[The effects of writing and reading aloud the positive events that take place in the workplace on work engagement and the occupational stress of care workers in welfare facilities for long-term elderly care: A crossover trial].

Objectives: A number of earlier studies have pointed out that care workers in nursing homes for the elderly experience high levels of stress. In recent years, work engagement has been attracting attention as a concept that focuses on the positive psychological aspects of workers. In this study, we examined whether writing and reading aloud positive events that take place in the workplace would be useful as a measure to improve work engagement and to reduce occupational stress among care workers in such facilities.

Methods: Participants included 57 care workers (across 13 groups) working at seven welfare facilities in Wakayama Prefecture, Japan. A crossover trial with two groups the intervention and control groups was used. The intervention group wrote about positive events, and read them aloud for each group at the morning assemblies and other gatherings. The control group continued work as usual. The survey spanned eight weeks. The questionnaire items were sourced from the Japanese version of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES), the Brief Job Stress Questionnaire (BJSQ), and included items concerning participants' biographical attributes. The number of positive events that the participants individually wrote about and the frequency of listening to reading about them was asked for at the end of the intervention period. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to examine the relationship between the number of written accounts or the frequency of listening to readings and the amount of change in the scores of the subscales.

Results: The median number of positive events that the participants individually wrote about was three (interquartile range 1-5). The number of those who answered that the frequency of listening to readings was rare was 22 (38.6%). Significant differences in the changes in the scores between the two groups were recognized in terms of "absorption," a subscale of the UWES, and the "work control," "work worth," and "family support," subscales of the BJSQ. Multiple linear regression analyses showed that the number of written accounts was associated with the amount of change in absorption and the amount of change in work worth. The frequency of how often the participants listened to the readings was not related to the amount of change across any of the four subscales.

Conclusion: Writing about positive events during work could enhance "absorption" of UWES and improve "work worth" of BJSQ. It is suggested that writing and reading aloud positive events that take place in the workplace is one of the measures to improve "absorption" and "work worth" among care workers in welfare facilities.