Person‐centred care and job satisfaction of caregivers in nursing homes: a systematic review of the impact of different forms of person‐centred care on various dimensions of job satisfaction

OBJECTIVE: The positive effects of person-centred care on older clients have been demonstrated. However, relatively little is known about the effect that giving person-centred care has on caregivers. This literature review examines the job satisfaction of caregivers who deliver person-centred care in nursing homes. DESIGN: The research questions are: Do the various forms of person-centred care affect job satisfaction differently? Which particular dimensions of job satisfaction have been evaluated in studies on person-centred care, and does their sensitivity to person-centred care differ? Using the search engines Pubmed, Cinahl, Psychinfo and Embase up to August 2010, 46 efficacy studies were found, seven of which satisfied our criteria. RESULTS: Emotion-oriented care, snoezelen, and small-scale care most often show positive effects on job satisfaction. Person-centred care has been shown to have positive effects on general job satisfaction, job demands at psychogeriatric wards, emotional exhaustion and personal accomplishment. CONCLUSIONS: Taking into account the fair-to-moderate quality of the studies included, it is concluded that there are limited indications that person-centred care has a positive effect on a number of dimensions of caregivers' job satisfaction. Further study is required to expand and to support these tentative conclusions.