‘I have the world's best job’ - staff experience of the advantages of caring for older people
Sammanfattning
Rationale: Besides a growing demand for safe high-quality care for older people, long-term care
(LTC) often struggles to recruit appropriately qualified nursing staff. Understanding what LTC staff
value in their work may contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of what can attract staff
and support person-centred care.
Aim: To explore staff experience of the advantages of working in LTC settings for older people.
Methods: Narrative descriptions of 85 LTC staff in Ireland, the Netherlands and Sweden on what they
value in their work were analysed with qualitative content analysis.
Ethics: Ethical approval was obtained according to the requirements of each country, and participants
provided informed consent prior to the individual interviews.
Findings: Working in LTC signifies bonding with the older people residing there, their next of kin and
the team members. It means autonomy in one's daily tasks amalgamated with being a part of an
affirmative team. Participants reported a sense of accomplishment and fulfilment; caring meant
consideration and recognition of the older people and the relationships formed, which provided for
professional and personal growth. The sharing of compassion between staff and residents indicated
reciprocity of the relationship with residents.
Study limitations: The findings may be transferable to LTC in general although they address only the
positive aspects of caring for older people and only the experiences of those staff who had
consented to take part in the study.
Conclusions: The findings add to what underpins the quality of care in nursing homes: compassion in
the nurse-resident relationship and person-centred care in LTC. They indicate reciprocity in the
relations formed that may contribute to the empowerment of older people, but further studies are
needed to explore this in more detail.