Which work environment challenges are top of mind among eldercare workers and how would they suggest to act upon them in everyday practice? Process evaluation of a workplace health literacy intervention
Tidsskriftartikel - 2021
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Objectives This study aimed to investigate the process of a quasi-experimental stepped wedge clustered intervention trial which implemented workplace health literacy for reducing musculoskeletal pain among eldercare workers. Methods A central component of the intervention was structured communication sessions between employee and supervisor. We evaluated which challenges they addressed during the communication session, which actions they planned and how they rated the implementation of their own action plans. Three overall categories were used; organisation/management level, team level and individual level indicating in which organisational context the challenge appeared or the action was planned. For each overall category, a set of sub-categories were defined based on grounded theory and open coding. Results During 28 months, 2.497 sessions were registered. Among these, 2.919 challenges and 3.848 plans for action were identified. In 24% of the sessions no challenge was identified. Most frequent challenges concerned staffing (17%), organisation of tasks (15%) and team work (14%). Most frequently action plans concerned communication (18%), team-work (16%) and handling residents (14%). Half of the plans were solved at another level in the organisation than the challenge appeared. The highest implementation rate was found among actions planned on the individual level (52%), actions planned on team and management/organisational level were implemented at a lower rate (45% and 39%). Conclusions This study contributes to the discussion regarding what kind of work environment initiatives could be introduced to improve the work environment in the eldercare sector. The results underline the advantages in considering solutions to work environment and health challenges broadly at all levels in the organisation and the relevance of involving both the employee and the organisation/management in identifying and implementing solutions.
Reference
Munch PK, Rasmussen CDN, Jørgensen MB, Larsen AK. Which work environment challenges are top of mind among eldercare workers and how would they suggest to act upon them in everyday practice? Process evaluation of a workplace health literacy intervention. Applied Ergonomics 2021;90:103265.
doi: 10.1016/j.apergo.2020.103265
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