Job strain: a cross-sectional survey of dementia care specialists and other staff in Swedish home care services

Abstract

Introduction

An increasing number of older persons worldwide live at home with various functional limitations such as dementia. So, home care staff meet older persons with extensive, complex needs. The staff’s well-being is crucial because it can affect the quality of their work, although literature on job strain among home care staff is limited.

Aim

To describe perceived job strain among home care staff and to examine correlations between job strain, personal factors, and organizational factors.

Methods

The study applied a cross-sectional survey design. Participants were dementia care specialists who work in home care (n=34) and other home care staff who are not specialized in dementia care (n=35). The Strain in Dementia Care Scale (SDCS) and Creative Climate Questionnaire instruments and demographic variables were used. Descriptive and inferential statistics (including regression modeling) were applied. The regional ethical review board approved the study.

Results

Home care staff perceived job strain – particularly because they could not provide what they perceived to be necessary care. Dementia care specialists ranked job strain higher (m=5.71) than other staff members (m=4.71; p=0.04). Job strain (for total score and for all five SDCS factors) correlated with being a dementia care specialist. Correlations also occurred between job strain for SDCS factor 2 (difficulties understanding and interpreting) and not having Swedish as first language and SDCS factor 5 (lack of recognition) and stagnated organizational climate.

Conclusion

The study indicates that home care staff and particularly dementia care specialists perceived high job strain. Future studies are needed to confirm or reject findings from this study.

Keywords:

• aging-in-place
• home care services
• work situation
• language
• organization
• stress

Supplementary materials

Table S1 SDCS (total, factors, and statements) for total sample, dementia care specialists, and other staff

Table S2 CCQ score for the total sample, dementia care specialists, and other staff

Acknowledgments

Karolinska Institutet’s Doctoral School in Health Care Sciences and the Dementia at Home Project financed this research (Professor Lena Borell project funding from Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare and Strategic Research Area Health Care Science). The authors sincerely thank all home care staff members who participated in this study.

Author contributions

All authors contributed with the main part of the design, analysis, and manuscript writing. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.