The lasting impacts of work-attendance decisions of health care employees under uncertainty

- Following the earthquake-triggered nuclear accident in Fukushima, Japan, in 2011, local hospitals outside the evacuation zone remained functional, but some of the employees were temporarily absent. This study aims to elucidate long-term workplace experiences based on work-attendance decisions among nurses working under conditions of uncertainty in hospitals operating outside, yet near, the former evacuation zone at the time. Twenty-seven nurses (including those who were temporarily absent) from seven hospitals were interviewed. The data were analyzed using the grounded theory method. We placed the workplace experiences of nurses into two core categories: “repeatedly choosing whether to attend work or not regardless of one’s emotions” and “going through parallel inconsistencies in the functioning workplace.” Our findings demonstrated the lasting impact of work-attendance decisions on nurses’ workplace experiences after the disaster. The findings could be useful in understanding hospital nurses who work under conditions of continuous uncertainty.