新冠疫情爆发当年，公共卫生护士的就业状况从2019年到2020年的变化无统计学意义。然而，全职公共卫生护士数量增加了2.6人，兼职公共卫生护士数量几乎翻倍，县从5.2±8.3增至10.8±9.6（P = 0.61），市从13.6±13.1增至21.5±34.8（P = 0.23），区从16.8±26.8增至52.3±132.5（P = 0.70）。调查显示，自新冠疫情以来，兼职与全职公共卫生护士的比例显著增加。公共卫生中心的现状报告将推动有关平衡全职公共卫生护士供需所需因素的政策决策和研究。
