• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.352-360
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• 2017

Objectives: This study aimed to determine the effects on musculoskeletal symptoms of both social demographic features and detailed characteristics of each task category of care workers who offer visiting home-help services. And to establish the measures that can reduce musculoskeletal symptoms among care workers. Methods: This study was conducted among 192 care workers from welfare centers C and K located in city P. After participants completed the task burden checklist regarding the scale of musculoskeletal symptoms and the details of their duties, the data collected were analyzed using the SPSS 21.0 program. Results: According to the degree of observable musculoskeletal symptoms in care workers, the highest figures were observed for back and shoulder pain. Based on the results of assessing the effect of detailed task category characteristics on musculoskeletal symptoms, "helping patients eat, helping patients move, helping patients bath, and changing body positions" were found to have an effect from the physical care category, "providing physical therapy assistance, treating bedsores" from the health care category, and "cleaning and doing laundry" from the facility management category. Conclusions: Due to the high proportion of patients requiring burdensome physical labor from care workers such as moving patients who have trouble doing so on their own, helping them change positions, and so on, it is highly likely that pain will occur in the low back, which carries most of the physical weight. So, education on human epidemiological positions that can reduce overload on areas prone to pain such as the low back and shoulders is essential. Proper equipment and personnel support must be provided for dangerous tasks. Further, multidimensional social support is required consistently.

• Korean Journal of Child Education & Care
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.85-102
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to determine the working conditions and demands of the assistant workforce at childcare centers, and to provide suggestions on policies for childcare teachers. To achieve the purpose of the study, a total of 190 assistant teachers, nursing helpers, alternative teachers and others were surveyed online during the month of August 2017. The survey examined the employment route and working motives, working conditions and environment, job and educational difficulties for analyzing the work conditions and demands of ancillary staff. For the analysis method, SPSS 12.0 was used to analyze frequency and difference. The main findings are as follows. First, childcare center assistants were able to work at their respective times, making it mandatory for them to enter the workforce, and making job openings for ancillary teachers. Second, 73.7% said the daily working hours were '4 hours to 8 hours' under the conditions and 57.9% said 'More than 510,000 won to less than 1 million won.' Average amount of rest time per day was about 30 minutes, and 17% had no rest periods. Third, based on the job and education status, ancillary personnel performed "infant and child guidance and interaction", "Cleaning and cleanliness related tasks" most actively, and "care for cleaning and cleanliness" and "care for morning and night care". Fourth, in the job trouble and difficulty, ancillary staff found it difficult to satisfy with wage related complaints and job insecurity, and the reason for agreeing to the non-regular workforce becoming a regular worker was found to be due to the stability of employment. Lastly, the most urgent tasks to solve the problem of non-regular workers were to fill the wage gap between regular and irregular workers, shorten the working hours and improve the working conditions. The policy implications are presented based on the above findings.