Nursing without caring? A discrete choice experiment about job characteristics of German surgical technologist trainees

Katharina Saunders (), Christian Hagist, Alistair McGuire and Christian Schlereth

No 19-02, WHU Working Paper Series - Economics Group from WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management

Abstract: We know that existing professions in the health care sector value work environment and job conditions to a great extent. However, we are also witnessing an expansion of new roles into the health care sector, many of which substitutie the tasks of existing professions. This may be efficient, in that it releases professionals’ time. However, there is little understanding of what motivates these new professions in entering or remaining in these newly created roles. This study tries to evaluate the preference structure of one of these new staff groups, surgical technologist, through examining the preferences of trainees, defined over a number of attributes, in this group. The DCE study covers 80% of the target population. The results show a vigorous disfavour towards any perceived nursing job characteristics such as caring activities, hierarchical work environment or shift types. The results inform policy makers and hospital manager about the importance to focus not only on the nursing profession but also to take into account the existence of a group of people who is willing to work within the health care system however, associated with strong preferences against nursing activities, especially caring. Implementing and further development of new and specialised profession through reallocating former nursing tasks- should be considered while coping with labour shortage.

Keywords: UDCE; labour shortage; specialised health care profession; job preferences (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C90 C93 I18 J08 J30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 30 pages
Date: 2019-05-22
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dcm, nep-eur, nep-hea and nep-lma
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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