Role Characteristics of Elderly Caregivers and Their Transformation in the New Era--An Exploratory Study Based on Grounded Theory

Objective: To explore the status and characteristics of the development of elderly caregivers since the New Era, and to provide reference for the subsequent further optimization of the structure of the elderly caregiver team. Methods: By collecting reports about elderly caregivers in the Newspaper Library of China Knowledge Network from 2013 to 2021, coding them using the method of Grounded Theory, and testing theoretical saturation on the basis of this, the study finally constructs a model of the characteristics and transformation of the development of elderly caregiving since the New Era. Results: The study identified four main categories: the importance of elderly caregivers, the characteristics of elderly caregivers, the reasons for the formation of the characteristics, and related measures. The results show that the characteristics of elderly caregivers since entering the New Era can be categorized into four main categories, i.e., positive core characteristics, positive other characteristics, negative core characteristics and negative other characteristics. Conclusion: Core characteristics including insufficient number of personnel, low quality of service and poor stability of the workforce are the main constraints to the quality development of elderly caregivers. The way to realize the transformation of core characteristics from negative to positive mainly includes relevant measures such as establishing and improving the incentive mechanism, improving the training system, introducing other supplementary forces and informatization to directly affecting the core characteristics and promoting the transformation of core characteristics by promoting the development of other characteristics. The main innovation of this paper is to delineate the characteristics of elderly caregivers and, on this basis, to find paths to promote their good development.