Intentions to quit work among care staff working in the aged care sector

The aged care industry experiences high rates of staff turnover. Staff turnover has significant implications for the quality of care provided to care recipients and the financial costs to care agencies. In this study, we applied a model of intention to quit to identify the contextual and personal factors that shape aged care staff's intention to quit.

A sample of 208 aged care staff, including nurses, personal care assistants, allied health professionals, and managers completed a self-report questionnaire. The questionnaire assessed intention to quit, organizational commitment, job satisfaction, self-esteem, stressors, stress, and supervisor support.

The findings largely supported the model. Specifically, job commitment, job satisfaction, and work stressors directly influenced intentions to quit, although work stressors and supervisor support demonstrated numerous indirect associations on quitting intentions.

The findings suggest that aged care service providers can modify aged care workers' intentions to quit by reducing job stressors and increasing supervisor support.