Understanding factors influencing personal care workers' intentions to stay: A systematic integrative review

TL;DR

This review identifies factors that influence personal care workers' decisions to stay in residential aged care, highlighting areas for improving workforce retention.

Contribution

The study systematically synthesizes literature to reveal five key themes influencing retention of personal care workers in aged care.

Findings

Five themes emerged: individual characteristics, career growth, employment stability, job satisfaction, and organisational support.

The findings emphasize the importance of psychological, social, and organisational factors in retention.

The review provides actionable insights for developing strategies to retain personal care workers.

Abstract

To systematically synthesise existing literature to identify influences on personal care workers' intentions to stay when employed in residential aged care.

A systematic integrative review was conducted, searching relevant literature across multiple databases, including Business Source Complete, CINAHL Complete, Medline Complete and APA PsycInfo via the EBSCOhost platform and EMBASE (excluding Medline). Articles were eligible for inclusion if they were peer‐reviewed, published in English between 1997 and 2024, and focused on factors influencing personal care workers' intentions to stay in residential aged care. The methodological quality of the selected articles was assessed using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool.

This review included six articles published between 2007 and 2021, reporting on quantitative (n = 4), qualitative (n = 1) and mixed methods (n = 1) research, with the final study published in 2021. Five employee‐related and employer‐related themes emerged as important factors that influence personal care workers' intentions to stay: (1) individual characteristics and resilience, (2) career growth and rewards, (3) employment stability and economic workforce pressures, (4) satisfaction and fulfilment in professional caregiving and (5) organisational support and collaborative work environment.

This review identified key factors influencing personal care workers' intentions to stay, offering actionable insights to inform the development of evidence‐based strategies aimed at strengthening workforce retention. Addressing these factors is critical to meeting the needs of an ageing population and ensuring the provision of high‐quality care. Furthermore, the review underscores the multifaceted determinants shaping these intentions, emphasising the importance of psychological, social and organisational factors to enhance retention efforts.

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