RELATIONSHIPS OF CARE STAFF IN ASSISTED LIVING

拟议研究的总体目标是增加对辅助生活设施（ALFs）如何创造一个最大限度地提高工作满意度和留住直接护理人员的环境的理解。具体目标是：1）了解工作场所的社会关系如何影响ALFs中直接护理人员的工作满意度和保留率; 2）了解个人，工作和工作场所因素如何影响ALFs中直接护理人员的社会关系的发展和维护。定性方法将被用来研究两个辅助生活设施在亚特兰大市区。拟议的研究地点是一个36张床位的非营利性设施和一个90张床位的营利性设施，其中包括一个特殊护理痴呆症单位。数据收集将持续6个月，包括深入访谈、非正式访谈、 参与者观察。将与大约40名直接护理人员和2名管理人员（负责管理每个家庭护理人员的人）进行深入访谈。护理人员将有目的地选择代表个人特征（种族和年龄），就业时间，轮班，全职和兼职状态和工作内容（辅助生活与特殊护理单元）的变化。在6个月的数据收集期间，每两周对每个家庭进行一次观察和非正式访谈 期所有深入访谈都将录音和誊写。将使用扎根理论方法分析数据。拟议的研究将提供第一个全面的，深入的信息的观点和经验的直接护理人员在ALFs。它将通过阐明工作场所关系在工作满意度和保留方面的作用，为长期护理研究人员，政策制定者和服务提供者提供有价值的见解 在这种情况下直接护理人员。该研究还将提高对ALF直接护理工作者的整体经验的理解，以及如何最好地与这些工作者进行研究。基于这些发现，我们计划提交一份R 01提案，在全州范围内开展一项研究，更广泛地调查影响工作满意度和保留率的个人、社会文化和环境因素，以及这些变量之间的关系。

The overall goal of the proposed study is to increase understanding of how assisted living facilities (ALFs) can create an environment that maximizes job satisfaction and retention of direct-care staff. The specific aims are: 1) to understand how social relationships in the work place affect job satisfaction and retention of direct-care staff in ALFs; and 2) to understand how individual, job, and workplace factors influence the development and maintenance of social relationships of direct-care staff in ALFs. Qualitative methods will be used to study two assisted living facilities in the metro Atlanta area. The proposed research sites are a 36-bed non-profit facility and a 90-bed for-profit facility with a special care dementia unit. Data collection will extend over a 6-month period and will consist of in-depth interviews, informal interviewing, and participant observation. In-depth interviews will be conducted with approximately 40 direct-care staff and with 2 administrators (the person responsible for management of care staff in each home). Care staff will be selected purposively to represent variation in personal characteristics (race and age), length of employment, shift, full- and part-time status, and job content (assisted living vs. special care unit). Observations and informal interviewing of care staff will take place during bi-weekly visits to each home over the 6-month data collection period. All in-depth interviews will be tape-recorded and transcribed. Data will be analyzed using a grounded theory approach. The proposed study will provide the first comprehensive, in-depth information about the viewpoints and experiences of direct-care staff in ALFs. It will offer valuable insights to long-term care researchers, policy-makers, and service providers by illuminating the role of work-place relationships in job satisfaction and retention of direct-care staff in this setting. The study also will improve understanding of the overall experience of direct-care workers in ALFs and of how best to conduct research with these workers. Based on these findings, we plan to submit an R01 proposal to conduct a statewide study investigating more broadly the individual, sociocultural, and environmental factors that influence job satisfaction and retention and the relationship between these variables in this setting.