Improving the quality of nursing home care is heavily dependent on raising the performance of nurses' aides, the employees who interact with residents most frequently. Self-managed work teams have emerged as a potential remedy for the rampant absenteeism and turnover plaguing nursing homes. This Picker Program Grant is the second phase of a project to measure the impact of staff empowerment on job satisfaction and retention. Self-managed work teams were implemented in five nursing homes in Phase 1. Continued data collection in the five experimental homes and in five other facilities where work teams are not in use will allow project staff to compare levels of employee satisfaction and retention. If the work teams are shown to have a positive effect on nursing home staff, project staff will develop training modules and a 'how-to' manual for dissemination to nursing home administrators and long-term care educators.