Grant: Master's Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

The rising complex healthcare needs of Canada's aging population, combined with healthcare staffing challenges associated with work-related stress, is a serious public health issue. As staff burnout has risen, the need to mitigate these adverse mental health outcomes has emerged. Interestingly, for health care assistants working in long-term care a phenomenon known as compassion satisfaction has been found to buffer the effects of burnout. However, there is a gap in our knowledge supporting our understanding of what contributes to this phenomenon. While current knowledge suggests positive aspects related to working in long-term care contribute to wellbeing and act as protective features, there is a need to know more. If we want to understand what contributes to the wellbeing of these workers, we must listen to their voices and hear what is important to them. We can start by asking how health care assistants navigate the challenges of working in long-term care. Listening to how this population navigates challenges will provide insight into the emotional wellbeing and resiliency of this largely invisible group of workers. This study will use the Listening guide to explore the question at hand. This method recognizes these workers' challenges in providing direct care as an inherently relational task and employs a qualitative, voice-centred, and relational approach to understand their experiences. The gathered information will help policymakers better understand what contributes to the mental wellbeing of these workers. The data may also guide counselling practice and public policy by informing the health care assistant provincial training curriculum. Understanding what contributes to the mental wellbeing of these workers will strengthen the Canadian healthcare system.