Navigating the field of temporally framed care in the Danish home care sector.

The organisational and temporal framing of elderly care in Europe has changed in the wake of new public management reforms and standardised care services, the strict measurement of time and work schedules have become central aspects of care work. The article investigates the crafting of care in this framing: how care workers approach the services specified in their rotas and navigate between needs, demands and opportunities in the daily performance of duties. Applying feminist theory on time and anthropological theory on social navigation, it examines the practice of home care work in two Danish municipalities. Data are derived predominantly from participant observation. The article identifies two overarching temporal dilemmas in different home care situations: one where process time prevails over clock time and another where the care workers balance the two. Focusing on how care workers respond to these dilemmas in practice, the article identifies various navigation tactics, including leaving time outside, individualised routinisation, working on different paths simultaneously and postponing tasks. By assessing care workers' performance in the temporal framing of work and focusing on care workers' mediation between different time logics, this study provides an in-depth perspective on the broader feminist literature on the dilemmas of care.

Why are they leaving? Causes of actual turnover in the Danish eldercare services.

AIM: To investigate reasons for actual turnover among eldercare staff and to investigate changes in job design that could prevent turnover. BACKGROUND: Many Western countries have difficulties in recruiting healthcare staff to provide care for an ageing population. Knowledge on the causes of turnover among healthcare staff is therefore important. METHOD: In a prospective cohort study (n = 7025) baseline characteristics were compared for employees who respectively quit, retired and worked in eldercare at follow-up. Additionally, a survey was conducted among those employees who left their jobs during follow-up. RESULTS: Employees who quit their jobs (n = 461) primarily stated that psychosocial work conditions caused them to quit, whereas retirees (n = 265) primarily stated reasons related to health and physical job demands. Improvements in the time available for the contact with the elderly, increased skill discretion and improved social relations could prompt employees to reconsider quitting or retiring. CONCLUSION: Work in eldercare has some 'core' aspects that appear desirable to employees who quit or retired. Building on those aspects offers a strategy for enhanced recruitment potential. IMPACT FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: To reduce turnover managers should improve psychosocial work conditions in eldercare and ensure that physical demands do not exceed the capacities of employees.

Client-related work tasks and meaning of work: results from a longitudinal study among eldercare workers in Denmark.

PURPOSE: To investigate the association between the perception of client-related work tasks and the experience of meaning of work among eldercare workers in the Danish eldercare sector. METHODS: We used baseline and follow-up questionnaire data from 3,985 female eldercare workers. The eldercare workers' perception of the client-related work tasks was measured by six items. Meaning of work was measured by a three-item scale. General linear modelling was used to investigate the association between the client-related work tasks at baseline and experience of meaning of work at follow-up adjusted for job title, type of workplace, and age. RESULTS: When care workers experience to have time to be flexible in the care provision and to be able to talk and socialize with the elderly, they are significantly more likely to experience meaning of work at follow-up than care workers who occasionally or rarely have this experience. Care workers who frequently experience to have to end a visit prematurely are significantly less likely to experience meaning of work at follow-up than care workers who rarely experience this. Experiences of having time to perform other than pre-planned tasks and to have insufficient time have little impact on experience of meaning of work at follow-up. CONCLUSION: This study indicates that to enhance the experience of meaning of work among eldercare workers, improvements of the relational aspects of care work, i.e. the possibilities to talk, socialize, and involve the elderly in the care provision, should be considered.