Exploring Relationships Among Occupational Safety, Job Turnover, and Age Among Home Care Aides in Maine

As the U.S. population ages, the number of people needing personal assistance in the home care setting is increasing dramatically. Personal care aides and home health workers are currently adding more jobs to the economy than any other single occupation. Home health workers face physically and emotionally challenging, and at times unsafe, work conditions, with turnover rates ranging from 44 percent to 65 percent annually. As part of a mixed-method, longitudinal study in Maine examining turnover, interviews with 252 home care aides were analyzed thematically. Responses to interview questions regarding the job’s impact on health and safety, the adequacy of training, and the level of agency responsiveness were examined. Emergent themes, indicating some contradictory perspectives on workplace safety, quality of training, and agency support, were compared across three variables: job termination, occupational injury, and age. Implications for increasing occupational safety and job retention are discussed.

Download Full-text

Home Care Aide Safety Concerns and Job Challenges During the COVID-19 Pandemic

NEW SOLUTIONS A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy ◽

10.1177/1048291120987845 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 104829112098784

Author(s):

Julia Bandini ◽

Julia Rollison ◽

Katie Feistel ◽

Laura Whitaker ◽

Armenda Bialas ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Home Care ◽

Personal Protective Equipment ◽

Workplace Safety ◽

Home Health ◽

Protective Equipment ◽

Health Crisis ◽

Health Agencies ◽

Home Health Agencies ◽

Care Aides ◽

Home Care Aides

Home care aides are on the frontlines providing care to vulnerable individuals in their homes during the COVID-19 pandemic yet are often excluded from policies to protect health care workers. The goal of this study was to examine experiences of agency-employed home care aides during the COVID-19 pandemic and to identify ways to mitigate concerns. We used an innovative journaling approach with thirty-seven aides as well as in-depth interviews with fifteen aides and leadership representatives from nine home health agencies in New York and Michigan. Workers described a range of concerns around workplace safety including uncertainty around whether a client had COVID-19, inadequate access to personal protective equipment and safe transportation, as well as fundamental changes to interactions with clients. Agencies also faced challenges acquiring personal protective equipment for their aides. This research points to needed resources to support home care aides and home health agencies both during a public health crisis and in the future.

Download Full-text

Understanding Nursing Turnover: The Case of Home Health Care

Innovation in Aging ◽

10.1093/geroni/igaa057.114 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽

pp. 35-35

Author(s):

Joanne Spetz ◽

Alon Bergman ◽

Hummy Song ◽

Amber Rose ◽

Guy David

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Human Resources ◽

Home Care ◽

Home Health Care ◽

Home Health ◽

Population Characteristics ◽

Personal Factors ◽

Nursing Turnover ◽

Care Aides ◽

Home Care Aides

Abstract Only a few studies of nursing turnover have examined post-acute home health care. This study examines factors that are associated with home health licensed nurse turnover using linked employee-level and patient-level data from one of the five largest home health companies in the US. The data include variables from human resources and payroll systems, visit logs, discharge records, physical and mental health assessments, care plans, and patient encounters and is organized at the employee-day level. We measured turnover using human resources data, including measures of voluntary and involuntary job separation, and from exit interviews that allow classification of whether turnover was associated with agency-related factors (e.g., pay, schedule, supervisor, coworkers) versus personal factors (e.g., family needs, relocation). In bivariate and multivariate analyses, explanatory variables included nurse demographics, patient population characteristics, and the degree to which nurses can delegate tasks to home care aides. We found a downward trend in turnover for licensed nurses between 2016 and 2019. Attrition in the first year was 34% for full-time nurses and 45% for part-time nurses, most of it occurring in the first 180 days of employment. The rate of voluntary turnover was nearly four times as great as involuntary turnover. We found that agency factors accounted for 26% of monthly turnover on average, while personal factors accounted for 74%. In states in which licensed nurses could delegate more tasks to home care aides, turnover rates were slightly higher than in states with little delegation.

Download Full-text

Faculty Opinions recommendation of Healthy aging requires a healthy home care workforce: the occupational safety and health of home care aides.

Faculty Opinions – Post-Publication Peer Review of the Biomedical Literature ◽

10.3410/f.740123990.793590203 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Jack Dennerlein

Keyword(s):

Home Care ◽

Healthy Aging ◽

Occupational Safety ◽

Occupational Safety And Health ◽

Safety And Health ◽

Care Aides ◽

Home Care Aides

Download Full-text

The Community of Practice: A Method for Cooperative Learning of Occupational Health and Safety Inspectors

European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education ◽

10.3390/ejihpe11040091 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (4) ◽

pp. 1254-1268

Author(s):

Luisella Gilardi ◽

Maurizio Marino ◽

Lidia Fubini ◽

Antonella Bena ◽

Elisa Ferro ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Focus Group ◽

Peer Review ◽

Community Of Practice ◽

Professional Practice ◽

Occupational Safety ◽

Health And Safety ◽

Workplace Safety ◽

Prevention Services ◽

Questionnaire Result ◽

Practice Methods

Background: Workplace injuries in Italy still occur despite laws and safety norms. We need to understand the causes rooted in the context and social conditions, and need to improve the practice of Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) inspectors of the Workplace Safety and Prevention Services (WSPS) of the Italian regional health boards. The aims of this study were to describe the setting up of a Community of Practice (CoP) for the production of best practices for injury prevention and to evaluate the motivation of OSH inspectors for participating in the CoP and the effects of CoP participation on their professional practice. Methods: Two workplace injury stories underwent peer review during each CoP meeting. We evaluated the CoP using a focus group and a questionnaire. Result: Between 2014 and 2021, the CoP met in 18 workshops. Over the 8-year period, the CoP grew from 20 to 150 participants. Overall, 30 stories underwent peer review and were published on the institutional website. The focus group participants stated that the reasons why they participated in the CoP were the need to share experience and to tackle new challenges. Conclusion: The CoP was found to be useful for improving professional practice by strengthening professional identity and contributing to the production of new knowledge.

Download Full-text

Risk assessment at work and prevention strategies on COVID-19 in Italy

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0248874 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 16 (3) ◽

pp. e0248874

Author(s):

Sergio Iavicoli ◽

Fabio Boccuni ◽

Giuliana Buresti ◽

Diana Gagliardi ◽

Benedetta Persechino ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Occupational Safety ◽

Health Workers ◽

Risk Mitigation ◽

Risk Index ◽

Health And Safety ◽

Epidemiological Surveillance ◽

Risk Of Infection ◽

Set Up ◽

The Impact

The COVID-19 pandemic has spread worldwide, with considerable public health and socio-economic impacts that are seriously affecting health and safety of workers, as well as their employment stability. Italy was the first of many other western countries to implement extended containment measures. Health workers and others employed in essential sectors have continued their activity, reporting high infection rate with many fatalities. The epidemiological trend highlighted the importance of work as a substantial factor to consider both when implementing strategies aimed at containing the pandemic and shaping the lockdown mitigation strategy required for sustained economic recovery. To support the decision-making process, we have developed a strategy to predict the risk of infection by SARS-CoV-2 in the workplace based on the analysis of the working process and proximity between employees; risk of infection connected to the type of activity; involvement of third parties in the working processes and risk of social aggregation. We applied this approach to outline a risk index for each economic activity sector, with different levels of detail, also considering the impact on mobility of the working population. This method was implemented into the national epidemiological surveillance model in order to estimate the impact of re-activation of specific activities on the reproduction number. It has also been adopted by the national scientific committee set up by the Italian Government for action-oriented policy advice on the COVID-19 emergency in the post lockdown phase. This approach may play a key role for public health if associated with measures for risk mitigation in enterprises through strategies of business process re-engineering. Furthermore, it will make a contribution to reconsidering the organization of work, including also innovation and fostering the integration with the national occupational safety and health (OSH) system.

Download Full-text

Attitudes of In-Home Care Aides toward Elderly Persons: Refinement of the Oberleder Attitude Scale

Perceptual and Motor Skills ◽

10.1177/00315125890693-207 ◽

1989 ◽

Vol 69 (3-2) ◽

pp. 1103-1106

Author(s):

Betty G. Dillard ◽

Betty L. Feather

Keyword(s):

Elderly Patients ◽

Home Care ◽

Attitude Scale ◽

Elderly Persons ◽

Positive Attitudes ◽

Care Aides ◽

Home Care Aides

The Oberleder Attitude Scale was reduced from 25 to 16 items and was factored into three major concepts, potential, limitations, and stereotypes. Responses of 345 in-home care aides indicated that the 345 aides held positive attitudes toward their elderly patients.

Download Full-text