LONGITUDINAL CHANGES IN LEADERSHIP, JOB STRAIN, AND SOCIAL SUPPORT OVER FIVE YEARS IN NURSING HOMES

Abstract

Abstract Nursing home leadership has been described as crucial for staff job strain and social support but longitudinal data are lacking. This study aimed to explore changes in nursing home managers’ leadership, staff characteristics, job strain and social support by comparing matched units in a five-year follow-up study. Repeated cross-sectional, valid and reliable, measures of leadership, person-centered care, psychosocial climate and demographic variables were collected from managers and staff n=3605 in 2014 and n=2985 staff in 2019. Descriptive statistics and regression analyses with generalized estimating equations were used. The results showed that associations between leadership and staff job strain and social support increased in strength over time. This indicates that leadership has the potential to reduce staff job strain and increase the perception of social support among staff, and the significance of leadership increases over time. It was also shown that workforce characteristics had changed with higher proportion of enrolled nurses and a smaller proportion of nurse’s assistants at follow-up. An increase was also shown in staff reporting that the job required too much work effort, and perceived deteriorating collegiality and work atmosphere at follow-up.