Opportunities and Challenges for Designing Quality Work in Residential Aged Care

Residential aged care services are demanding work environments, impacting care workers’ health and safety and capacity to provide quality care. Safety and quality arise from the design of the work itself and require interventions that address risks at the source. The work design intervention shared in this chapter aimed to reduce musculoskeletal disorders and psychological injuries by building worker resources through job crafting. Using co-design and good work design (GWD) principles, communication strategies were introduced to increase problem-solving, participate in work design practices, and build relationships. The intervention coincided with the redesign of policies and practices for client restraint, providing opportunities to review high-risk aspects of people’s handling. Because of the concurrent organisational restructuring, gaining participation was challenging and led to a shorter intervention period than planned. Outcomes included modest increases in perceived supervisory support, relationship quality, care planning participation, and psychosocial safety climate. The key message from this case is that imparting skills to influential workers together with management commitment and workforce participation increases the potential for sustainable intervention outcomes, despite the challenges that may be encountered.