Psychiatric nurses' preferences for job: a discrete choice experiment

Area of Science:

• Mental Health Nursing
• Healthcare Policy
• Behavioral Economics

Background:

• Psychiatric nurses are crucial for mental healthcare access but face shortages and high turnover.
• Understanding job preferences is key to developing effective retention policies.
• Discrete choice experiments (DCE) offer a method to quantify these preferences.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the economic and non-economic job attribute preferences of psychiatric nurses.
• To identify factors influencing job acceptance and retention in psychiatric nursing.
• To inform policy development aimed at attracting and retaining psychiatric nurses.

Main Methods:

• A nationwide survey of psychiatric nurses using a DCE instrument.
• Application of a mixed logit model to analyze stated preferences.
• Calculation of willingness to pay and simulation of job acceptance probabilities.

Main Results:

• 'Violent coping strategies-impeccable' was the most valued attribute (WTP: 4476.53 CNY).
• Preferences varied by location (cities: 'respect-high'; towns: 'study assistance for children-thorough') and experience ('opportunity to upgrade-sufficient' for <10 years).
• Improving 'violence coping strategies' increased job acceptance by 37.04%; an optimal job increased it by 86.06%.

Conclusions:

• Psychiatric nurses prefer jobs with higher income, respect, improved violence coping strategies, promotion opportunities, and a positive work atmosphere.
• Job preferences are heterogeneous, influenced by factors such as seniority and geographic residence.
• These findings can guide the creation of more attractive and sustainable psychiatric nursing roles.