Occupational Commitment among Home Nurses

Abstract

In the increasingly busy days of today, families are fragmenting. Children are busy preparing for a prosperous life abroad, leaving their aging parents behind at home. Modern nuclear families present a dismal picture. There is nobody to look after the parents when they become old and unhealthy, or sick and bedridden. Such times are frustrating for the family to find an alternative. Some seek shelter in old age homes, while those that are comparatively affordable employ someone available throughout the day to help them with their daily chores, as well as dispensing medication. Hence, a category of para-professionals, popularly known as Home Nurses, evolved who work full-time for a monthly payment, staying with the family. Responding to the occasion, agencies have come up with the outsourcing of the services of such nurses. Clients find it easy and reliable to seek the services of nurses through agencies due to reasons of availability and accountability. They act as labour contractors, and the nurses find them offering consistent work, alleviating uncertainty. Kerala, a state with a large population working or living abroad spread across all countries of the world, is no exaggeration that the prospects for home nursing are expanding. They are a mixed lot. Some are formally trained with relevant educational qualifications. Some have come into it, gaining experience.  They work exclusively as nurses and do not combine it with domestic work. An attempt is made here to explore their occupational commitment resulting from an interplay of three components: their job and its demands, their workplace and its peculiarities, and, finally, the characteristics of the person performing it, although often all three overlaps.