Experiences in Working at Residential Care Home for the Elderly : Voices from Health Care Workers

With the ageing population worldwide, there is a massive demand for residential care homes for the elderly (RCHEs). Health care workers work closely with the older adults by providing basic care such as feeding, bathing, changing napkins, or assisting with activities of daily living. According to various reports and statistics, the turnover rate of health care workers is extremely high due to the “dirty work” nature, irregular working hours, lack of resources and support from employers or government, “ageing” of health care workers, etc. Research reported that the low social and occupational status, socially stigmatised, marginalised, and the social process of boundary-making also contributed to the high turnover rate of health care workers in the field. Thus, this chapter aims to uncover the voices from health care workers’ perspectives in order to understand their immediate needs for benefit from new insights. RCHEs policymakers would also gain important practical implications generated from the analysis results for developing policy initiatives to recruit and retain RCHEs workers.