New workforce strategies you may notice in your nursing home

Over the coming months, you may notice different faces walking through your facility providing assistance and, potentially, care.

This article explains what that may look like and why this is happening.

Why is aged care struggling for workers?

For a long time, aged care workers have been underpaid and experiencing poor work conditions, which is leading to many people wanting to change careers. And unfortunately, this is also creating some image issues for getting new people to work in the sector.

The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety even heard tales of staff being worked into “poverty”. Workforce has been earmarked as a major area that needs fixing.

Additionally, COVID-19 has also impacted available workforce numbers, putting huge pressure on the remaining staff to do overtime or multiple shifts.

With the ongoing poor pay, which may or may not be rectified by the Fair Work Commission, there is a lot to be fixed in the sector and the workforce continues to be impacted.

Surge workforce

You may find a special ‘surge workforce’ coming into your facility to provide extra support and care on top of your regular staff.

The Government has been recruiting retired, part-time and under-employed health and aged care workers to assist in facilities around the country that are lacking staff.

These workers will be moved around to facilities based on the skills your facility requires extra hands for. For example, a person with clinical care experience may be placed at your facility if there aren’t enough Registered Nurses available due to staff being COVID-19 positive.

You may find these new faces come and go depending on the workforce needs of your facility.

Australian Defence Force (ADF)

The Australian Defence Force (ADF) has been providing assistance in aged care facilities since the start of the year.

After bucking initial requests, the Federal Government now deploys ADF personnel to provide basic support to the reduced workforces at aged care facilities – which is set to finish in September.

You should expect the ADF to be doing general duties around your facility, like companionship or helping residents communicate with families, meal delivery, general cleaning, staff and visitor screening, administration and logistics.

However, there are also medical teams available through the ADF of Registered and Enrolled Nurses that can provide clinical or non-clinical workforce supplements for a week duration if your facility needs it.

New migrant workers

The Federal Government has made certain schemes more accessible and is planning to fast-track visas for skilled migrant workers to go into areas like aged care.

Already, the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme was extended to include Pacific workers who were interested in entering Australian aged care.

Skills Minister Brendan O’Connor has also expressed that the Government is also looking to increase the migration intake to have more skilled workers available.

Older people returning to the workforce

Older pensioners may also be supported to return to work to assist with workforce shortages across Australia, including in aged care.

At the moment, pensioners are only able to work a total of $190 a fortnight, for a single person, before it impacts their pension.

The Government is considering ways to change this requirement so that older pensioners don’t lose their benefits and are able to work more hours.

Many older people, whether skilled in aged care or not, would be able to provide assistance in aged care facilities, and would have a wealth of knowledge and experience from over their lifetime of working.