Professional and practice characteristics associated with self-efficacy in assessment and intervention among social workers in aging

Abstract

This study examined professional and practice characteristics associated with assessment and intervention self-efficacy among gerontological social workers in Ontario, Canada who participated in online surveys. Results from multivariate analyses indicated that higher client acuity, longer duration of practice experience, smaller caseloads, and a greater proportion of clients 85 and over were significantly associated with greater assessment self-efficacy. Greater client acuity and smaller caseloads were also significantly associated with greater intervention self-efficacy. Implications for education include the importance of providing practical experience with the oldest old and with clients with greater biopsychosocial complexity. Also recommended is the need for manageable caseloads, especially when older adults with complex needs are part of the practice milieu.

Delivering person-centred palliative care in long-term care settings: is humanism a quality of health-care employees or their organisations?

“…Self-efficacy, which showed a relationship to all three measures of person-centred care in this study, generally has a strong relationship with work performance (Stajkovic and Luthans, 1998) and is very responsive to organisational ‘inputs’. For instance, it is known to be shaped by experience (Simons et al ., 2016), education (Ngo and Murphy, 2005; Phillips et al ., 2011; Moir et al ., 2015) and empowerment (Manojlovich, 2005 a , 2005 b ), which are all inputs that employers can provide. In this study, however, there was no correlation between years of work and palliative care self-efficacy, suggesting that self-efficacy in this domain does not increase automatically with experience in LTC.…”

Mind the gap: is the Canadian long-term care workforce ready for a palliative care mandate?

“…Given that confidence and skill generally grows with work experience (Simons et al , 2016), it is somewhat surprising that work experience was not associated with self-efficacy and person-centred care. If this result is replicated in other settings, self-efficacy and skill in person-centred palliative care may need to be supported more directly; for instance, through continuing education and other workplace interventions ( see e.g.…”

“…Self-efficacy also has important implications for employee wellbeing; for instance, it is known to moderate the relationship between work stress and burnout (Smolen-Hetzel, 2010). Although self-efficacy often grows through experience (Simons et al, 2016), it can also be promoted through management interventions that focus on staff empowerment (Manojlovich, 2005a(Manojlovich, , 2005b and education (Ngo and Murphy, 2005;Phillips et al, 2011;Moir et al, 2015). As a result, assessing current self-efficacy for palliative care in LTC is vital to planning for a palliative care mandate.…”