Cleaners will not be caring
Non-clinical staff like cooks, gardeners and cleaners will not be trained to perform any of the duties of clinical staff, contrary to a recent WA media report that suggested this would be the case.
Above: Stephen Becsi, CEO of The Bethanie Group.
By Stephen Easton
In response to a recent news report, a spokesperson for the Minister for Ageing has stated categorically that cleaners, cooks and gardeners will not be trained to do the work of nurses and assistants-in-nursing (AINs), in 10 new workforce development projects funded by the federal government.
The spokesperson from Minister Butler’s office refuted a report by The West Australian’s medical editor, Cathy O’Leary, which said that cleaners would be trained under the initiative to do “basic health checks, including taking temperatures and dressing wounds”.
The West Australian article quotes the chief operating officer of The Bethanie Group, Christopher How, who said that “care workers” would be trained to take on slightly more advanced tasks like keeping a wound clean until it could be assessed by a nurse.
Mr How said his use of the term “care workers” referred to staff with a Certificate III in Aged Care, often referred to as assistants in nursing (AINs), or personal care assistants (PCAs).
The Bethanie Group has confirmed that Mr How was not referring to cleaners or any other non-clinical staff and the group’s CEO, Stephen Becsi, has now responded to the article, which he said had “seriously misinformed the public”.
“The program will not involve training cleaners to undertake nursing or medical tasks, or any form of health care checks,” Mr Becsi said. “Nor will it replace the level of health care already in place and undertaken by registered nurses.”
“Rather, The Bethanie Group is dedicated to ensuring all staff members are aware of residents’ care needs and can be trained to alert appropriate personnel. The program is simply about training workers who have daily contact with aged care residents, to identify and refer issues to qualified staff at the aged care centre, for attention.
“No one without correct qualifications will be asked to undertake tasks they are not qualified to do. Bethanie is continuously seeking out and introducing initiatives to ensure our elderly receive the best possible care and support and this is a fine example of a very positive initiative.”
But even so, the Australian Nursing Federation (ANF) is suspicious of the workforce development initiative, and has requested a written guarantee from Mr Butler that non-clinical staff will not be trained to perform the duties of registered nurses, enrolled nurses and AINs, now or in future.
ANF federal secretary Lee Thomas added that she believed the funds could be better spent elsewhere, and that non-care staff working in aged care facilities should already be supporting clinical staff wherever possible.
“I don’t think there is a person who is working in a care facility who, if there was something that was amiss, wouldn’t report it,” Ms Thomas told AAA. “So I’m not sure why we would be entertaining projects for 10 million dollars to ensure something that already happens.”
In a statement shortly after the Minister’s announcement, Ms Thomas previously argued that “the only real way of addressing the critical shortage of 20,000 aged care nurses is to pay them what they deserve and ensure a skilled workforce is available in sufficient numbers”.
“Currently, 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.”
This is an interesting editorial?
The industry faces a massive problem with the shortage of nurses globally and of course in Australia.
We find ourselves trapped in a vortex as the Aged Care act dictates the directives and regulations on the compliance to have registered nurses doing assessment and care planning. ACFI is calculated on the validation that registered nurses and other health professionals are doing hteir compliance. the accreditation standards dictate the guidelines for compliance for registered nurses and staff to be in place doing the roles and jobs they are meant to do.
Its amazing that a provider can actually comply at all when it comes to the ‘true’ amount of registered nurses that are needed to deliver ‘proper’ care.
we then face the issues of the ANF and unions that demand an AIN can not assist wioth medications and so the establishment of the PCA/CSW/CSE that is trained the same way as an AIN and yet given the responsibility to assist with meds and care and cleaning and and and at a less pay scale than an AIN. It is well known in the industry that multi scilled staff are regulaly used in these roles.
When will it become clear to the entire sector that breaches to the guidelines occur every day in aged care, that service providers are struggling to deliver the outcomes according to the guidelines, and the act of 97 is in total need of review.
At the moment we are seeing a change to the 457 visa to allow the immigration of EN to australia, and we are expected to believe this will creat a creater push and pull factor for global nursing recruitment.
What we need to do is respect the role of the RN/div 1 and div 2. Improve the model of care we currently have. Improve the level of training and competency for the new care workers role. Improve the working environment, and create better pathways to breed our own transitions for care staff to become registered.
The fact that they do 80% of the direct care work, documentation, behaviour management and quality control is contradictory to the validation of their position and pay parity. For the RN in aged care its probably time the union did something to force the issue to the public domain so that the reality is addressed and nurses are valued and respected for the extreamly hard role they have in the aged care sector.
There are many nurses out there that have the skills and desire to work as clinical leaders in aged care, but not for the onions they are asked to eat. sad but true.