Workload, workplace violence and harassment, and well-being of personal support workers in home and community care

2021 ◽  
Vol 76 (2) ◽  
pp. 312-335
Author(s):  
Firat K. Sayin ◽  
Margaret Denton ◽  
Catherine Brookman ◽  
Sharon Davies ◽  
Isik U. Zeytinoglu

Demand for home and community care services has continuously increased in Canada and elsewhere in the last few decades due to aging of the population and healthcare policy changes shaped by budgetary limitations. As a result, home and community care organizations are having trouble hiring adequate numbers of healthcare workers to meet the escalating demand, the result being increased workload on these workers. Another stream of literature has shown that care recipients and their family members, frustrated with the limited ability of healthcare workers to provide adequate care because of increased workload, might resort to violence and harassment. Bringing these two streams of literature together, we examined the relationships among three variables : workload ; workplace violence and harassment ; and well-being of personal support workers (PSWs). Using structural equation modeling, we analyzed a 2015 Ontario-wide survey of 1,347 PSWs employed in the home and community care sector. The results indicate that workload is negatively associated with extrinsic and intrinsic job satisfaction, and this relationship is mediated by violence and harassment and by stress. Specifically, workload is positively associated with violence and harassment at work, which in turn is positively associated with stress, which in turn is negatively associated with extrinsic and intrinsic job satisfaction. Our study contributes to the literature by examining the impact of a work environment factor, workload, on the well-being of PSWs. This approach makes it possible to expand the current literature’s focus on psychological processes at the individual level to a more contextual approach. Furthermore, the results have important implications for home and community care organizations as well as for the healthcare sector in general. The well-being of PSWs is critical to retaining them and to ensuring the quality of care they provide their clients. Thus, their workload should be lowered to a more manageable level to help minimize the violence and harassment they experience.

2007 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yasmin Handaja ◽  
Hans De Witte

Quantitative and qualitative job insecurity: associations with job satisfaction and well-being Quantitative and qualitative job insecurity: associations with job satisfaction and well-being Y. Handaja & H. De Witte, Gedrag & Organisatie, volume 20, June 2007, nr. 2, pp. 137-159 This study analyses the associations between both quantitative and qualitative job insecurity and job satisfaction and psychological ill-being. We also analyse whether the relationship between job insecurity and psychological ill-being is mediated by job satisfaction. A more subtle and differentiated measurement of qualitative job insecurity is used, in which insecurity is measured regarding four aspects: the job content, working circumstances, working conditions and social relations. Data gathered among Belgian bank employees are used to test the hypotheses. The results show that both quantitative and qualitative job insecurity are negatively associated with job satisfaction and positively associated with psychological ill-being. The relationship between job insecurity and psychological ill-being is only partially mediated by job satisfaction. This signifies that the impact of job insecurity exceeds the boundaries of work, since it exerts an autonomous impact on the psychological well-being of individual workers. Limitations of the research and recommendations for further research are discussed.  


Author(s):  
A. Paul Williams ◽  
Janet M. Lum

Much of the international literature on health human resources focuses on highly trained, regulated and visible professionals with exclusionary social closure in neo-Weberian terms, such as doctors and nurses. However, researchers and policy makers are now paying more attention to the increasingly important role played by less well-trained, often unregulated, and less visible occupations such as personal support workers. Beyond these categories of paid workers exists another mostly uncharted health human resource: unpaid, little trained, largely unregulated and invisible informal carers. They include the family, friends and neighbours who provide the bulk of everyday care required to support the well being and independence of growing numbers of people facing multiple chronic health and social needs in community settings. Focusing on Canada, this chapter documents the characteristics and contributions of informal carers, and highlights the challenging realities of informal caregiving – both from the perspective of carers and policy makers considering how best to support and encourage unpaid, informal carers without driving up formal health system costs.


Work ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 66 (4) ◽  
pp. 755-766
Author(s):  
Basem Gohar ◽  
Michel Larivière ◽  
Nancy Lightfoot ◽  
Elizabeth Wenghofer ◽  
Céline Larivière ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND: Nurses and personal support workers (PSWs) have high sickness absence rates in Canada. Whilst the evidence-based literature helped to identify the variables related to sickness absenteeism, understanding “why” remains unknown. This information could benefit the healthcare sector in northeastern Ontario and in locations where healthcare is one of the largest employment sectors and where nursing staff have high absence and turnover rates. OBJECTIVE: To identify and understand the factors associated with sickness absence among nurses and PSWs through several experiences while investigating if there are northern-related reasons to explain the high rates of sickness absence. METHODS: In this descriptive qualitative study, focus group sessions took place with registered nurses (n = 6), registered practical nurses (n = 4), PSWs (n = 8), and key informants who specialize in occupational health and nursing unions (n = 5). Focus group sessions were transcribed verbatim followed by inductive thematic analysis. RESULTS: Four main themes emerged, which were occupational/organizational challenges, physical health, emotional toll on mental well-being, and northern-related challenges. Descriptions of why such factors lead to sickness absence were addressed with staff shortage serving as an underlying factor. CONCLUSION: Despite the complexity of the manifestations of sickness absence, work support and timely debriefing could reduce sickness absence and by extension, staff shortage.


2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-14
Author(s):  
Prachi Sharma ◽  
Urmila Rani Srivastava

This study examined the role of emotion regulation and job satisfaction in predicting affective (positive and negative affect) and cognitive (life satisfaction) components of subjective well-being (SWB) in doctors. The predictors used were the dimensions of job satisfaction—intrinsic, extrinsic job satisfaction as well as the total score of job satisfaction and the following dimensions of intra-personal emotion regulation—cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression. The participants included in the study were doctors from multi-specialty hospitals in Gurgaon district of Haryana. A total of 102 doctors were included in the study using convenience sampling. Correlational and step-wise multiple regression analyses were conducted to test the predictions. The results of the analysis confirmed the predictions as intrinsic job satisfaction and cognitive reappraisal significantly and positively predicted life satisfaction. The findings were discussed in the light of available research along with implications of the study and possible avenues for future research.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danping Liu ◽  
Jingjing Ge ◽  
Jing He ◽  
Yan Liu ◽  
Juying Zhang ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Healthcare workers, whose job is to protect and improve the health of populations, are critical to the success of health systems and to achieving national and global health goals. To respond effectively to the health needs of populations, healthcare workers themselves must be in a perfect state of health. However, healthcare workers face various psychosocial pressures, including night shifts, long working hours, demands of patient care, medical disputes, workplace violence, and emotional distress due to poor interactions with patients and colleagues and poor promotion prospects. Constant exposure to these psychosocial hazards adversely impacts healthcare workers’ health. This study aimed to examine the influence of effort-reward imbalance, job satisfaction, and work engagement on self-rated health among healthcare workers, which is conducive to providing policy guidance from several aspects as possible as to improve healthcare workers’ health. Methods : The Chinese Sixth National Health and Services Survey in Sichuan Province was conducted from August 2018 to October 2018, and we analysed 1327 valid responses. We used structural equation modelling (SEM) to test the hypothesized relationship among the variables. Results: Only 40.1% of healthcare workers rated their health as ‘relatively good’ or ‘good’. Effort-reward imbalance had a significant negative correlation with self-rated health (β=-0.053, 95%CI: (-0.163) -(-0.001)). The relationships of effort-reward imbalance and work engagement with self-rated health were both mediated by job satisfaction (95%CI: (-0.150) -(-0.050), (0.011) -(0.022)). Work engagement mediated the relationship between effort-reward imbalance and self-rated health (95%CI: (-0.064) -(-0.008)). Conclusion: In order to improve the health of healthcare workers, administrators should balance effort and reward and provide opportunities for career development and training for healthcare workers. In addition, health managers should help healthcare workers realize the significance and value of work and help keep them actively devoted to their work through incentive mechanisms.


Author(s):  
Xi Chen ◽  
Stephen X. Zhang ◽  
Asghar Afshar Jahanshahi ◽  
Aldo Alvarez-Risco ◽  
Huiyang Dai ◽  
...  

AbstractBackgroundSocial media are becoming hotbeds of conspiracy theories, which aim to give resolute explanations on the cause of COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, no research has investigated whether individuals’ belief in conspiracy theory about COVID-19 is associated with mental health and well-being issues. This association enables an assessable channel to identify and reach people with mental health and well-being issues during the pandemic.ObjectiveWe aim to provide the first evidence of belief in conspiracy theory regarding the COVID-19 virus as a predictor of the mental health and well-being of healthcare workers.MethodsWe conducted a survey of 252 healthcare workers in Ecuador from April 10 to May 2, 2020. We analyzed the data of distress and anxiety caseness with logistic regression and life and job satisfaction with linear regression.ResultsAmong the sampled healthcare workers in Ecuador, 24.2% believed that the virus was developed intentionally in a lab; 32.54% experienced distress disorder, and 28.17% had anxiety disorder. Compared to healthcare workers who were not sure where the virus originated, those who believed the virus was developed intentionally in a lab were more likely to have distress disorder and anxiety disorder and had lower levels of job satisfaction and life satisfaction.ConclusionsThis paper identifies belief in a COVID-19 conspiracy theory as an important predictor of distress, anxiety, and job and life satisfaction of healthcare workers. It enables mental health services to better target and help mentally vulnerable healthcare workers during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jingjing Ge ◽  
Jing He ◽  
Yan Liu ◽  
Juying Zhang ◽  
Jingping Pan ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Healthcare workers, who protect and improve the health of individuals, are critical to the success of health systems and achieving national and global health goals. To respond effectively to the healthcare needs of populations, healthcare workers themselves must be in a perfect state of health. However, healthcare workers face various psychosocial pressures, including having to work night shifts, long working hours, demands of patient care, medical disputes, workplace violence, and emotional distress due to poor interactions with patients and colleagues, and poor promotion prospects. Constant exposure to these psychosocial hazards adversely impacts healthcare workers’ health. Consequently, this study aimed to examine the influence of effort-reward imbalance, job satisfaction, and work engagement on self-rated health of healthcare workers. The results would be conducive to providing policy guidance to improve the health of healthcare workers. Methods We analysed the data of 1327 participants from The Chinese Sixth National Health and Services Survey in Sichuan Province that was conducted from August 2018 to October 2018. Structural equation modelling was used to test the hypothesized relationships among the variables. Results Only 40.1% of healthcare workers rated their health as ‘relatively good’ or ‘good’. Effort-reward imbalance had a significant negative correlation with self-rated health (β = -0.053, 95% CI [-0.163, -0.001]). The associations of effort-reward imbalance and work engagement with self-rated health were both mediated by job satisfaction (95% CI [-0.150, -0.050] and [0.011, 0.022]), and work engagement mediated the relationship between effort-reward imbalance and self-rated health (95% CI [-0.064, -0.008]). Conclusion In order to improve the health of healthcare workers, administrators should balance effort and reward and provide opportunities for career development and training. In addition, health managers should help healthcare workers realize the significance and value of their work and keep them actively devoted to their work through incentive mechanisms.


2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 294-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Barken ◽  
Margaret Denton ◽  
Firat K. Sayin ◽  
Catherine Brookman ◽  
Sharon Davies ◽  
...  

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