Abstract
BackgroundDCE was applied to investigate nursing students’ preferred hospital choice criteria and to investigate the trends in the trade-offs by calculating the marginal rate of substitution between these criteria. This study identified the properties of the hospitals primarily selected by nursing students, and aims to estimate the monetary value of each attribute.MethodsBased on discussions and in-depth interviews with nursing students’ focus groups and a literature review, we created a discrete choice experiment (DCE) that assessed how students’ stated preference for a certain hospital choice was influenced by various job attributes: higher salary, location, hospital type, salary per year, provision of a dormitory, etc. We applied this DCE to nursing students in South Korea using a brief structured questionnaire, and we used conditional logit models to estimate the utility of each job’s attributes. Willingness to pay (WTP) was estimated as the ratio of the value of the coefficient of interest to the negative of the cost attribute.ResultsComplete data for the DCE analysis were available for 702 nursing students. In the main effect mixed logit model, the welfare system and organizational culture were most strongly associated with job preference. Location, hospital type, and opportunity to upgrade qualifications had a negative influence on hospital choice. The WTP threshold was 7,043,000 KRW for the welfare system and 9,928,000 KRW for the organizational culture (relation-oriented).ConclusionsBetter nursing working conditions, such as a positive organizational culture and the provision of a welfare system, can improve the motivation and applications for hospitals in rural areas.
Highlights
discrete choice experiment (DCE) was applied to investigate nursing students’ preferred hospital choice criteria and to investigate the trends in the trade-offs by calculating the marginal rate of substitution between these criteria
When differences in attribute levels were analyzed, statistically significant coefficients were obtained for the following attributes: salary, geographical location, hospital type, opportunity to upgrade qualifications, Table 3 Demographic characteristics of nursing students in the DCE (n = 702)
This study found that nursing students considered the organizational culture and welfare system when choosing hospitals, showing that nonmonetary attributes are highly attractive to nursing students for choosing hospitals in rural areas
Summary
DCE was applied to investigate nursing students’ preferred hospital choice criteria and to investigate the trends in the trade-offs by calculating the marginal rate of substitution between these criteria. One of the biggest demands of patients living in rural areas or far away from hospitals is to receive highquality medical care from experienced and competent health care providers in a fair way [2]. Instead of market competition based on the quality of medical service, bipolarization has been prominent in the medical market in Korea: most patients visit primary hospitals, which have higher accessibility and competitiveness in terms of price, and tertiary hospitals, which provide high-quality medical services [7]. The bipolarization of the use of medical services leads to bipolarization in the distribution of health care providers, translating in quantitative and qualitative inequality in nursing human resources and as inequality in the regional distribution of nurses. The lowest turnover rate, 10.0 %, was observed in hospitals with more than 1000 beds [9]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
