Are Staffing, Work Environment, Work Stressors, and Rationing of Care Related to Care Workers' Perception of Quality of Care? A Cross-Sectional Study

Franziska Zuniga*, Dietmar Ausserhofer, Jan P. H. Hamers, Sandra Engberg, Michael Simon, Rene Schwendimann

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Objectives: To describe care worker-reported quality of care and to examine its relationship with staffing variables, work environment, work stressors, and implicit rationing of nursing care. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: National, randomly selected sample of Swiss nursing homes, stratified according to language region and size. Participants: A total of 4311 care workers of all educational backgrounds (registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, nurse aides) from 402 units in 155 nursing homes completed a survey between May 2012 and April 2013. Measurements: Care worker-reported quality of care was measured with a single item; predictors were assessed with established instruments (eg, Practice Environment Scale-Nurse Working Index) adapted for nursing home use. A multilevel logistic regression model was applied to assess predictors for quality of care. Results: Overall, 7% of care workers rated the quality of care provided as rather low or very low. Important factors related to better quality of care were higher teamwork and safety climate (odds ratio [OR] 6.19, 95% confidence interval [CI] 4.36-8.79); better staffing and resources adequacy (OR 2.94, 95% CI 2.08-4.15); less stress due to workload (OR 0.71, 95% CI 0.55-0.93); less implicit rationing of caring, rehabilitation, and monitoring (OR 0.34, 95% CI 0.24-0.49); and less rationing of social care (OR 0.80, 95% CI 0.69-0.92). Neither leadership nor staffing levels, staff mix, or turnover was significantly related to quality of care. Conclusions: Work environment factors and organizational processes are vital to provide high quality of care. The improvement of work environment, support in handling work stressors, and reduction of rationing of nursing care might be intervention points to promote high quality of care in nursing homes.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)860-866
JournalJournal of the American Medical Directors Association
Volume16
Issue number10
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Oct 2015

Keywords

  • Nursing homes
  • quality of health care
  • work environment
  • rationing of care
  • staffing

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