The influence of organizational factors, eldercare worker characteristics and care situation on the use of assistive devices during resident handling in eldercare work

Kristina Karstad; Charlotte D N Rasmussen; Charlotte Lund Rasmussen; Reiner Rugulies; Karen Søgaard; Alex Burdorf; Andreas Holtermann

doi:10.1016/j.apergo.2021.103533

The influence of organizational factors, eldercare worker characteristics and care situation on the use of assistive devices during resident handling in eldercare work

Appl Ergon. 2022 Jan:98:103533. doi: 10.1016/j.apergo.2021.103533. Epub 2021 Aug 19.

Authors

Kristina Karstad¹, Charlotte D N Rasmussen², Charlotte Lund Rasmussen², Reiner Rugulies³, Karen Søgaard⁴, Alex Burdorf⁵, Andreas Holtermann²

Affiliations

¹ National Research Centre for the Working Environment (NRCWE), Lersø Parkallé 105, 2100, Copenhagen Ø, Denmark. Electronic address: kristinakarstad@gmail.com.
² National Research Centre for the Working Environment (NRCWE), Lersø Parkallé 105, 2100, Copenhagen Ø, Denmark.
³ National Research Centre for the Working Environment (NRCWE), Lersø Parkallé 105, 2100, Copenhagen Ø, Denmark; Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Øster Farimagsgade 5, 1014, Copenhagen K, Denmark; Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen, Øster Farimagsgade 2A, 1353, Copenhagen K, Denmark.
⁴ Department of Sports Science and Clinical Biomechanics, University of Southern Denmark, Campusvej 55, 5230, Odense M, Denmark; Department of Clinical Research, University of Southern Denmark, Campusvej 55, 5230, Odense M, Denmark.
⁵ Department of Public Health, Erasmus University Medical Center, P.O. Box 2040, 3000 CA, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

PMID: 34419784
DOI: 10.1016/j.apergo.2021.103533

Abstract

We evaluated the influence of organization, eldercare worker and care situation on the use of assistive devices during resident handling in eldercare work. We conducted a multi-level study among 20 nursing homes, 126 wards within the nursing homes, 549 eldercare workers within the wards, who performed a total of 1306 care episodes including 3695 resident handlings. The influence of organization (i.e. nursing home and ward), eldercare worker and care situation (i.e. care episode and resident handling) on the use of assistive devices was evaluated using variance components analysis and multivariate generalized linear mixed model. Nursing homes, wards, eldercare workers, care episodes and 'within care episode' all contributed to the total variance in use of assistive devices. Organizational factors and care situation factors were significantly associated with use of assistive devices. All levels of the nursing homes, but in particular care situation, influence the use of assistive devices during resident handling.

Keywords: Healthcare; Multilevel; Patient handling activities.

MeSH terms

Hospitals
Humans
Nursing Homes*
Self-Help Devices*