Safety of union home care aides in Washington State

Schoenfisch, Ashley L.; Lipscomb, Hester J.; Phillips, Lorraine J.

doi:10.1002/ajim.22747

Cited by 15 publications

(53 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…The researchers used different qualitative research methods in their studies. The majority of studies (N = 9) used focus group interviews as the only method [26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34]. Seven studies used face-to-face interviews [35][36][37][38][39][40][41], while five studies used telephone interviews [42][43][44][45][46].…”

Section: Methodological Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One study reported that chronic pain and injuries in the lower back, shoulders, knees and neck resulted in surgery [36]. Strenuous work tasks included assisting clients with activities of daily living, performing housekeeping tasks or cleaning [26,32,35,36,42,47], transferring, assisting, repositioning and turning clients [28,32,35,36,42,47,49] and other heavy lifting [28,30,35,36,45,47,49]. Several informants experienced being in danger through physical violence from clients with mental health issues, dementia or Alzheimer's disease [30,32,33,35,36,40,[43][44][45]].…”

Section: Exposure To Physical Demandsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The studies described patients' pets as unpredictable and dangerous distractions that created an unsafe or unhealthy working space [29,30,40,45,48,49]. Rugs, cords, loose stairs, medical equipment and furniture, clutter, dark lights, objects on the floor and slippery floors where described as reasons for potential musculoskeletal injuries from slips, trips and falls [31,32,40,45,48,49]. The informants also reported difficulties in the winter such as ice and snow, driving conditions, car accidents and falls outside of the home [34,45,48,49].…”

Section: Physical Working Environmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The informants described increased indirect work tasks-for instance paperwork-as endeavours that did not directly involve patient care but increased the time pressure and workload, were difficult to complete during paid work hours and were a source of overtime hours [34,47,51,53]. Home health aides indicated that excessive sick leave from others created strain and pressure [39] and required them to take on extra responsibilities, perform extra tasks beyond the work schedule and work unpaid hours to fill care gaps and to meet the client's needs [26,27,32]. The informants reported that they kept working despite health problems because they could not afford to be absent, even if working could lead to long-term health consequences as psychological stress and burnout [30,31].…”

Section: Organisational Conditions Of Employmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Alzheimer's disease [30,32,33,35,36,40,[43][44][45]. In several studies, home health aides reported experiences of lack of respect for their professional expertise, lack of appreciation, lack of positive feedback and insufficient support from agency supervisors [26,30,34,[43][44][45].…”

Section: Home Health Aides Experienced Verbal Abuse From Clients Withmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Home health aides’ experiences of their occupational health: a qualitative meta-synthesis

Grasmo

Liaset

Redzovic

2020

Preprint

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Objective: The need for home care services is rapidly growing due to an increasing elderly population, earlier discharge from hospital and clients’ preference of being treated at home. While this need increases, there is high sickness absence among home health aides, and research show that home health aides have one of the highest probabilities of being granted a disability pension. A high prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders has been reported in occupations with physically demanding work, and this aspect is a major health problem among home health aides. Studies have shown that home health aides find their work stressful, physically demanding and exhausting. The objectives of this study were to summarise peer-reviewed literature on how home health aides experience their occupational health and conduct an ethnographic meta-synthesis with the aim of identifying and describing key concepts across studies. Methods: A qualitative ethnographic meta-synthesis was used to develop new insights into home health aides’ occupational experiences. By using this method, we directed attention to the interpretation of studies, development of concepts and expansion and specification of theories that concern these concepts. The first author conducted searches in the electronic databases CINAHL, MEDLINE and PsycINFO. Results: This meta-synthesis includes 27 articles. The review of these sources identified four key concepts as important to gain an understanding of occupational health among home health aides: exposure to physical demands , physical environmental factors , organisational conditions of employment and psychosocial working environment . Conclusion: The findings in this synthesis are consistent with previous research showing that occupational health among home health aides is a complex phenomenon. Specifically, physical, psychosocial and psychological exposure aspects have potential negative and positive effects on home health aides’ occupational health. In order to increase employee’s well-being, create a healthier workplace that provides well-functioning and high-quality home care services and cope with future health challenges, more investigations into the organisation of home care are needed.

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Section: Methodological Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Exposure To Physical Demandsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Physical Working Environmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Organisational Conditions Of Employmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Home Health Aides Experienced Verbal Abuse From Clients Withmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Home health aides’ experiences of their occupational health: a qualitative meta-synthesis

Grasmo

Liaset

Redzovic

2020

Preprint

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Differential underestimation of work‐related reinjury risk for older workers: Challenges to producing accurate rate estimates

Sears

Fulton‐Kehoe

Hogg‐Johnson

2022

American J Industrial Med

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Background Older workers are increasingly represented in the U.S. workforce, but frequently work part‐timeor intermittently, hindering accurate injury rate estimates. To reduce the impact of reporting barriers on rate comparisons, we focused on reinjury (both injury recurrence and new injury) among workers with a workers’ compensation claim, assessing: (1) reinjury risk for workers age 65+ versus <65; (2) importance of work‐time at‐risk measurement for rate estimates and comparisons; and (3) age distribution of potential risk factors. Methods Washington State workers’ compensation claims for a retrospective cohort of workers with work‐related permanent impairments were linked to state wage files. Reinjury rates were calculated for the cohort (N = 11,184) and a survey sample (N = 582), using both calendar time and full‐time equivalent (FTE)‐adjusted time. Risk differentials were assessed using rate ratios and adjusted survival models. Results The rate ratio for workers age 65+ (vs. <65) was 0.45 (p < 0.001) using calendar time, but 0.70 (p = 0.07) using FTE‐adjusted time. Survey‐based rates were 35.7 per 100 worker‐years for workers age 65+, versus 14.8 for <65. Workers age 65+ (vs. <65) were more likely to work <100% FTE, but were similar regarding job strain, their ability to handle physical job demands, and their comfort reporting unsafe conditions or injuries. Conclusions Accounting for work‐time at risk substantially improves age‐based reinjury comparisons. Although the marked elevation in self‐reported reinjury risk for older workers might be a small‐sample artifact (n = 34), workers age 65+ are likely at higher risk than previously appreciated. Ongoing workforce trends demand increased attention to injury surveillance and prevention for older workers.

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Healthy Aging Requires a Healthy Home Care Workforce: the Occupational Safety and Health of Home Care Aides

Quinn

Markkanen

Galligan

et al. 2021

Curr Envir Health Rpt

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Purpose of Review To identify important home care (HC) aide occupational safety and health (OSH) hazards and examine how addressing these can improve aide health and the delivery of HC services overall. Specifically, this review seeks to answer: Why is HC aide OSH important? What are the most significant OSH challenges? How can improving HC aide OSH also improve the safety and health of their clients? What implications do the findings have for future research? Recent Findings HC is one of the fastest growing US industries. Aides comprise its largest workforce and are increasingly needed to care for the rapidly aging population. There is an aide shortage due in part to instabilities in HC work organization and to serious job-specific hazards, resulting in aides losing work time. Recent social, economic, and technological factors are rapidly changing the nature of HC work, creating OSH hazards similar to those found in nursing homes. At the same time, aides are experiencing social and economic inequities that increase their vulnerability to OSH hazards. These hazards are also a burden on employers who are challenged to recruit, retain, and train aides. OSH injuries and illness interrupt the continuity of care delivery to clients. Many OSH hazards also put HC clients and families at risk. Summary A new framework and methodologies are needed to assess aide and client safety together in order to guide future HC research, policies, and practices. Government, industry, and labor commitment is needed to fund and coordinate a comprehensive, multidisciplinary research program.

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Safety of union home care aides in Washington State

Cited by 15 publications

References 53 publications

Home health aides’ experiences of their occupational health: a qualitative meta-synthesis

Home health aides’ experiences of their occupational health: a qualitative meta-synthesis

Differential underestimation of work‐related reinjury risk for older workers: Challenges to producing accurate rate estimates

Healthy Aging Requires a Healthy Home Care Workforce: the Occupational Safety and Health of Home Care Aides

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