Aim To examine trends in quality of work life and health outcomes of managers in nursing homes in Western Canada pre-pandemic.

Methods A repeated cross-sectional descriptive study using data collected in 2014–2015, 2017 and 2019–2020, in the Translating Research in Elder Care Programme. Self-reported measures of demographics, physical/mental health and quality of work life (eg, job satisfaction, burnout, work engagement) were administered and completed by nursing home managers. We used two-way analysis of variance to compare scores across times, controlling for clustering effects at the nursing home level.

Results Samples for data collection times 1, 2, 3, respectively, were 168, 193 and 199. Most nursing home managers were nurses by profession (80.63–81.82%). Job satisfaction scores were high across time (mean=4.42–4.48). The physical (mean=51.53–52.27) and mental (mean=51.66–52.13) status scores were stable over time. Workplace engagement (vigour, dedication and absorption) scores were high and stable over time in all three dimensions.

Conclusions Nursing home managers were highly satisfied, had high levels of physical and mental health, and generally reported that their work was meaningful over time pre-COVID-19 pandemic. We provided a comparison for future research assessing the impacts of the pandemic on quality of work life and health outcomes.