Factors Associated With Care Aide Job Satisfaction in Atlantic Canadian Long-Term Care Homes

Guided by the Job Demands-Resources model, this study aimed to identify individual and organizational factors associated with job satisfaction among care aides working in Atlantic Canadian long-term care (LTC) homes.

This study used a cross-sectional design. Data were collected from care aides using the Translating Research in Elder Care measurement system as part of the Atlantic Research Collaboration on LTC from November 2023 to May 2024.

The final analytical sample included 1099 care aides from a stratified random sample of 53 LTC homes across New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island.

We used a generalized linear mixed-model approach with a gamma distribution and a log link, accounting for the nesting of care aides within LTC homes and for the skewed outcome variable. The model tested the association of personal demographics, facility characteristics, well-being indicators, and organizational context with job satisfaction. We standardized coefficients and calculated bootstrapped 95% CIs.

No personal demographics or facility characteristics were significantly associated with job satisfaction. Individual well-being factors showed significant associations: higher mental health (β = 0.016) and professional efficacy (β = 0.017) were associated with higher job satisfaction, whereas higher emotional exhaustion (β = -0.031) and cynicism (β = -0.035) were associated with lower job satisfaction. Four modifiable organizational context factors, conceptualized as job resources, showed significant positive associations: culture (β = 0.049), organizational slack in staff (β = 0.017), social capital (β = 0.015), and evaluation (β = 0.015).

Care aide job satisfaction was not significantly associated with personal demographics but was significantly associated with the quality of their organizational context and individual well-being. Findings support the Job Demands-Resources model, demonstrating that job resources (eg, positive culture, adequate staffing) and personal resources (eg, efficacy) are strongly associated with higher job satisfaction, whereas demands (exhaustion, cynicism) are detrimental. Policy and practice interventions should prioritize improving these modifiable organizational factors.