An aged care advocate wants the federal government to support facilities in rural and remote areas to have registered nurses, rather than giving them an exemption to the requirement.Proposed aged care reforms would mean registered nurses would need to be in aged care facilities at all timesMany rural facilities are finding it difficult to recruit staff
"Our older people in rural areas deserve the same standards of care as everywhere else," Dr Bernoth said."We shouldn't be looking for a lesser standard or a lesser qualification of people working with our rural older people than is available in metropolitan areas." Paul Sadler from the Aged and Community Care Providers Association is lobbying for clarity around exemptions.
"It's almost double the cost to have a nurse on your staff as it is a standard care worker, if we need to have more than one nurse it's going to cost a lot more money and we would struggle without government assistance." "We just want to keep providing the excellent care that we do but I worry about these 19 people; what's going to happen to them," she said.
If there is a loop hole it will be exploited. Do the right thing and make it a rule across the board no exceptions. Even it you create a nurse recruitment training pathway, it would be worth the money.
2500 aged care facilities. Nurses for 24 /7 coverage = at least 5 nurses per home = 12500 nurses. Just not feasible.
Albo 2022 Promised 24/7 registered nurses Aged Care by July 2023, Now says not till the end of 2024
And a hot tip - the flashier the decor, the less that gets spent on food and care. My dad used to say “never buy anything from a business with a chandelier in the foyer”. Ask to see the menu, find out if they have a dietitian in contract or only on call.
Also, pull up an annual report for any of the private aged care facilities & check out the eye watering salaries of exec team. You could double nurse salary and still not be close. Time to review the tax payer funded gravy train payouts to some providers. State regulated manage
The RN’s don’t get paid much for the responsibility & hard to pack up & move to the country without incentives. They need to be across every disease state & their drugs & treatment to monitor for deterioration etc. I’d want 10yrs under my belt to attempt it. agedcare Nursing
Not surprising that private aged care providers(profiteer) want exemptions. I’m a mature age student nurse, just finished aged care placement in private. 1 RN for 100 residents at night. I was surprised how complex the job is. Huge responsibilities & lots of experience required.
Amazing how radiologists are getting $4000 a day to work on Sunshine coast, but not a dollar more for RN's to work in the regions!
There aren't enough nurses...
Nurses should be trained on the job.
Really? Or is it RNs and other staff wont work under the conditions offered?
Why were they never there in the first place? This is a bigger issue with this industry with scummy ppl at top and covid just exposed it and making it catch up with itself
Well if they are not there, then its time to change the rules. There are probably hundreds of people out there willing to help out.