Work Satisfaction and Intention to Leave Among Direct Care Workers in Community and Residential Aged Care in Australia

Abstract

Turnover in the Australian aged-care workforce is lower than in the United States but is still of concern. This research examined the effects of worker satisfaction, worker characteristics, work conditions, and workplace environment on intention to leave, using data from a 2007 national census of the aged-care workforce. A probit model was used to estimate the probability of care workers leaving their jobs in the next 12 months. While workers were satisfied, overall, with their work, improving some components of satisfaction and converting casual contracts to permanent work would reduce intention to leave. To these ends, a shift in focus is required away from worker characteristics and the nature of care work to job conditions and organizational matters amenable to management and policy action.

How institutions matter for job characteristics, quality and experiences: a comparison of home care work for older people in Australia and Sweden

“…Although administered in one state of Australia only, we are confident the findings can be generalized to Australia as a whole. This is because employment conditions are relatively uniform across the national care workforce, shaped by the dominant role of federal institutions in making policy and in funding care services and in industrial relations (King et al, 2013b). Further, the gap in time between the surveys in the two countries was not considered a limitation, because the results in each country have been interpreted against their respective institutional contexts, not a common external reference point.…”

“…Workers reported having time to care and relatively low pressure and stress. However, employment conditions were poor: a large proportion of workers had insecure employment and were unsatisfied with their pay (King et al, 2013a;King et al, 2013b). …”

Caring for aged people: The influence of personal resilience and workplace climate on ‘doing good’ and ‘feeling good’

“…Aged care marks a transition for an individual, from living independently to requiring permanent residential and nursing care services. Work intensification, often unattractive terms and conditions of employment, negative employee attitudes, and increasing work stress and burnout are now common artefacts of work in the healthcare sector (Holland, Allen, & Cooper, 2013;Jackson et al, 2007;King, Wei, & Howe, 2013;King, Mavromaras, et al, 2013;Poghosyan, Clarke, Finlayson, & Aiken, 2010;Yau et al, 2012). Their roles encompass attending to residents and their families, often through difficult and distressing times (Polk, 1997).…”

Moral distress and the Australian aged care worker: A mixed methods study

“…Central to these is the idea of building relationships among staff (Han & Jekel, 2011), in a collaborative environment (Wallis & Kennedy, 2013) where staff feel able to use their skills and feel valued (King, Wei & Howe, 2013). Improving staffing levels (Luo, Lin, & Castle, 2012) and adapting strategies to suit generational differences of staff (Shacklock & Brunetto, 2012) are also suggested as improving job satisfaction and reducing intention to leave.…”

“…Inadequate or inappropriate skill mix has been described as contributing to stress (Tuckett, Parker, Eley, & Hegney, 2009), and has been shown to directly impact patient mortality rates (Estabrooks, Midodzi, Cummings, Ricker, & Giovannetti, 2005), particularly when the percentage of Registered Nurses is reduced (King, Wei & Howe, 2013) .…”