The Process of Thinking During the Care Work of Care Workers

Our research aims to clarify the thinking processes involved in care work of care workers who care for the elderly. We conducted interviews with 12 care workers working in an elderly day-care center and analyzed the data with the Modified Grounded Theory Approach (M-GTA). As a result, 26 concepts were generated. Next, these concepts were divided into eight categories and further summarized into four central categories. The structure of the care worker's thinking was explained according to four central categories: Think about care attitude, Determine care attitude, Care for the users, and Foundation of care. From these results, we confirmed that care workers attach great importance to maintaining their three central categories of thinking processes and foundation of care to provide quality care to the users. We also confirmed that the three central categories are divided into positive and negative concepts that affect the quality of care for the users. Accordingly, to provide high-quality care for elderly users, it is necessary to consider the organizational mechanisms that support care workers’ three thinking processes and foundation of care.