The aged care workforce is the single greatest resource providers have to survive and thrive in the face of the COVID-19 crisis, the increased scrutiny of a Royal Commission and the pressure of meeting new quality standards.
However with job opportunities being chronically overlooked by potential professional and non-professional candidates and the sector often negatively represented in the media – there is a great deal of collective work needed to identify and resource the workforce of the future.
Join providers from across Australia at the Strengthening the Aged Care Workforce conference, taking place online on 21st & 22nd October and take part in practical conversations about the workforce of the future.
Why attend this event?
- Hear from policy makers, experts and peak bodies on how we collectively transform the public and industry view of the aged care workforce
- Benchmark against other providers and learn from the steps they have taken to engage their workforce during the COVID-19 crisis
- Take away insights on how best to support the mental health and wellbeing of your staff
- Learn how to build and retain a truly diverse workforce that reflects the needs of all consumers
Bypass social distancing and keep growing your professional network by connection digitally
Training of all nursing levels in a facility either acute or aged care would be a solid training ground this was the experience in the older times such as Rn training in hospitals
There will no changes to the improving the strength of the aged care workforce unless:-
– care workers need to be paid more according to their level of knowledge and experience
– care workers need full time / part time PERMANENT shifts that offer security, leave and superannuation provisions, far too long service providers have casualised the aged care work force, which results in high turnover and inconsistent care for residents
-care workers need to be valued by the service providers, families, govt and the wider community – there needs to be more promotional work done to highlight the important and valuable work aged care workers perform.
– service providers need to support and respect the need for aged care workers to be paid while they attend training or completing an qualification, too often care workers do not complete their training, because they can’t afford to do so
– and finally and most importantly implement legislation to ensure all aged care workers are registered and must have a minimum Cert 3 qualification to work in aged care, similar to what occurred to child care workers a few years ago.
– and also importantly implement strict minimum timeframes for aged care training to stop the quick tick and flick training, there should be a minimum timeframe of 5 months to conduct training, service providers usually choose the quickest and cheapest training because of the convenience, it takes a lot of time and resources to train an aged care worker, if we teach them to be proud of the work they do and support them, the more likely they will stay in the aged care workforce
Well said Barbara Lawson