Health Care Aides (HCAs) provide up to 80% of the direct care to older Canadians living in long term care facilities, or in their homes. They are an understudied workforce, and calls for health human resources strategies relating to these workers are, we feel, precipitous. First, we need a better understanding of the nature and scope of their work, and of the factors that shape it. Here, we discuss the evolving role of HCAs and the factors that impact how and where they work. The work of HCAs includes role-required behaviors, an increasing array of delegated acts, and extra-role behaviors like emotional support. Role boundaries, particularly instances where some workers over-invest in care beyond expected levels, are identified as one of the biggest concerns among employers of HCAs in the current cost-containment environment. A number of factors significantly impact what these workers do and where they work, including market-level differences, job mobility, and work structure. In Canada, entry into this ‘profession’ is increasingly constrained to the Home and Community Care sector, while market-level and work structure differences constrain job mobility to transitions of only the most experienced workers, to the long-term care sector. We note that this is in direct opposition to recent policy initiatives designed to encourage aging at home. Work structure influences what these workers do, and how they work; many HCAs work for three or four different agencies in order to sustain themselves and their families. Expectations with regard to HCA preparation have changed over the past decade in Canada, and training is emerging as a high priority health human resource issue. An increasing emphasis on improving quality of care and measuring performance, and on integrated team-based care delivery, has considerable implications for worker training. New models of care delivery foreshadow a need for management and leadership expertise - these workers have not historically been prepared for leadership roles. We conclude with a brief discussion of the next steps necessary to generating evidence necessary to informing a health human resource strategy relating to the provision of care to older Canadians.

BackgroundOur overarching study objective is to further our understanding of the work psychology of Health Support Workers (HSWs) in long-term care and home and community care settings in Ontario, Canada. Specifically, we seek novel insights about the relationships among aspects of these workers’ work environments, their work attitudes, and work outcomes in the interests of informing the development of human resource programs to enhance elder care.MethodsWe conducted a path analysis of data collected via a survey administered to a convenience sample of Ontario HSWs engaged in the delivery of elder care over July–August 2015.ResultsHSWs’ work outcomes, including intent to stay, organizational citizenship behaviors, and performance, are directly and significantly related to their work attitudes, including job satisfaction, work engagement, and affective organizational commitment. These in turn are related to how HSWs perceive their work environments including their quality of work life (QWL), their perceptions of supervisor support, and their perceptions of workplace safety.ConclusionsHSWs’ work environments are within the power of managers to modify. Our analysis suggests that QWL, perceptions of supervisor support, and perceptions of workplace safety present particularly promising means by which to influence HSWs’ work attitudes and work outcomes. Furthermore, even modest changes to some aspects of the work environment stand to precipitate a cascade of positive effects on work outcomes through work attitudes.

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Communication, problem-solving skills, emotional intelligence, and mental health and well-being are key characteristics of a resilient student. These skills are also needed to navigate increasingly complex life and work environments in the 21st century. In addition, resilient students are dedicated to learning, are focused on academic success, and are better equipped to adapt to change and the evolving workplace. An interdisciplinary team from both secondary and post-secondary educational institutions situated at Ontario Tech University, Oshawa, Canada have collaborated to develop and implement strategies and curricula to support and enhance student resilience. The Mental Health Commission of Canada recommends “increase collaboration between (these) institutions - sharing best practices and processes for effective strategy development, and implementation” to better support student reliance and the successful transition from secondary to post-secondary education.  We present the overall rationale and approach taken to support capacity building for student resilience in post-secondary institutions.  As well as highlighting specific curricula and virtual strategies implemented (e.g., Graphic Novel, Mandalas, Resiliency Handbook) to engage students in building and maintaining resilience.