– Now I’m stressing a bit, because today was an illness. This patient is usually early on the list because she needs medication as soon as she wakes up. Silje Birgithe Wessel is on her way to today’s third visit. For the past four years, she has worked as a nurse in the home service in Bodø. There are long days, many patients who need help, and little time. She feels this on her body. Silje Birgithe Wessel in the car on the way to a patient. Photo: Rune A. Hansen / news Wessel, and many others who work in home care. The home care service is the workplace in Norway where doctors issue the most long-term sick leave. Sickness absence of more than 16 days is 7.7 per cent for employees here. It is almost twice as high as the average in Norway, according to the Norwegian Working Environment Institute (STAMI). The institute has statistics on the types of ailments that are prevalent in various workplaces. The employees in home care are most mentally exhausted after work. They top the statistics for back problems. And together with those who work in nursing homes, they have the most musculoskeletal problems and sleep difficulties. They also have significant psychological problems. Great strain Why is it like that? This is what researchers at STAMI wanted to find out. They have interviewed thousands of employees and analyzed the available data. The answers did not surprise the researchers. – We who are researching this know that the working environment has a lot to say about sickness absence, says Håkon Johannessen, who led the study. What characterizes the everyday working life of employees in home care is that it is characterized by high emotional demands and role conflict. Håkon Johannessen leads research in work psychology at STAMI. Photo: Geir Dokken The first thing is that you meet people with strong emotions. There can be sadness, anger and frustration from patients. As an employee, you must both face these, and perhaps hide your own feelings. The second is about the fact that you are faced with demands that cannot be reconciled. Johannessen explains the employees’ dilemma as follows: – You have a professional ethic. You have an idea of what good care is. Then you don’t have time to give it because you have to deal with so many patients that day. Then you can go home and feel that you have not done a good job, he says and continues: – We see the employees in the home care struggling with that. Such strain over time also increases the likelihood of musculoskeletal problems, in addition to psychological problems, says the researcher. Other things that characterize everyday work in home care are heavy lifting and little flexibility around breaks and working hours. – Even the most robust people will be able to develop ailments as a result of these conditions, says Johannessen. A stressful everyday life Silje Birgithe Wessel drives between the terraced houses in her little blue municipal car. After being on sick leave for 50 percent of the first half of the year, she is now back at work. Silje Birgithe Wessel on her way in to the first patient of the day. Photo: Rune A. Hansen / news The reason for the sick report was something that the STAMI researchers highlight: Heavy lifting. Wessel was supposed to help lift a patient who had recently returned home from hospital. – Then I got a slap in the back. With her, things were not organised, things were not in order, says Wessel. It has been 2 years, and she is still struggling with her back. The law is being broken This may indicate that the home services around the country have a number of challenges. news has received figures from the Norwegian Labor Inspection Authority on inspections they have had at various home services. There are few other workplaces where the Norwegian Labor Inspection Authority finds violations of the law as often as in the home service. 85 percent of the places they checked in the last five years had violations of the Working Environment Act: In other words, violations of the law which is supposed to ensure workers a good working environment. In comparison, they found violations in 61 percent of the inspections in the construction industry. Can something be done about the Working environment does not have everything to do with whether people are on sick leave. But in 2016, STAMI did research on sickness absence which is above average. They then found that 70 per cent of it is about the working environment, in professions within health and social care. Morning meeting in the home service in Bodø. Photo: Rune A. Hansen / news To help the home service, among other things, overcome this, STAMI has developed a separate tool. But not everything can be solved with digital tools. And you cannot organize yourself away from emotional demands, according to Johannessen. But measures can be taken to ensure that the employees handle it better. – Then it is about managers providing social support, and colleagues providing support. Research shows that then they handle the demands they face in their everyday work better. I’m not saying it’s easy to achieve, but possible, says Johannessen. The home service is central to the first episode of the documentary series “Brennpunkt: Care behind closed doors” Kari (90), Sverre (96) and Lilly (90) are not given a place in a nursing home and have to live at home. They are dependent on help from the home service. Hi! Do you have any input for us? Do you know of other conditions in elderly care that we should look at? Feel free to contact us by e-mail if you have input. You can also send us input, tips and information encrypted and secure via news’s extra secure notification reception – see how to submit via news’s SecureDrop here. We have previously focused on, among other things municipal follow-up of the mentally ill, working conditions in the shipyard industry and pandemic preparedness. We are always interested in new information that enables us to shine a spotlight on health and care services, whether municipal or private. So just get in touch with us.
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The home service is Norway’s sickest workplace – news Dokumentar
