MDS 30 Completion Up Job Satisfaction Down

According to a survey by the American Association of Nurse Assessment Coordination, overall job satisfaction has dropped among long-term care workers and that may be partly due to the fact that MDS 3.0 assessments are taking longer to complete than MDS 2.0 did.

Job satisfaction rates for long-term care workers dropped an average of 10 points between 2009 and 2011. And no surprise, compensation and work/life balance were among the leading indicators cited for the lower satisfaction.

Nearly 60% of survey respondents were nurse assessment coordinators or MDS coordinators, while the rest included directors or assistant directors of nursing, administrators, corporate directors/consultants and reimbursement specialists, according to McKnights. And that is disturbing because many previous surveys have concentrated on satisfaction among direct care providers. Clearly if the leadership is not satisfied that dissatisfaction will manifest in other ways and affect other staff members.

And while this group is probably dissatisfied in part because MDS requirements take longer to implement and document, they do agree or strongly agree that the MDS 3.0 tool has improved their awareness of each resident's choices and preferences in how care is provided.

Other items of note from the survey include:

• Survey readiness, regulatory compliance, training and continuing education need, burnout and stress present very challenging situations for respondents.
• Attendance, staffing and turnover present moderate challenges.
• Overall job satisfaction including compensation, benefits, job security, hours and work/life balance and co-worker relationships have all dropped significantly (an average of 10%) since the last AANAC Membership survey in November of 2009.
• 40% of respondents regularly work overtime to complete their job duties.
• Fine dining/food service improvements (69%) and consistent assignment(64%) are the two most common culture change initiatives among respondents' facilities.
• The most common interventions to reduce staff turnover are employee satisfaction surveys (59%), part-time options (48%), continuing education and staffing reviews (41% respectively).

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