This study aimed to examine emotional labor and experience of violence and the level of burn-out for care-givers in nursing homes and to determine the effects of emotional labor and experience of violence on burn-out.
The elderly who need help wit...
This study aimed to examine emotional labor and experience of violence and the level of burn-out for care-givers in nursing homes and to determine the effects of emotional labor and experience of violence on burn-out.
The elderly who need help with geriatric diseases, such as dementia and apoplexy, are admitted to nursing homes, which offer daily conveniences, including food service and care. Care-givers personally give service and solve problems to meet their clients' requirements in nursing homes. They should be tense and feel responsible all the time for caring for elders suffering from geriatric disease or dementia and can easily get burnt out by their service because they need to spend most of their time with their clients. In this context, the purpose of this study is to determine the relations between emotional labor and experience of violence from clients and burn-out and the effects of these factors on care-givers' burn-out and to provide a ground for drawing up a plan to cope with the burn-out.
For this purpose, a survey was conducted in 250 care-givers working in nursing homes in Daegu. Of a total of 236 questionnaires returned (94.4%), 223(89.2%) formed the final valid sample for analysis. The collected data were processed with descriptive statistics, including frequency, percentage, the mean, and standard deviation, mean difference analysis, one-way ANOVA, reliability analysis, correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis using an SPSS 15.0 statistical program.
As a result, first, care-givers in nursing homes were experiencing the middle level of burn-out, and significantly greater burn-out was found both in the unhealthy group and in the group that could work, regardless of the age limit.
Second, care-givers in nursing homes were experiencing the middle level of emotional labor; of its sub-factors, attention to emotional expression got the highest mark, followed by frequency of emotional labor and emotional discord, all of which got a middle level of mark.
Third, care-givers in nursing homes were experiencing the middle level of violence; of its sub-factors, physical threat and verbal violence got a relatively higher mark, while sexual violence got a relatively lower mark.
Lastly, as for the effects of care-givers' emotional labor and experience of violence on burn-out in nursing homes, the health condition had negative effects, and the two-shift work system had positive effects. Such sub-areas of emotional labor as frequency of emotional labor and emotional discord had positive effects, and sexual violence, as a sub-area of experience of violence, had positive effects, showing statistically significant differences.
On the basis of these results, the following suggestions were made:
First, care-givers' health condition was found to exert the greatest impact on burn-out. Most of the care-givers are female and need to work to help family finances, regardless of the age limit; for this reason, it is necessary to be constantly concerned about their health condition.
Second, it is necessary to develop a system for managing emotional labor to control care-givers' burn-out in nursing homes. Each institution needs to regard the issue of emotional labor as that of mental health and provide psychological education as well as work, technical, and service education. It is also necessary to make diverse institutional efforts to guarantee a recess for care-givers and develop and operate a mental health program.
Third, policies and guidelines for coping with risks and violence from clients should be institutionalized to make it possible to take legal action. Since violence is not a trivial issue specific to each institution and individual concerned but an issue that affects nursing homes and care-givers playing a central role in the Long-Term Care Insurance System, institutional and administrative support should be given at the national level, along with efforts made by each institution.
Research should be conducted repetitively to investigate the factors of comprehensive burn-out for care-givers in nursing homes and accumulate empirical data about their burn-out. It is also necessary to make a sample of care-givers in other types of institutions as well as those in nursing homes and determine the relations between the level of emotional labor and experience of violence and burn-out.