Nursing Home Staff  With Children: Unique Needs Among Single and Partnered Parents

Nursing home (NH) staff job dissatisfaction and turnover are associated with lower care quality. However, little is known about the impact of being single on workplace experiences. Guided by the Job Demands-Control-Support Model, we compared job satisfaction, turnover intention, and psychological distress for single and partnered parents working in NHs.

Employee and manager data from the 2011 to 2012 wave of the Work Family Health Network study were combined (N = 1,144) to define parents with complete data (N = 586). Bivariate tests and multivariate regressions clustering observations within NHs were used.

Most single parents (n = 190, 32%) were nursing assistants (NAs; n = 142, 74.74%) or licensed practical nurses (LPNs; n = 29, 15.26%). Compared with partnered parents, single parents were similar on turnover intention and job satisfaction, but they were more likely to report distress (OR = 1.79, 95% CI 1.09, 2.94) observed only among NAs (OR = 2.08, 95% CI 1.12, 3.85). Psychological distress was associated with greater turnover intent (β = 0.02, p < .05) among NAs and LPNs, yet only among single parents (β = 0.04, p < .01). Distress was more likely with higher family-to-work conflict (OR = 1.67, 95% CI 1.18, 2.36) and work-to-family conflict (OR = 1.60, 95% CI 1.20, 2.14) among licensed nurses, yet the distress-work-family conflict associations were only significant for partnered parent nurses.

Supporting NH staff depends upon knowing their parental, relationship, and occupational status. Additional research is needed to understand and develop strategies to mitigate psychological distress and increase resources particularly among NA single parents employed in NHs.