Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T11:00:04.155Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Care relationships, quality of care and migrant workers caring for older people

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 February 2012

KIERAN WALSH  and
ISABEL SHUTES
KIERAN WALSH*
Affiliation:
Irish Centre for Social Gerontology, National University of IrelandGalway, Ireland.
ISABEL SHUTES
Affiliation:
Department of Social Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK.
*
Address for correspondence: Kieran Walsh, Irish Centre for Social Gerontology, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland. E-mail: kieran.walsh@nuigalway.ie
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Migrant care workers make a substantial contribution to older adult care in Ireland and the United Kingdom (UK). However, little is known about the relational aspects of care involving migrant care workers and older people. Given that the care relationship is closely linked to quality of care, and that the Irish and UK sectors are increasingly restricted by economic austerity measures, this lack of information is a concern for care practice and policy. Our paper explores the relationship between migrant care workers and older people in Ireland and the UK and draws on data collected in both countries, including focus groups with older people (N = 41), interviews with migrant care workers (N = 90) and data from a survey of and interviews with employers. The findings illustrate the complexity of the migrant care worker–older person relationship; the prevalence of need orientated, friendship and familial-like, reciprocal, and discriminatory interlinking themes; and the role of individual, structural and temporal factors in shaping these relationships.

Keywords

older peoplemigrant care workerscare relationshipquality of care
Type
Articles
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 33 , Issue 3 , April 2013 , pp. 393 - 420
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adamson, J. and Donovan, J. 2005. ‘Normal disruption’: South Asian and African/Caribbean relatives caring for an older family member in the UK. Social Science & Medicine, 60, 1, 37–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Al-Janabi, H., Coast, J. and Flynn, T. N. 2008. What do people value when they provide unpaid care for an older person? A meta-ethnography with interview follow-up. Social Science & Medicine, 67, 1, 111–21.Google Scholar
Allan, H. T., Larsen, J. A., Bryan, K. and Smith, P. A. 2004. The social reproduction of institutional racism: internationally recruited nurses’ experiences of the British health services. Diversity in Health and Social Care, 1, 2, 117–25.Google Scholar
Arksey, H. and Glendinning, C. 2007. Choice in the context of informal care-giving. Health & Social Care in the Community, 15, 2, 165–75.Google Scholar
Ayalon, L. 2011. Abuse is in the eyes of the beholder: using multiple perspectives to evaluate elder mistreatment under round-the-clock foreign home carers in Israel. Ageing & Society, 31, 3, 299–520.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berdes, C. and Eckert, J. M. 2001. Race relations and caregiving relationships: a qualitative examination of perspectives from residents and nurse's aides in three nursing homes. Research on Aging, 23, 1, 109–26.Google Scholar
Berdes, C. and Eckert, J. M. 2007. The language of caring: nurse's aides’ use of family metaphors conveys affective care. The Gerontologist, 47, 3, 340–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bowers, B. J., Esmond, S. and Jacobson, N. 2000. The relationship between staffing and quality in long-term care facilities: exploring the views of nurse aides. Journal of Nursing Care Quality, 14, 4, 55–64.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bowers, B. J., Esmond, S. and Jacobson, N. 2003. Turnover reinterpreted: CNAs talk about why they leave. Journal of Gerontological Nursing, 29, 3, 36–43.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brichin, A. 1998. What makes for good care? In Brechin, A., Walmsley, J., Katz, J. and Pearce, S. (eds), Care Matters: Concepts, Practice and Research in Health and Social Care. Sage, London, 170–87.Google Scholar
Brown-Wilson, C., Davies, S. and Nolan, M. 2009. Developing personal relationships in care homes: realising the contributions of staff, residents and family members. Ageing & Society, 29, 7, 1041–63.Google Scholar
Brush, B. L., Sochalski, J. and Berger, A. M. 2004. Imported care: recruiting foreign nurses to U.S. health care facilities. Health Affairs, 23, 3, 78–87.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Buchan, J. 2007. International recruitment of nurses: policy and practice in the United Kingdom. Health Research and Educational Trust, 42, 3, 1321–35.Google Scholar
Cangiano, A. and Shutes, I. 2010. Ageing, demand for care and the role of migrant care workers in the UK. Journal of Population Ageing, 3, 1/2, 39–57.Google Scholar
Cangiano, A., Shutes, I., Spencer, S. and Leeson, G. 2009. Migrant Care Workers in Ageing Societies: Research Findings in the United Kingdom. Centre on Migration, Policy and Society, University of Oxford, Oxford.Google Scholar
Commission for Social Care Inspection 2008. The State of Social Care in England 2006–07. Commission for Social Care Inspection, London.Google Scholar
Cuban, S. 2008. Home/work: the roles of education, literacy, and learning in the networks and mobility of professional women migrant carers in Cumbria. Ethnography and Education, 3, 1, 81–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Department of Health and Children 2001. Quality and Fairness: A Health System for You. Government of Ireland, Dublin.Google Scholar
Dodson, L. and Zincavage, R. 2007. ‘It's like a family’: caring labor, exploitation, and race in nursing homes. Gender & Society, 21, 6, 905–28.Google Scholar
Doyle, M. and Timonen, V. 2009. The different faces of care work: understanding the experiences of the multi-cultural care workforce. Ageing & Society, 29, 3, 337–50.Google Scholar
Dyer, S., McDowell, L. and Batnitzky, A. 2008. Emotional labour/body work: the caring labours of migrants in the UK's National Health Service. Geoforum, 39, 6, 2030–8.Google Scholar
Eales, J., Keating, N. and Damsma, A. 2001. Seniors’ experiences of client-centred residential care. Ageing & Society, 21, 3, 279–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eborall, C. and Griffiths, D. 2008. The State of the Adult Social Care Workforce in England 2008. Third Report of the Skills Research and Intelligence Unit, Skills for Care, Leeds, UK.Google Scholar
Edebalk, P. G., Samuelsson, G. and Ingvad, B. 1995. How elderly people rank order the quality characteristics of home services. Ageing & Society, 15, 1, 83–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eustis, N. N. and Fisher, L. R. 1991. Relationships between home care clients and their workers: implications for quality of care. The Gerontologist, 31, 4, 447–56.Google Scholar
Foner, N. 1994. Caregiving Dilemma: Work in an American Nursing Home. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Fredrikson, K. I. and Scharlach, A. E. 1997. Caregiving and employment: the impact of workplace characteristics on role strain. Journal of Gerontological Social Work, 28, 4, 3–22.Google Scholar
Gottlieb, B. H., Kelloway, E. K. and Fraboni, M. 1994. Aspects of eldercare that place employees at risk. The Gerontologist, 34, 6, 815–21.Google Scholar
Graham, J. E. and Bassett, R. 2006. Reciprocal relations: the recognition and co-construction of caring with Alzheimer's disease. Journal of Aging Studies, 20, 4, 335–49.Google Scholar
Guba, E. G. and Lincoln, Y. S. 1994. Competing paradigms in qualitative research. In Denzin, N. K. and Lincoln, Y. S. (eds), Handbook of Qualitative Research. Sage, Thousand Oaks, California, 105–117.Google Scholar
Hagey, R., Choudhry, U., Guruge, S., Turrittin, J., Collins, E. and Lee, R. 2001. Immigrant nurses’ experience of racism. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 33, 4, 389–94.Google Scholar
Haggerty, J. L., Reid, R. J., Freeman, G. K., Starfield, B. H., Adair, C. E. and McKendry, R. 2003. Continuity of care: a multidisciplinary review. British Medical Journal, 327, 7425, 1219–21.Google Scholar
Hillyard, P., Lundström, F., Patsios, D., Machniewski, S., Taylor, D. and Lyons, M. 2010. Inequalities in Old Age: An Exploratory Study of the Impact of the Recession on Older People in Northern Ireland (NI) and the Republic of Ireland (RoI). CARDI Grants Programme. Available online at: http://www.cardi.ie/userfiles/Hillyard%20Final%20Report%20without%20Appendices%2020_10_10(2).pdf.Google Scholar
Himmelweit, S. 1999. Caring labor. Annals of American Academy of Political and Social Science, 561, 1, 27–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howse, K. 2007. Health and Social Care for Older People in the UK: A Snapshot View. Working Paper 607, Oxford Institute of Ageing, Oxford. Available online at http://www.ageing.ox.ac.uk/files/workingpaper_607.pdf.Google Scholar
James, N. 1992. Care = organisation + physical labour + emotional labour. Sociology of Health & Illness, 14, 4, 488–509.Google Scholar
Johnstone, M. and Kanitsaki, O. 2008. Engaging patients as safety partners: some considerations for ensuring a culturally and linguistically appropriate approach. Health Policy, 90, 1, 1–7.Google Scholar
Khadria, B. 2007. International nurse recruitment in India. Health Research and Educational Trust, 42, 3, 1429–36.Google ScholarPubMed
Kiata, L. and Kerse, N. 2004. Intercultural residential care in New Zealand. Qualitative Health Research, 14, 3, 313–27.Google Scholar
Kitson, A. 2003. A comparative analysis of lay-caring and professional (nursing) careing relationships. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 40, 5, 503–10.Google Scholar
Lawrence, R. H., Tennstedt, S. L. and Assmann, S. F. 1998. Quality of the caregiver–care recipient relationship: does it offset negative consequences of caregiving for family caregivers? Psychology and Aging, 13, 1, 150–8.Google Scholar
Lewinter, M. 2003. Reciprocities in caregiving relationships in Danish elder care. Journal of Ageing Studies, 17, 3, 357–77.Google Scholar
Lofland, J. and Lofland, L. 1995. Analyzing Social Settings: A Guide to Qualitative Observation and Analysis. Third edition, Wadsworth, Belmont, California.Google Scholar
Lopez, S. H. 2006. Emotional labor and organized emotional care: conceptualizing nursing home care work. Work and Occupations, 33, 2, 133–60.Google Scholar
Lorenzo, F., Galvez-Tan, J., Icamina, K. and Javier, L. 2007. Nurse migration from a source country perspective: Philippine country case study. Health Research and Educational Trust, 42, 3, 1406–18.Google Scholar
Loveband, A. 2004. Positioning the product: Indonesian migrant women workers in Taiwan. Journal of Contemporary Asia, 34, 3, 336–48.Google Scholar
Lyonette, C. and Yardley, L. 2003. The influence on carer wellbeing of motivations to care for older people and the relationship with the care recipient. Ageing & Society, 23, 4, 487–506.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCarthy, G., Tyrell, M. P. and Lehane, E. 2003. Turnover rate in nursing and midwifery: the Irish experience. Nursing Time Research, 8, 4, 249–63.Google Scholar
McGilton, K. S. and Boscart, V. M. 2007. Close care provider–resident relationships in long-term care environments. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 16, 11, 2149–57.Google Scholar
McKinlay, A. and Cowan, S. 2003. Student nurses’ attitudes towards working with older patients. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 43, 3, 298–309.Google Scholar
Narayanasamy, A. and Owens, J. 2001. A critical incident study of nurses’ responses to the spiritual needs of their patients. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 33, 4, 446–55.Google Scholar
National Economic and Social Development Forum (NESF) 2005. Care for Older People. Report 32, Dublin: National Economic and Social Development Office.Google Scholar
Newman, J., Glendinning, C. and Hughes, M. 2008. Beyond modernisation? Social care and the transformation of welfare governance. Journal of Social Policy, 37, 4, 531–57.Google Scholar
Nolan, M. R. 1997. Health and social care: what the future holds for nursing. Keynote address at Third Royal College of Nursing Older Person European Conference and Exhibition, Harrogate, UK.Google Scholar
Nolan, M., Davies, S., Brown, J., Keady, J. and Nolan, J. 2004. Beyond ‘person-centred’ care: a new vision for gerontological nursing. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 13, 3a, 45–53.Google Scholar
Nolan, M., Ryan, T., Enderby, P. and Reid, D. 2002. Towards a more inclusive vision of dementia care practice and research. Dementia, 1, 2, 193–211.Google Scholar
Piercy, K. W. 2000. When it is more than a job: close relationships between home health aides and older clients. Journal of Ageing and Health, 12, 3, 362–87.Google Scholar
Pinquart, M. and Sörensen, S. 2003. Associations of stressors and uplifts of caregiving with caregiver burden and depressive mood: a meta-analysis. Journals of Gerontology, 58B, 2, 112–8.Google Scholar
Pinquart, M. and Sörensen, S. 2006. Correlates of physical health of informal caregivers: a meta-analysis. Journals of Gerontology, 62B, 6, 126–37.Google Scholar
Pittman, P., Aiken, L. H. and Buchan, J. 2007. International migration of nurses: introduction. Health Research and Educational Trust, 42, 3, 1275–80.Google Scholar
Qureshi, H. and Walker, A. 1989. The Caring Relationship: Elderly People and Their Families. Macmillan Press, Basingstoke, UK.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rundqvist, E. M. and Severinsson, E. I. 1999. Caring relationships with patients suffering from dementia – an interview study. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 29, 4, 800–7.Google Scholar
Scrinzi, F. 2003. The globalisation of domestic work: women migrants and neo-domesticity. In Freedman, J. (ed.), Gender and Insecurity: Migrant Women in Europe. Ashgate, Aldershot, UK, 77–90.Google Scholar
Smith, P. and Mackintosh, M. 2007. Profession, market and class: nurse migration and the remaking of division and disadvantage. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 16, 12, 2213–20.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Spruytte, N., Van Audenhove, C., Lammertyn, F. and Storms, G. 2002. The quality of the caregiving relationship in informal care for older adults with dementia and chronic psychiatric patients. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 75, 3, 295–311.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Starrels, M. E., Ingersoll-Dayton, B., Dowler, D. W., Neal, M. B. 1997. The stress of caring for a parent: effects of the elder's impairment on an employed, adult child. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 59, 4, 860–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
The Commission of Investigation 2009. The Leas Cross Commission: Final Report June 2009. Department of Health and Children, Dublin. Available online at http://www.dohc.ie/publications/leas_cross_commission.html [Accessed July 2009].Google Scholar
Timonen, V. and Doyle, M. 2009. Caring and collaborating across cultures? Migrant care workers’ relationships with care recipients, colleagues and employers. European Journal of Women's Studies, 17, 1, 1–17.Google Scholar
Tuohy, D. 2002. Student nurse–older person communication. Nurse Education Today, 23, 1, 19–26.Google Scholar
Walsh, K. and O'Shea, E. 2009. The Role of Migrant Care Workers in Ageing Societies: Context and Experiences in Ireland. National Report. Available online at http://www.icsg.ie/Library/documents/ICSG%20MCW%20Report.pdf.Google Scholar
Walsh, K. and O'Shea, E. 2010. Marginalised care: migrant workers caring for older people in Ireland. Journal of Population Ageing, 3, 1/2, 17–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilkinson, M., Craig, G. and Gaus, A. 2010. Forced Labour in the UK and the Gangmasters Licensing Authority. Contemporary Slavery Research Centre, Wilberforce Institute, University of Hull, Hull, UK.Google Scholar
Woolhead, G., Calnan, M., Dieppe, P. and Tadd, W. 2004. Dignity in older age: what do older people in the United Kingdom think? Age and Ageing, 33, 2, 165–70.Google Scholar
Xu, Y. 2007. Strangers in strange lands: a metasynthesis of lived experiences of immigrant Asian nurses working in western countries. Advances in Nursing Sciences, 30, 3, 246–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xu, Y. 2008. Communicative competence of international nurses and patient safety and quality of care. Home Health Care Management & Practice, 20, 5, 430–2.Google Scholar