Job Satisfaction of Social Workers in Nursing Homes: Nursing Home Type and Culture Change Affiliation

Abstract

Abuse, neglect, and deficits in quality of life still persist for residents in the nation's nursing homes. Best practices in this area recommend the implementation of humanistic, culture change initiatives to ameliorate this situation. However, there is scant research on the subject of culture change, and fewer still on social workers in culture change nursing homes. The studies that do exist have been affiliated with hospital settings, finding that the implemention of culture change had little to no impact on the job satisfaction of social workers. To test these findings, and further explore the role of social workers in non-hospital affiliated nursing homes, this study sent out 700 job satisfaction questionnaires to social workers in 12 mid-western states. The study looked at job satisfaction in regard to nursing home type (traditional, combination, humanistic) as well as culture change affiliation. Using a General Linear Model (GLM), it was found that in regard to nursing home type, the humanistic category had a higher level of job satisfaction than did the traditional or combination types. It was additionally found that social workers who identified themselves as practicing in a culture change nursing home had a higher level of job satisfaction than did those social workers not employed in a culture change home. These findings were statistically significant. It was concluded that at least in non-hospital settings, both nursing home type (traditional, combination, humanistic) and culture change affiliation did have a positive impact on the job satisfaction of nursing home social workers. Further empirical studies of social workers in culture change nursing homes are highly recommended and essential to the continued deliverance of resident-centered services that enhance the quality of life for nursing home residents.