Attitudes of 2325 active and inactive nurses to aspects of their work

As a part of an ongoing larger study concerned with nurse manpower planning, an attempt has been made to investigate the reasons for the non-participation in the labour force of such a large proportion of qualified nurses. In an attempt to collect information on this topic a questionnaire was developed and distributed to a sample of nurses. The article describes in some detail the two different ways in which the names and addresses of the sample were generated. The first method involved making contact by the simple expedient of dropping leaflets through letterboxes while the second involved tracing respondents through their last known address when they originally qualified. The success of these two approaches is contrasted which should be of value to anyone contemplating a similar name-capturing exercise. A total of 2325 questionnaires were returned and computer analysed. This article presents the results of one part of that analysis i.e. the factor analysis conducted on the attitudinal questions contained in the document. A five-factor solution yielded highly interpretable results and the factor loadings are presented along with the pattern of responses. The factor scores are then contrasted for three different groups of respondents: the grouping being based on whether the respondent was working full-time, part-time or not at all.