Survey Maps How Japanese Home-Visit Nurses Choose Where to Work

A nationwide cross-sectional survey of home healthcare nurses in Japan has identified two distinct motivational dimensions that appear to shape how nurses select a home-visit nursing station as their workplace, according to a study published in BMC Nursing.

Researchers led by Keiko Ono-Ogawa, with Mia Kobayashi and Tomoaki Imamura, conducted an online survey in December 2025. Of 2,046 nurses who responded, 95 were currently employed in home-visit nursing stations and formed the analysis sample. Participants rated the importance of various workplace factors on a four-point Likert scale, and the team used exploratory factor analysis with maximum likelihood extraction and Promax rotation to examine the underlying structure of these ratings.

The analysis pointed to two motivational dimensions. The first was labelled Professional Growth and Community-Oriented Practice Orientation, reflecting the pull of career development and community-based practice. The second, Work–Life Integration Orientation, captured the desire to balance employment with personal life. Both dimensions showed high internal consistency, with Cronbach’s alpha values of 0.902 and 0.818 respectively.

The study also examined which workplace factors were associated with nurses actually achieving their preferred work style. At the unadjusted level, perceived ease of taking childcare and caregiving leave, and work environments that reduce physical burden, showed nominal associations with achieving a preferred work style. However, neither association remained statistically significant after the researchers applied a Bonferroni correction for 18 comparisons, meaning these findings cannot be treated as reliable on their own.

In a conventional exploratory multivariable model, nurses who rated career advancement as “very important” showed a nominal association with achieving a preferred work style. Yet a bootstrap sensitivity analysis indicated substantial instability in this estimate, further underscoring the tentative nature of the result.

The authors framed their conclusions cautiously. They described the two-factor motivational structure as preliminary, and stated that the workplace-factor and multivariable regression findings were exploratory and hypothesis-generating, requiring confirmation in larger independent samples. A framework the study proposes, based on the Job Demands–Resources model, should be interpreted as conceptual rather than confirmatory, the team wrote.

The context for the research is an aging society in which sustaining the home healthcare nursing workforce is considered essential. The authors note that previous research has focused largely on burnout and turnover intention, leaving limited evidence on the motivational structure underlying workplace selection and its relationship to achieving a preferred work style. The present study was designed to address that gap by clarifying how nurses weigh different factors when choosing a home-visit nursing station.

Because the analysis sample comprised only 95 nurses drawn from a larger pool of respondents, the statistical power available for the regression analyses was limited, and the authors themselves flag the small sample as a key constraint. The cross-sectional design also means the data capture a single point in time and cannot establish causal relationships between workplace factors and work style outcomes.

For now, the study’s main contribution is descriptive: a preliminary map of what draws nurses to home-visit nursing stations in Japan, organised around professional growth and community-oriented practice on one side and work–life integration on the other. Whether the specific workplace factors linked to preferred work style achievement hold up in larger samples remains an open question that the authors say future research must address.

Subject of Research: Decision-making factors in workplace selection among home-visit nurses in Japan

Article Title: Decision-making structure in selecting home-visit nursing stations and its association with achievement of preferred work style: a nationwide cross-sectional study in Japan

Article References: Ono-Ogawa, K., Kobayashi, M., & Imamura, T. (2026). Decision-making structure in selecting home-visit nursing stations and its association with achievement of preferred work style: a nationwide cross-sectional study in Japan. BMC Nursing. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-026-05585-w

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s12912-026-05585-w

Keywords: home healthcare nursing, home-visit nursing stations, workplace selection, work–life integration, professional growth, cross-sectional survey, Japan, nursing workforce, factor analysis, Job Demands–Resources model, preferred work style, BMC Nursing