Care-support needs of indonesian homecare workers and related factors

Background: Many foreign homecare workers in Taiwan assigned to care for patients in home settings lack preemployment training. Proper supports related to their care needs will facilitate their adaptation to perform care tasks effectively. Purpose: Aims of this study were to survey the care-support needs of Indonesian homecare workers and identify factors related to these needs. Methods: We used a cross-sectional, correlational design with a quantitative approach. Study subjects were 120 Indonesian care workers hired to care for home-based care recipients. These care recipients were identified from two medical centers and one regional hospital. The care-support questionnaire Indonesian version, including 11 items with adequate validity and reliability, was employed for data collection. The questionnaire included the four care-support subscales of instrumental need, emotional need, information need, and evaluation need. Data were collected via the self-administered survey during home visits. Multiplehierarchical regression was used to analyze data. Results: Findings indicated instrumental need as the priority need of participants, followed by emotional need, information need, and evaluation need. Among the 11 items, a practical care reference manual for taking care of patients was identified as the most urgent need. Multiple-hierarchical regression analysis showed that, in the final model, care worker education level, responsibilities shared by the family, linguistic ability, and use of prescription medicine all significantly contributed to care-support needs, accounting for a combined 20% of total variance. Conclusions / Implications for practice: Study results demonstrated that Indonesian homecare workers require a variety of supports in order to provide care for home-based patients in Taiwan. Information obtained in this study may serve as a reference to both labor and community healthcare planners to improve their design of pre-employment training programs for Indonesian homecare workers.