Citation: Song, Y.; Chun, D.; Xiong,
P.; Wang, X. Construction of Talent
Competency Model for Senior Care
Professionals in Intelligent
Institutions. Healthcare 2022, 10, 914.
https://doi.org/10.3390/
healthcare10050914
Academic Editor: Daniele Giansanti
Received: 12 March 2022
Accepted: 10 May 2022
Published: 13 May 2022
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Article
Construction of Talent Competency Model for Senior Care
Professionals in Intelligent Institutions
Yu Song
1,2
, Dongphil Chun
1,
* , Peng Xiong
1
and Xinyuan Wang
1
1
Graduate School of Management of Technology, Pukyong National University, Busan 48547, Korea;
songyu@pukyong.ac.kr (Y.S.); xp2020@pukyong.ac.kr (P.X.); wangxinyuan@pukyong.ac.kr (X.W.)
2
School of Economics and Management, Handan University, Handan 056000, China
* Correspondence: performance@pknu.ac.kr; Tel.: +82-051-629-5647
Abstract:
As the problem of the aging population becomes more and more serious, building an
intelligent senior care service model and optimizing the senior care service industry become key to
the development of the senior care service industry. The key to developing intelligent senior care
services is to improve the overall senior care personnel quality and construct a competency model of
intelligent institutional senior care professionals. This study used literature research and interviews to
establish 31 relevant institutional senior care professional talent competency elements. We proposed
six research propositions, prepared questionnaires for empirical analysis, and took caregivers of
senior care institutions implementing intelligent management in some cities in Hebei Province, China
as samples. This study established and validated 28 competency quality index models of senior care
professionals in intelligent institutions in four dimensions: nursing knowledge, professional ability,
personal quality, and professional attitude through exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory
factor analysis. Based on the index system, this study suggests three aspects: improving the talent
recruitment and selection mechanism, talent training and development mechanism, and assessment
and incentive mechanism. The traditional talent competency model only focuses on fundamental
aspects, such as competence. This study comprehensively establishes an evaluation model from
four aspects, providing theoretical and practical significance for selecting and developing talents in
intelligent institutions.
Keywords:
senior care institutions; intelligent senior care; senior care professionals; competency model
1. Introduction
According to a World Health Organization development report, the world’s senior
population over the age of 60 will grow dramatically to 2.092 billion by 2050, accounting
for 21.5% of the world’s total population [
1
]. According to China’s elderly dependency
ratio, by 2050, there will be 45 senior citizens to support for every 100 staff members,
which is nearly half of the population [
2
]. As the senior population grows, so will the
need for long-term care services for seniors. With the development of an aging society,
senior care services have become a new endeavor. The main component of senior care
services is that caregivers provide daily care and a range of activities for the seniors. The
quality of caregivers’ work competency will directly affect the quality of senior care [
3
].
The healthcare industry around the world is also under tremendous pressure. With the
increase in chronic diseases in the senior population, the demands in the amount and
level of nursing care have increased. However, a declining trend in caregivers in nursing
facilities creates a severe contradiction between supply and demand [
4
]. That is why it is
essential to study the competency qualities of caregivers.
Nowadays, there are fewer people in the household, and children are less willing to
sacrifice their jobs to take care of their parents in the future [
5
]. This situation shows that
more and more seniors tend to go to nursing homes, and the traditional methods of senior
Healthcare 2022, 10, 914. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare10050914 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/healthcare
