Reasons for Turnover Intention among Direct Care Workers in Korea's Long-Term Care Insurance.

Yongho Chon,Yun-Young Kim

doi:10.3390/healthcare8040395

Yongho Chon, Yun-Young Kim

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare8040395

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Abstract

This study explored reasons for turnover intention among direct care workers under the Korean long-term care insurance (LTCI) system. The author conducted semi-structured interviews with 19 care workers. The study revealed four main themes underlying the intention of care workers to change or leave their jobs. Care workers struggled with demanding working conditions, and their salaries were low. Moreover, the relationships with their directors and supervisors was not good, since some care workers felt that their directors despised them or gave them inappropriate instructions, and their supervisors did not complete administrative work fairly. Lastly, some workers’ health conditions prevented them from carrying out their care work. The results have implications for working practices of care workers, prices of LTCI services, training of directors and supervisors, and coverage of occupational health and safety insurance for care workers.

Highlights

Owing to the rapid population ageing and a decrease in caring roles being undertaken within families, care workers have become very important resources for older adults in need of long-term care (LTC) in many Western developed countries
After an interview was conducted with a care worker, they were asked to recommend other care workers who met the sampling criteria [41]: those who had worked in long-term care insurance (LTCI) facilities for older adults for at least a year, knew the research topic well, and were able to communicate
Four main findings relating to turnover intention were: demanding working conditions, low salary, bad relationships with directors and supervisors, and the degradation of the health of care workers

Summary

Introduction

Owing to the rapid population ageing and a decrease in caring roles being undertaken within families, care workers have become very important resources for older adults in need of long-term care (LTC) in many Western developed countries. It has been pointed out that many care workers experience heavy workloads, poor working conditions and income, and few opportunities for career development [1,2,3]. These issues have led to high turnover among care workers, some of whom have left the LTC field completely. Adult children felt a behavioral, physical, and financial duty to do so This traditional care culture has been undermined by industrialization, urbanization, and individualism [5,6,7]. The high turnover of care workers in the LTC setting is associated with costly recruitment and training of care providers and substandard care [2,12]

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