REGISTERED NURSES IN LONG-TERM VERSUS ACUTE CARE INSTITUTIONS IN 1984 AND 1988: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS.
Contributors: Florence Heller Graduate School for Advanced Studies in Social Welfare.
Published: 1995
Subjects: Sociology, Public and Social Welfare.; Gerontology.; Health Sciences, Nursing.; Health Sciences, Health Care Management.
Description: As the number of the nation's elderly continues to grow and live to advanced old age, the need to provide adequate long-term care will also grow. Although the future focus will be on long-term home care, the need for nursing home beds is forecasted to rise. Elderly who are entering long-term care institutions are older, sicker and require more skilled nursing care. Attracting registered nurses to work in long-term care settings has been a long standing problem.

Using secondary analysis, this study examines, from a supply perspective, Registered Nurses working in long-term and acute care facilities. This comparative study analyzes data from two National Nursing Surveys, 1984 and 1988, which represent periods of no nursing shortage and a national nursing shortage, respectively. Characteristics of nurses were analyzed to explore possible differences of nurses working in these practice settings. Three questions involving occupational choice, wage, and hours of work were estimated. Using logit analysis, the question: How do the characteristics of registered nurses working in long-term care differ from registered nurses working in acute care? was explored. Differences in characteristics were further assessed through use of the discrimination formula. The other two major questions were: What variables account for differences in nurses' wages? And, how do hours of work compare between long-term and acute care when controlling for individual characteristics of registered nurses? These questions were explored using multiple regression.

Long-term care nurses were found to be older, less likely to further their education, married, have older children at home, have lower family income, and have lower wages. Use of the wage discrimination formula found that if long-term care nurses were treated according to acute care coefficients they would actually earn more per hour rather than their substantially lower wage. Being older, in an administrative capacity, and having no young children at home increased hours worked. Wage policy seems not likely to be a tool for increasing hours of work. Findings give direction towards adding new incentives such as wages, education, and tuition reimbursement to ensure an adequate supply of knowledgeable, professional nurses to provide for quality care that safeguards the welfare of aged institutionalized elderly.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-07, Section: A, page: 2894.

Thesis (PH.D.)--BRANDEIS U., THE F. HELLER GRAD. SCH. FOR ADV. STUD. IN SOC. WEL., 1995.

School code: 0541.