The purpose of this study is aimed at grasping the working environment and job satisfaction of care helpers working in long-term care facilities and finding out the effect of the working environment on their job satisfaction. The subjects of this stud...
The purpose of this study is aimed at grasping the working environment and job satisfaction of care helpers working in long-term care facilities and finding out the effect of the working environment on their job satisfaction. The subjects of this study included the 160 care helpers working in long-term care facilities in Daegu Metropolitan City. A survey of the care helpers was conducted from December 15, 2009 to January 28, 2010. The instruments used here were a scale for working environment and a scale for job satisfaction. The collected data was analyzed through frequency analysis, F-test, ANOVA, Tukey post-mortem of the verification using SPSS 14.0.
The results of the study are summarized as follows.
First, with regard to the care helpers' socio-demographic features, the average age group between 50 and 59 included more care helpers than any other age group. In addition, 18.9 percent of the care helpers got college education or more and 80.5 percent had religion and 95.8 percent perceived his/her state of health as better than average. Furthermore, 31.7 percent of the surveyed thought they were poor economically and 76.2 percent had less than two years of experience as a care helper. Besides, 65.9 percent were hired on a contract basis, the employment type accounting for the largest part of the surveyed, and 83.5 percent earned less than one million won per month.
Second, the care helpers working in long-term care facilities received an average score of 2.89 out of 5 points in the scale for the working environment. In addition, they received a relatively low average score of 2.69 in the measurement of their social perception and support. Besides, while they got a relatively high average score of 3.12 in the measurement of the profitability of conservatism, they received 2.43, the lowest average score, in the appropriation of conservatism.
Third, the care helpers working in long-term care facilities turned out to have more job satisfaction as they had lower education level. It was also found out that their job satisfaction had nothing to do with employment period, employment type, employment motive and average monthly income. The variables of the working environment that affected the job satisfaction included the amount of work, autonomy, relationship skills, the appropriation of conservatism, and role ambiguity and role conflicts. The care helpers showed more job satisfaction as they have less work, more autonomy, better relationship skills, more secured appropriation of conservatism, and less role ambiguity and less role conflicts.
The results indicate that a systematic support plan that can improve the working environment and various education programs that help to enhance relationship skills should be developed to raise the job satisfaction of care helpers working in long-term care facilities.