Working in group living homes for older people with dementia: the effects on job satisfaction and burnout and the role of job characteristics

Abstract

Background: Group living homes are a fast-growing form of nursing home care for older people with dementia. This study seeks to determine the differences in job characteristics of nursing staff in group living homes and their influence on well-being.

The relationship between small-scale nursing home care for people with dementia and staff's perceived job characteristics

“…In line with what was hypothesized in the introduction and found in earlier studies (te Boekhorst et al, 2008;Verbeek, 2011), we found that more small-scale care characteristics are related to the staff perception of more decision authority. Given the smaller groups of residents living together, staff members often work alone and, as a consequence, are more autonomous in organizing daily life with residents and informal caregivers.…”

“…It is possible that the care model currently is less innovative than it was at the time of the previous studies. As assumed by te Boekhorst et al (2008), working in a relatively innovative form of care might have increased team spirit, thereby increasing the amount of coworker social support. Furthermore, earlier studies compared a group of small-scale group living homes with a number of regular nursing homes, while the current study examined the integration of two indicators of the concept of smallscale care.…”

“…Using a small sample of small group living homes and large scale nursing homes (te Boekhorst et al, 2008;Verbeek, 2011), these studies found that staff working in small-scale group living homes perceived less job demands, more decision authority and, unexpectedly, more coworker social support. In both studies, no differences were found for supervisor support between small-scale group living homes and nursing homes.…”

The relationship between small-scale care and activity involvement of residents with dementia

“…It is also possible that care staff working in living arrangements that provide group living home care are different from regular nursing home care staff with regard to their personal characteristics (te Boekhorst et al, 2008). Group living care staff might be more extrovert or equipped with more organizational skills than staff working in facilities that provide traditional nursing home care, characteristics that can influence the activity involvement of people with dementia.…”

Coming to grips with challenging behaviour: A cluster randomised controlled trial on the effects of a new care programme for challenging behaviour on burnout, job satisfaction and job demands of care staff on dementia special care units

“…This questionnaire has proved reliable and valid in measuring several separate job characteristics (van der Doef and and it has been used in several other studies in this population (te Boekhorst et al, 2008;Willemse et al, 2012a). Following this earlier research, the Job Satisfaction scale containing six items (range 6-24; Cronbachs α = 0.73)) and the Work and Time Pressure scale containing five items (range 5-20; Cronbachs α = 0.83) were used.…”