The top eight issues Queensland Australia's aged-care nurses and assistants-in-nursing worried about outside their workplace : a qualitative snapshot

The attainment of a work–life balance is an important issue for recruitment, retention and workforce planning. This paper aims to report on the free text data provided by the aged-care sector nurses around perceptions of important work–life issues. Data were written responses of aged-care nurses to the open-ended request at the end of a survey, which asked them to list up to five political/social/environmental issues concerning them outside of their work. For aged-care nurses, when asked to list political/social/environmental issues they were concerned about outside of work in late 2007, there emerged considered issues around work and life. Among the top eight themes there is an intriguing balance between the themes work, industrial relations, aged care/elder care and health-care services compared with the themes environment, water, societal values and housing. Qualitative insights into the political/social/environmental issues aged-care nurses are concerned about outside of your work suggest their desire for a labour/life or work/life harmony. Aged-care nurses place an equal importance on the nature of labour and the basics of life. The findings provide information for aged-care sector managers and workforce planners on areas in need of consideration to recruit and retain a workforce within aged care.