Archived Media Releases: 12 June 2008

AIHW report confirms that elderly are at risk

The recently released AIHW report on Residential Aged Care in Australia shows that now 70% of residents in aged care facilities have high care needs, raising concern about that fact that the numbers of appropriately qualified nurses in the aged care sector continues to decline.

The Australian Nursing Federation (ANF) agrees with aged care providers who are now saying that aged care facilities are more like hospitals than residences. “As people are accessing more care in their communities for longer, those needing residential aged care facilities are those who have complex health care needs, and therefore require a high level of nursing care,” said Ged Kearney, Federal Secretary of the ANF.

“Yet registered nurses are not the ones providing the bulk of care. Instead the aged care providers continue to rely on assistants in nursing (AINs) or carers who are constantly asked to attend to needs of residents that are beyond their level of skill, or knowledge, to manage. It is simply not fair to the AINs or carers nor is it fair to the residents and ultimately results in compromising on quality of care.

“The people working in aged care are wonderfully dedicated and deserve to be fully supported by qualified staff. Enrolled and registered nurses are needed to provide the complex care required by residents and to work with assistants in nursing,” Ms Kearney said.

The ANF is calling on the federal government to legislate for minimum staffing levels in aged care, for appropriate numbers and mix of all levels of nursing staff, and for a mechanism to ensure that nurses in aged care have wage parity with their colleagues working in other health sectors.

(Nurses in aged care currently earn on average $250 a week less than those in other sectors).

“The AIHW report once again demonstrates that more needs to be done to attract more nurses and other qualified staff into the residential aged care sector to ensure residents get the care they need and deserve” said Ms Kearney.

Media Contacts
Gerardine (Ged) Kearney, ANF Federal Secretary, 0417 053 322
Lee Thomas, Assistant Federal Secretary, 0419 576 590

The ANF, with 170,000 members, is the professional and industrial voice for nurses and midwives in Australia.