A Study On The Willingness Of Elderly Caregivers To Practice In Private Elderly Institutions In Haikou

ObjectiveAt present,there is an imbalance between the supply and demand of elderly care services and a serious shortage of elderly care professionals in China,and there are problems such as high turnover rates and low willingness to work among elderly care workers.This study examines the basic operation of private elderly care institutions in Haikou and the willingness of the current elderly care workers in the institutions to work,in order to explore the current situation of private elderly care institutions and elderly care workers and the factors influencing the willingness of elderly care workers to work.To solve the problem of the shortage of elderly care practitioners caused by the imbalance between the supply and demand of elderly care services and the low willingness to practice,and to better promote the development of elderly care in Haikou City and realize the national strategy of healthy aging.MethodsBy reviewing relevant research literature and materials at home and abroad,the current development status of elderly care facilities and the current employment status of elderly caregivers were understood to provide the necessary theoretical foundation for this study.Using the convenience sampling method,six out of ten private elderly care institutions in Haikou were selected,and a questionnaire survey on the willingness to practice was conducted among 241 elderly care workers employed in the institutions,as well as interviews and exchanges with relevant management staff in the institutions.The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics to understand the basic situation of the elderly care facilities and caregivers.A multilevel logistic model was constructed to explore the factors that influence the willingness of elderly caregivers to work.Results1.The six private old people’s homes surveyed were basically flat in terms of financial income and expenditure.The average occupancy rate was low(58.5%),and the majority of elderly residents were disabled and semi-disabled(all over 85.0%);the care ratio was less than 0.33,which did not meet the national requirement of 1:3 care standard,and the supply of institutional elderly care workers was inadequate.2.The survey of 241 elderly care workers in institutions found that the majority of elderly care workers were female(92.5%);most were over 40 years old(70.9%);and had a low level of education,mainly high school or less(87.1%);some care workers had not obtained a qualification in elderly care(37.3%);and more elderly care workers were unwilling to continue working(43.2%).The main reasons for this were that elderly care workers perceived the profession as low income,heavy workload,high risk(99.0%),poor working environment(57.6%)and poor development prospects(46.1%).3.The results of the univariate analysis of elderly care workers’ willingness to work show that age,education,salary,access to work,and years of experience have an impact on elderly care workers’ willingness to work.The results of fitting the multilevel logistic model with the null model showed that the ICC values for institutions and individuals were 0.091 and 0.076,respectively,ranging from 0.059 to 0.138,with a moderate correlation,which requires further analysis with the multilevel model.The results of the intercept model fitted with the inclusion of institutional variables showed that only the geographical location of the institution was statistically significant(P<0.05).The results of the random regression model fitted with the inclusion of individual variables only showed that age,education,years of working in elderly services,and access to work were statistically significant(P<0.05)for work intention.The results of fitting institutional and individual variables together in a two-level logistic model showed that the factors of age,years working in elderly services,education,salary,access to work,availability of incentives,and geographic location were statistically significant(P<0.05)for willingness to work.The models were also tested for goodness of fit using-2LL and AIC values,and the results showed that the two-level logistic model was a better fit.Conclusions1.At present,there is an imbalance between the supply and demand of institutional elderly care services in Haikou,and the working elderly care workers have an inappropriate gender structure,are "aging," have a low level of education,and are not very willing to work.2.Eldercare workers’ willingness to work is influenced by health and motivational factors such as age,education,salary,length of time working in eldercare,availability of incentives,access to work,and geographic location of the facility.3.Government departments should encourage and support social forces to invest,and through the introduction of relevant laws and regulations,increased financial investment and publicity,and the establishment of reasonable incentive mechanisms in joint institutions,improve the social status,professional recognition and sense of accomplishment of caregivers,reduce the generation of burnout,and increase the willingness of elderly caregivers to practice,thus solving the problem of supplydemand imbalance of elderly services,promoting the development of the elderly care business in Haikou,and achieving the strategic goal of healthy aging.