Bullying or violence during training and the risk of dropout from the eldercare sector 2 years later

The proportion of old people in need of care is growing rapidly in most western societies, and there is a rising demand for qualified eldercare workers in the years to come. Hence, solutions to high turnover in the eldercare sector are becoming increasingly important.

To test whether bullying, violence and/or threats of violence (violence) among health care trainees are predictors of subsequent dropout from the eldercare sector 2 years after graduation from college.

A questionnaire was given to all health care trainees in Denmark approximately 2 weeks before their graduation in 2004. Female respondents (N = 5000) were followed in national employment registers to see whether they had dropped out of the eldercare sector by the end of 2006. Logistic regression was used to model the outcome.

Among the respondents, 5.5% had been bullied during the training period, 9.1% had been subjected to violence. Hereof, 1% reported exposure to both bullying and violence. At follow-up, 37% had dropped out of the eldercare sector. The odds of dropout were significantly associated with bullying, OR = 1.39 (95% CI: 1.08-1.79), but not with violence, OR = 0.89 (95% CI: 0.72-1.09).

Being bullied while in training as a health care worker is a predictor of subsequent dropout from the eldercare sector.