A job analysis of care helpers

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the roles of care helpers through job analysis. To do this, this study used the Developing A Curriculum Method (DACUM) to classify job content and a multi-dimensional study design was applied to identify roles and create a job description by looking into the appropriateness, significance, frequency, and difficulty of job content as identified through workshops and cross-sectional surveys conducted for appropriateness verification. A total of 418 care helpers working in nursing facilities and community senior service facilities across the country were surveyed. The collected data were analyzed using PASW 18.0 software. Six duties and 18 tasks were identified based on the job model. Most tasks were found to be "important task", scoring 4.0 points or above. Physical care duties, elimination care, position changing and movement assistance, feeding assistance, and safety care were identified as high frequency tasks. The most difficult tasks were emergency prevention, early detection, and speedy reporting. A summary of the job of care helpers is providing physical, emotional, housekeeping, and daily activity assistance to elderly patients with problems in independently undertaking daily activities due to physical or mental causes in long-term care facilities or at the client's home. The results of this study suggest a task-focused examination, optimizing the content of the current standard teaching materials authorized by the Ministry of Health and Welfare while supplementing some content which was identified as task elements but not included in the current teaching materials and fully reflecting the actual frequency and difficulty of tasks.