Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the resource based relative values of visiting nursing services, and to analyze the relationships between the relative values and the dimensions of nursing service(time, mental effort and physical effort).
Methods: We interviewed nurses at 20 Home-visit nursing care stations (HVNCS) in the Metropolitan area using the resource based relative value questionnaires. We asked nurses about relative values of "Total Work", and also measured relative weight of 3 dimensions of nursing services. Total Work was defined as comprehensive evaluation of nursing services, with careful consideration of intensity as well as duration. With the dependent variable as Total Work and independent variables as the 3 dimensions, multiple regression analyses were carried out. Furthermore we examined the degree of influence on Total Work by service type and individual respondent. To examine the validity of the results, we timed nursing services and compared the measured time with the answered time.
Results: The 107 respondents were all female and their average age was 36.6 years old. They had HVNCS experience of 2.2 years and 95.3% nurses had experience of hospital nursing. "Total Work" and 3 dimension scores were standardized using common logarithms. "Total Work" of every service significantly differed among service types. The 3 dimensions explained 54.6% of Total Work in the multiple regression analysis. Service type explained 3.3% of Total Work. Individual respondent explained 16.0% of Total Work. Answered time and measured time were not significantly different with nursing services.
Conclusions: Although Total Work was somewhat influenced by individual respondent, most of variation was explained by 3 dimensions. Thus, it could be concluded that Total Work is an index of nursing resource input. A further investigation about influence of patients' condition on Total Work is necessary in the future.