Relationship between an amount of Key Tasks and Job Satisfaction among Caregivers and Nurses in Elderly Care Facilities

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to examine relationship between an amount of key tasks and job satisfaction among caregivers and nurses in elderly care facilities.Methods: Questionnaires were mailed to the caring staff of elderly care facilities. After data collection (return rate 70%), information about work situations and health conditions were analyzed among 325 female workers, who were classified to 4 groups as follows; (1) caregivers under 40 years of age (2) caregivers of 40 years or over (3) nurses under 40 years of age (4) nurses of 40 years or over.Results: Mean ages and length of career in caring sector were 37.2 ± 12.2 yr and 4.5 ± 3.0 yr for caregivers and 41.6 ± 9.2 yr and 16.8 ± 8.9 yr for nurses, respectively. A larger amount of care services were done on average by workers being dissatisfied with their job than by the satisfied workers in each of the 4 groups. The dissatisfied caregivers under 40 years showed significantly higher frequencies (as ratios of 1.4 - 2 to 1) in several care services such as " helping with showers or baths" , " helping with eating" , " changing diapers" , " moving caretakers from bed or chair to wheelchair or vice versa" , as compared with the satisfied caregivers under 40 years. Similarly, the 40 plus dissatisfied caregivers helped caretakers sit up in bed significantly more frequently. For nurses, on the other hand, " changing diapers" was found as the only service with a significant difference in frequency between the dissatisfied and the satisfied, but that was limited in the 40 plus age group. A frequency of " changing diapers" was associated with an increase in the risk of job dissatisfaction.Conclusions: These results suggested that an appropriate amount of each key task in elderly care facilities should be set to prevent staff's dissatisfaction with their job from growing excessively.