Job satisfaction and career commitment among Alzheimer's care providers: addressing turnover and improving staff empowerment.

This study investigated the relation between job satisfaction and career commitment among 262 Alzheimer's care staff working in long-term and community-based care settings. It was anticipated that the results would suggest whether career commitment could be enhanced to positively influence job satisfaction, and conversely, if improvements in job satisfaction might contribute to a deepened sense of vocational empowerment. Participants attended dementia-specific training and completed 2 short work-related questionnaires that measured job satisfaction and career commitment. The results of stepwise regression revealed interrelations between the 2 constructs. Congruence appeared to be reciprocal with respect to the overall scale scores and the intrinsic job satisfaction measure. Unexpected relations appeared in analyses of the extrinsic job satisfaction measure and the career planning subscale. Results are indicative of the fundamental distinction between job satisfaction and career commitment. Implications for efforts to reduce turnover and improve staff empowerment are also considered.