Development of an e-mentoring intervention for support workers in aged care: A qualitative study

Area of Science:

• Gerontology
• Digital Health Interventions
• Workforce Development

Background:

• Developing effective e-mentoring interventions is crucial for supporting aged care workers.
• Understanding user perspectives is key to successful intervention design.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and assess an e-mentoring intervention for aged care support workers in New Zealand.
• To explore user perspectives, usability, acceptability, and barriers/facilitators of the intervention.

Main Methods:

• Phase 1: Focus groups with aged care support workers to explore e-mentoring views.
• Phase 2: Qualitative methods to assess intervention usability, acceptability, barriers, facilitators, and benefits.
• Guided by the Medical Research Council framework for complex interventions.

Main Results:

• Support workers expressed interest and perceived benefits like increased job satisfaction and motivation.
• Key training needs identified included confidentiality, rapport-building, and technical support.
• The proposed intervention format was largely acceptable, with suggestions for refinement in training and clarity.

Conclusions:

• The e-mentoring intervention was acceptable to aged care support workers.
• Mentor-mentee match quality and clear expectations are critical for success.
• Further refinements are needed, with feasibility to be tested in a six-month trial.