Use of focus group interviews with public health nurses to identify the efforts of and challenges faced by branches of the Japan Health Insurance Association to achieve good performance of the Specific Health Guidance initiatives.

Objectives Aiming at improvement of the Japan Health Insurance Association's Specific Health Guidance initiatives and human resource development, we conducted a qualitative study to clarify the features necessary for and the challenges hindering the achievement of good performance of the initiatives.Methods From November 2014 to January 2015, we conducted 10 focus group interviews, each 90 minutes long, with 64 public health nurses from 10 Japan Health Insurance Association branches. In addition, self-administered questionnaires were administered to obtain the participants' basic characteristics. After we excluded one group for failing to meet our performance targets, we divided the remaining nine focus groups according to two patterns: Maintenance and Progress. The four focus groups fitting the Maintenance pattern had a well-established track record, and the five focus groups fitting the Progress pattern had a track record of good growth. Using open coding of the interview transcripts, we extracted efforts or needs in two domains, individual and branch, Then, we placed codes in eight main categories: [quality], [general practice], [dietary guidance practice], [success factor], [branch system], [training and skill development], [approach to the member office], and [past efforts]. We further extracted important subcategories based on their rates of appearance within branches.Results Data from 56 female public health nurses working at nine branches were included in the analysis. With respect to the individual domain, subcategories such as "building rapport," "creating the physical environment," and "taking the initiative in evaluating one's own lifestyle" in the 〈high emphasis〉 segment of the [general practice] category were common to both patterns. In addition, "increasing opportunities for training" and "enhancement of training program content" were found for both patterns in relation to the 〈demand〉 segment of the [training and skill development] category. However, most participants chose "yes" in response to whether there was ample training opportunity.Conclusion This study showed some common efforts and practices among public health nurses in both patterns, which indicates good performance of the Specific Health Guidance initiatives. However, there is a need to further enhance the training program to strengthen the entire organization. Future studies should focus on understanding the characteristics of and factors involved in low-performing branches.