INSIGHTS FROM INDUSTRY
CARING FOR THE CARERS THE RESIDENTIAL AGED CARE SECTOR HAS LONG KNOWN ABOUT PERSON-CENTRED CARE FOR THE CLIENT—BUT WHAT ABOUT STAFF?
T
he pandemic has had a crushing impact on workforce supply in the residential aged care sector. Attrition rates have been at an all-time high due to health reasons, burn-out, or avoidance of the vaccine mandate. Now, leaders are asking the question of how workforce recruitment and retention can be addressed as we head into 2022.
3. Complex care needs. High care needs, especially the psychological burden associated with behaviours of concern, can create a sense of burden, overwhelm and stress.
The answer is simple. Healthcare is a human services industry, so we need to take care of the people taking care of the people.
5. Lack of support. Relationship difficulties with co-workers unsuited to aged care work, or with management due to lack of support and leadership skills, can leave people feeling isolated and frustrated.
Research studies and surveys conducted over the past 10 years confirm the basic truths about aged care workforce retention.
Workers STAY due to:
1. Altruism. Staff enjoy the satisfaction of helping the elderly vulnerable population, which is related to having sufficient time to develop genuine relational bonds with residents. 2. Teamwork. Positive relationships with co-workers create a positive work experience. 3. Support. Feeling supported and valued by managers is high on the list for staff. 4. Lifestyle. The flexible work hours offered by work in residential aged care suit many people.
4. Family pressures. Emotionally taxing family members can become stressful, particularly if there are poor management structures in place for open communication and effectively dealing with complaints.
In any other year, the conversation around workforce retention would have circled around the usual strategies of increased pay rates, better ratios, and more training or career progression opportunities. But this is not any year. This is not even the year of the pandemic. This is 2022—the post-pandemic phase—where we ‘live with’ increased psychological burdens related to routine PCRs, recurring lockdowns, fluctuating restrictions, high PPE use, physical distancing, and a rapidly shrinking workforce pool. We need to act on all the baseline detractors of workforce retention—and get even more creative about stemming the attrition rate, before it’s too late.
Workers LEAVE due to:
How do we get our workforce ready for increased demand and changing expectations?
2. Workload pressures. Things like administrative burdens, staff shortages and inadequate skill mix can take time away from the resident-carer relationship, and impact the sense of altruism.
Promote wellness in the workplace not just through thirdparty gym memberships and EAP services which are used by only a few, but by infusing a day-to-day lived experience of psychological safety throughout the whole organisation, not just in certain departments.
5. Career. There are many career progression opportunities in aged care.
1. Low pay rates. When a carer’s income is almost equivalent to receiving the pension, it begs the question, ‘Why work at all?’
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Building workforce resilience is key to not just surviving these challenging times—but thriving.
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