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Objective: There is growing evidence that the well-being of childcare workers has important implications for the care provided to children attending childcare centers. To add to the growing body of research in this area and to lay the groundwork for further research, we report the results of a pilot study examining factors that are associated with the health status of childcare workers in southern Alberta, Canada. The factors examined include: health control, employer's interest in the childcare worker's wellbeing, and actions that childcare workers are taking to improve their own health., Results: A total of 260 "Workplace Health and Risks Survey 2008" questionnaires were sent to 13 licensed daycare centers in southern Alberta, Canada. Of these, a total of 110 questionnaires were completed by childcare workers at these centers and returned. Regression analysis results show that control over one's health (Standardized Beta = .504, p < .001), employers' knowledge of negative effects of stress (Standardized Beta = - .328, p = .017), employers' interest in employees' well-being (Standardized Beta = .366, p = .008), and actions that are planned to be taken to improve or maintain health in the future (Standardized Beta = .231, p = .005) are all significant predictors of health status among childcare workers.

This qualitative study explored potential factors that lead to turnover and absenteeism and how to improve well-being and retention among professional older-adult-caregivers in Alberta's assisted living (AL) and long-term care (LTC) facilities. Four hundred and forty-seven participants aged 45–54 years were interviewed through a five-item, content-validated open-ended questionnaire. The questionnaire was self-administered in the English language and the soft copy of their responses was transferred into NVIVO version 12 software for coding. A thematic narrative analysis grounded in the "happy productive worker" theory was completed. The main themes were caregivers' perception of the factors affecting their well-being, absenteeism, and turnover, and caregivers' suggestions on ways to improve their well-being and retention. Participants reported that their professional well-being was suboptimal. They suggested that their employers should provide them with the needed social, psychological, and professional support, improve wages and hire more staff to ameliorate absenteeism and turnover rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]