Better: What you want for aged care workforce
Over 4,400 survey respondents shared their views on the aged care workforce with NSA research.
New National Seniors Australia (NSA) research shows older Australians value aged care workers very highly, but they have strong views on how to maximise the quality of the aged care workforce.
The research is based on the responses of 4,425 Australians aged 50 and over who participated in the National Seniors Social Survey in March this year.
Survey respondents were asked to rate the importance of 14 items relevant to the aged care workforce, with respect to achieving high quality care.
They were also given an opportunity to write a comment and 634 did so, with over half raising topics not mentioned in the 14 items.
Support for the workers
Almost all respondents wanted to see aged care workers’ employment situation improve to benefit both workers and clients.
Around two-thirds considered higher pay, improved conditions, and career development to be “very important”, while less than 3% considered these items to be “not at all important”.
As one commenter put it, “The quality of care trickles down from the top. If staff are treated with respect by management, they will in turn treat each other and residents [with] respect.”
Comments revealed a concern that poor pay and conditions have contributed to chronic understaffing, in turn leading aged care services to employ people who simply need a job but are not really suited to the work.
As a result, some respondents commented on the need for governments to reframe aged care work to attract and retain quality workers.
One wrote that they would like “more work done so it is perceived by the wider community as a credible, respected, desirable, aspirational career”.
Training is essential...
Older Australians overwhelmingly want aged care workers to be well trained in all aspects of the job. A large 91.5% rated relevant training prior to commencement as “very important” – the highest rated item out of the 14.
A further 7.6% of respondents rated this “somewhat important”, with less than 1% rating it “not at all important”. Training on the job was also considered important by 98% of respondents (77% “very important”).
Similarly, 98% felt it was important for all aged care workers – not just specialist carers – to receive dementia training, with 61% saying it was “important for most aged care services”, and 37% “desirable where possible”.
One of the reasons was articulated by the commenter who wrote, “There is a definite need for at least some dementia training, as many residents eventually get dementia, and as there are very limited dementia beds available, they remain in the general residential area, and need extra assistance.”
Others mentioned the need for dementia training to avoid situations where police are called to handle people with dementia.
Formal qualifications didn’t rate as highly as training per se, with 67% considering them “very important” and 29% “somewhat important”.
...but it takes a special kind of person
While training is critical, 151 people wrote about the inherent traits they believe aged care workers should have, sometimes likening them to a calling or vocation. Many felt these were more important than qualifications.
The traits include being naturally kind, compassionate, patient, respectful, attentive, sociable, and good humoured, to name just a few.
One person put it this way: “Having experience with aged care homes, [there] have been some amazing workers who have empathy without any training, they are the ones that should be treated like gold. When you see a worker that has come into aged care because [they] couldn’t or didn’t get into any other courses, that is the wrong reason to be in that area of work. As a child of a parent who needed a little bit more empathy and respect, I think [they are] qualities that can’t often be taught.”
RNs 24/7, but only where that is possible
Turning from individual workers to workforce composition, the survey asked people’s views of the current government requirement that every aged care facility must have a registered nurse on duty 24/7.
The requirement was supported by a strong majority, with 85% rating this “important for most aged care services”.
The policy was supported for a range of reasons including dealing with medical problems as they arise and taking pressure off emergency services and hospitals by treating residents in-house if they have non-urgent medical needs.
Several commenters supporting this policy shared distressing personal stories as relatives of aged care residents or as aged care nurses themselves. Remarks included, “I had an elderly sister with severe diabetes type 1 in care and with no nurse, overnight medication was not available. Pain, distress, and worsening conditions result.”
But commenters also acknowledged problems that have resulted from imposing the requirement without exceptions. As one person wrote, “This has forced the closing of many aged care residential homes in rural towns – RN were on call but not in a facility 24/7 – so now local hospitals are full of aged / dementia care.”
Same workers important, so is same language
There were two other workforce traits that survey respondents felt were important to quality care.
One was clients receiving care from the same individual over time or from the same small group of carers, to help build trust, lower anxiety, and enable staff to pick up on changes in a client’s wellbeing.
Less than 1% felt this was ‘not at all important’ and 61% felt it was “important for most aged care services”.
Another was the principle that workers and clients should speak the same language, with 65% rating this “important for most aged care services”, and 33% “desirable where possible”
Facilitating clear communication between workers and clients was the obvious reason for this, whether the common language is English or something else.
More specifically, some commenters noted older people often have difficultly understanding unfamiliar accents, and this can be exacerbated by hearing loss, vision loss, and carers wearing masks.
One person commented, “I have had the experience of managing a large aged care home with 30% Chinese residents. I employed Chinese speaking staff to make these residents more comfortable. It made a difference to their care and wellbeing as well as to the anglos needing to know what residents were trying to say to them. My Chinese cleaner spoke Mandarin, Cantonese, and a few of the different dialects. She was an amazing support.”
Your views go straight to government through NSA Research
The NSA Research team created the survey module this report is based on in response to a request from our major funder, the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing.
The Department’s Ageing Policy section wanted to hear older Australians’ views on the appropriate qualification level for aged care workers.
We knew there would be more to the picture than just a preference for a Cert III or a Cert IV, so we developed this more comprehensive set of measures of aged care workforce quality.
As well as detailing the results, the report includes 10 recommendations to government and the aged care sector based on your views.
The NSA Advocacy team and our CEO, Chris Grice, will continue to draw on the findings of this report in our work representing older people’s views to politicians, the media, and the Australian public.
Meanwhile we have already shared the report with the department to inform their developments of future aged care workforce policies.
This is just one more way that NSA Research is amplifying your voice, straight to government.
Read the full research report here.
