The role of task shifting in reforming the working styles of pediatricians in Japan: A questionnaire survey

We aimed to shorten the working hours of pediatricians who are regularly experiencing overwork in Japan, recommended tasks for task shifting must be identified, and the impact of promoting task shifting on both the quality of medical care and working hours must be examined. Characteristics of the pediatric department must also be considered. A questionnaire survey was conducted with pediatricians working in hospitals across Japan. A multiple logistic regression analysis was performed with pediatricians who did not recommend task shifting in the workplace as the explained variable and the attributes of the responding pediatricians (gender, age, primary workplace, number of pediatricians, pediatric medical management fee) as the explanatory variables. Details about the tasks recommended for task shifting and the impact of recommending task shifting on the quality of medical care and working hours were described. Questionnaires were sent nationwide to 848 hospitals that calculated pediatric inpatient medical management fees and received responses from 1539 pediatricians in 416 hospitals (response rate: 49%). As a characteristic of 231 (15%) doctors who thought that the task shift had not progressed at all at their place of employment, significant positive associations were found in men, working at national and public university hospitals, private university hospitals, and private hospitals and pediatric inpatient medical care management fee 1 hospitals. Task shifting was not recommended overall, as the task items that a majority of pediatricians marked as “transferred” were limited to “medication instructions” and “intravenous injection of antibiotics, etc” More than half of the respondents (60%, a total of 921 doctors) reported that the quality of medical care improved slightly or significantly when task shifting was promoted. The most frequent response to survey items querying the number of work hours that could be shortened through task shifting was “1 to 2 hours.” The tasks suitable for task shifting were identified based on the characteristics of participants’ pediatric departments. Results suggest that task shifting was not recommended in university hospitals and that promotion of task shifting could improve the quality of medical care and reduce the working hours of pediatricians.