Dementia care: a focus on direct care workers’ attitudes, burnout and job satisfaction

Abstract

Introduction: An increasing number of people with dementia are being cared in residential aged care facilities. Direct care workers (DCWs), who provide the bulk of care in these facilities, are most likely to influence the quality of care and the residents’ wellbeing. Thus, understanding DCWs’ attitudes towards dementia and how these relate to burnout and job satisfaction is needed. Objective: This study aimed to assess the dementia-related attitudes, burnout and job satisfaction of DCWs caring for residents with dementia and to explore the associations between these variables. Methods: A cross-sectional study with 60 DCWs (female, 44.97±8.97 years old) of 4 residential aged care facilities was conducted. The Dementia Attitudes Scale (DAS) was used to assess attitudes towards dementia. Burnout was assessed with the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). Job satisfaction was measured with the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) short-form. Descriptive statistics and Pearson correlations (r) were performed using SPSS v19.0. Results: DCWs tend to show positive attitudes towards dementia (95.2±10.7). Regarding burnout, low emotional exhaustion (EE) (15.8±11.7) and moderate levels of depersonalization (DP) (6.4±5.9) and personal accomplishment (PA) (39.0±7.3) were found. The MSQ suggested moderate levels of job satisfaction (69.8±12.5).Significant moderate correlations were found between DAS global-score and PA (r=0.44; p<0.01). Job satisfaction correlated significantly with PA (r=0.3; p<005) and EE (r=-0.39; p<0.01). Conclusions: Findings suggest that DCWs’ job satisfaction and dementia-related attitudes are associated with burnout, particularly to feelings of accomplishment at work. These results have important implications for the design and delivery of interventions to support DCWs.