• Masatoshi Saiki, Yukie Takemura, and Keiko Kunie.
• Department of Nursing Administration, Division of Health Sciences and Nursing, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
• J Nurs Manag. 2021 Jul 1; 29 (5): 1046-1053.

AimsTo examine the gap between nursing assistants' desired roles and their perceptions of nurses' expectations, and the relationship between these perceptions and nursing assistants' nursing team participation.BackgroundNursing assistants' role perceptions may be related to their participation in nursing teams.MethodsWe performed a secondary analysis of questionnaire data from 1,316 nursing assistants in Japan.ResultsParticipants rated their desired roles higher than their perceptions of nurses' expectations of them. Where perceptions of nurses' expectations were higher, higher desired role scores were associated with greater nursing team participation. Where perceptions of nurses' expectations were lower, the desired role score was not associated with team participation.ConclusionsNursing assistants perceive their roles as higher and inclusive of more duties than what nurses have expected of them. When perceptions of nurse expectations were high, they performed at a higher level. When perceptions of nurse expectations were low, they performed at a lower level, despite their desire to do more.Implications For Nursing ManagementIt may be useful for nurses and nursing assistants to jointly reflect on and promote awareness of nursing assistants' functional roles in the ward. This would promote nursing assistant team participation and optimize their scope of practice.© 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

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