Injuries, Inadequate Hours Linked to High Home Care Turnover
On-the-job injuries and insufficient hours are both significantly linked with home care workers’ stated intent to leave their jobs within a year, a survey published by The Gerontologist found.
By contrast, employer-sponsored health insurance, the use of consistent assignment, and high job satisfaction levels were all linked to low turnover intent, the survey found.
“It can be difficult to attract and retain high quality home health aides due to low wages, inadequate training, physical and demanding work, and schedules that are often part time and unpredictable,” study co-author Natasha S. Bryant of the LeadingAge Center for Applied Research said in a May 27 Reuters Health article.
Among the Most Dangerous Jobs
Home care jobs have long been considered among the most dangerous in the country. A May 2016 AFL-CIO report showed that, among women workers, home health aides experience some of the highest workplace injury and violence rates in the country.
Women comprise approximately 90 percent of the direct-care workforce, PHI data shows (pdf).
Additional PHI research demonstrates that, with an injury rate of 138.5 injuries per 10,000 workers in 2015, home health aides are almost 30 percent more likely than the average worker to get hurt on the job.
In fact, direct-care workers of all types face higher-than-average injury rates. Nursing assistants, for example, suffer the most on-the-job back injuries of any occupation in the U.S.
— by Matthew Ozga
