Critical role of the nurse

Australia’s largest health and aged care union, the Australian Nursing Federation (ANF), has called on the federal government to rule out any plans that may result in cooks, cleaners and other “non-nursing” personnel performing the clinical duties of nurses in nursing homes.

The ANF was responding to media reports claiming staff, such as cleaners, could carry out basic health checks as part of a new $10.2 million funding project to train care workers throughout Australia’s under-resourced aged care sector.

“We are extremely concerned by any plans to fill the shortage of highly qualified nurses with non-clinical staff,” ANF federal secretary, Lee Thomas, said.

“Cleaners and other aged care support staff can never perform the roles and responsibilities of registered, enrolled nurses and assistants in nursing (AINs) in delivering quality care to older people living in nursing homes.”

However, The Bethanie Group – which received funding to take part in the trial – was surprised by the misinterpretation of what it described as an “extremely positive” move forward in the better management of aged care via a funding program between the organisation and the federal government.

The Bethanie Group maintained the program would not involve training cleaners to undertake nursing or medical tasks or any form of health care checks, nor would it replace the level of health care already in place and undertaken by Registered Nurses.

The organisation stated the new program would offer staff skills that would achieve an elevated level of care – ensuring a better standard all round and provide a more positive ending to the lives of clients and residents.

The Bethanie Group also reported it was dedicated to ensuring all staff members were aware of residents’ care needs and could be trained to alert appropriate personnel. The program was simply about training workers who have daily contact with aged care residents and to identify and refer issues to qualified staff at the aged care centre for attention.

The ANF has now urged Mr Butler to guarantee that unqualified staff would “never be called upon to undertake any clinical duties” carried out by aged care nurses and AINs.

It maintained the only “real way” of addressing the critical shortage of 20,000 aged care nurses was to pay nurses what they deserve and ensure a skilled workforce was available in sufficient numbers.

“Aged care nurses on average are paid between $168 and $300 a week less than their colleagues working in public hospitals.

“Unless the wages gap is closed, there is little chance of nurses being recruited and then retained in aged care.”

For more information, read DPS News’ story ‘Concern over ‘cleaner’ care’.