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This research examined workers' and supervisors' evaluations of their relationships and coping behaviors as related to the workers' psychological stress responses. The participants were full-time workers and students working part-time jobs. This study focused on both informal and formal relationships. The results showed that full-time workers who evaluated their informal relationships with their supervisors as being more negative and perceived their supervisors' evaluations as being more positive had greater psychological stress responses. The psychological stress responses of students working part-time jobs were not significantly associated with their evaluations or their supervisors' evaluations. The results for full-time workers indicate that supervisors' positive evaluations of their informal relationships increased the subordinates' psychological stress responses. The proportion of variance attributed to the coping behavior of full-time workers was lower than for students working part-time jobs.

The purpose of this survey was to clarify the relationship between the job characteristics of visiting nurses, their workload and their intent to continue their work. The self-administered questionnaire survey targeted visiting nurses at a home-visit nursing care agency in Fukuoka prefecture. The results revealed the following points. Nurses who felt that there was "a discrepancy between what they thought their job description would be and the reality," that there was "a lot more work besides visiting homes," that there were "so many situations that require them to make a decision" or that there were "so many complex nursing skills" were more likely to find their workload burdensome. The more positive they felt about "the future prospects of the nursing agency," "the number of nurses at work" or "their wages," the more likely they were to have the intention of working continuously. The survey also suggested that a raised level of labor-management awareness for managers would help improve the incentive to work for visiting nurses, and the realization of systematic continuing education as a proactive measure to alleviate reactions to difficult realities would also help nurses maintain the desire to work continuously.

Objective: The aims of this study were to describe job characteristics for daytime and shift workers in home care services for the elderly and to clarify health care in the work setting, social support, and job satisfaction and possibilities., Methods: A self-reported questionnaire was given to 433 home care workers, both full time and part time (more than 15 hours), at 35 institutions that provide home care services to residents of Sapporo (return rate; 80.2%). The following issues were investigated: job content (physical care, assistance with housework, and advice), specialty, job satisfaction, possibilities, job training, health care and social support. The results were compared among employed types: full-time and part-time daytime and shift workers using the t-test or the Fisher's test., Results: The participants demonstrated high dissatisfaction with wages, physical uneasiness themselves and limited social support from their supervisors. Especially full-time workers were dissatisfied with the payment, whereas part-time workers complained about insufficient attention to the prevention of lumbago. It was found that part-time daytime workers were given insufficient on-job-training and education for prevention of infection, and that full-time shift workers greatly wished to leave the employment. However, the home care workers were satisfied with their job itself and expected to continue their work. Furthermore, half of the part-time workers hoped to work full time., Conclusions: Health management and educational training for part-time workers may be necessary to improve the quality of care services and protection of health. Promotion of full time employment and reconsideration of working condition might be necessary to provide sufficient home care services.