Abstract
Over the years – due to the aging population, the process of corporatisation and a demand for a higher quality of services – professionals who work in Care Homes have been exposed to an increasing risk of physical and emotional malaise because of the number of challenges they’ve been asked to manage. Given these factors, there is a growing interest in the study and understanding of professions in geriatric care settings. In the literature there is a prevalence of quantitative studies offering an overview in terms of indicators – at the individual or group or organizational level – concerning the potential development of situations of professional malaise. Conversely, there is a lack of qualitative studies exploring the risk and protection factors. For this reason, in this study we decided to use a qualitative approach to explore “more up close” this kind of organizational context and to keep together the different levels in systemic terms in order to identify – according to professionals’ perceptions – resource factors (in order to leverage these aspects) and fatigue factors (to identify them and treat them). Three Italian Care Homes were involved and the interview’s sample was composed of 45 professionals – 15 nurses, 30 total Patient Care Assistants (PCAs) and Auxiliary Care Assistants (ACAs), of these, 17 males and 28 females, with an average age of 43 years (SD = 0.78) – selected using a sampling of maximum variability. From the analysis of the materials there seem to be four profiles of the professionals involved. Implications to ensure a functional human resource management are discussed for the purpose of promote the well-being of the various professionals, and, as a result, an increasing quality of service.
Highlights
The present study aims to offer a contribution to the understanding of the care professions that work in Care Homes [in Italy, Residenze Sanitarie Assistenziali (RSA)]1 because due to the complex challenges they face they are likely to experience various forms of physical and emotional malaise
In the literature there is a prevalence of cohort, cross-sectional and comparative studies that offer an overview in terms of indicators – at the individual or group or organizational level – concerning the potential development of situations of professional malaise
Through a qualitative study developed in three Italian Care Homes,2 the purpose of this paper is to identify and explore resource factors and fatigue factors in the perception of professionals
Summary
The present study aims to offer a contribution to the understanding of the care professions that work in Care Homes [in Italy, Residenze Sanitarie Assistenziali (RSA)]1 because due to the complex challenges they face they are likely to experience various forms of physical and emotional malaise.First evidence related to the attention for care professions concerns the incremental aging of the Italian population: 200,000 non-self-sufficient seniors are guests in residential structures, Caring for Care Professionals2.5 million live with their families, but 4.7 million seniors would opt to live in residences if their quality of life improved (Censis, 2015). The increased age of the guests welcomed in Care Homes determines a physical and mental health situation characterized by co-occurrence of illnesses, psychological and behavioral instability, fragility (Sanchez et al, 2015; Cooper et al, 2016), and the work required of operators is focused on the preservation of the remaining capacity, the management of chronic illness and assistance in activities of daily living (Abrahamson et al, 2009; Spinelli et al, 2016) Another element to consider is the process of corporatisation that increasingly impacts Italian care settings, implying that professionals are supposed to be able to optimize time, resources, and costs. This means simultaneously keeping in mind and considering three different levels:
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