Funding welcome for new teaching nursing homes

Above: The Minister for Mental Health, Ageing and Social Inclusion, Mark Butler MP.

The Minister for Ageing, Mark Butler, has announced $8.25 million to fund teaching aged care facilities around the country, based on the familiar ‘teaching hospital’ model.

Mr Butler said the new facilities would combine teaching, research and service delivery in one location, to provide the best possible learning environment for the massive number of new aged care workers needed over coming decades.

The Minister said he expected more than half a million new aged workers would be needed by 2050, or more than five per cent of working Australians.

“We want to provide graduates studying aged care with opportunities to learn in an environment that brings together research, training and real-world practical scenarios,” Mr Butler said. 

“The projects will cover a range of disciplines including nursing, psychology, medicine, physiotherapy and occupational therapy designed to support the training and professional development of workers in aged care.”

The funding comes through the Teaching and Research Aged Care Services (TRACS) initiative, and includes 16 grants for universities and aged care facilities across the country (full list at end).

Mr Butler also announced $6 million in funding for eight organisations under round three of the Encouraging Better Practice in Aged Care (EBPAC) program, which focuses on improving residential and community aged care through education, training and leadership.

Above: Adjunct Professor John Kelly, CEO of ACSA.

Industry body Aged and Community Services Australia (ACSA) and the Australian Nursing Federation have both voiced their strong approval of the initiative. 

ACSA chief executive Adjunct Professor John Kelly said that improving the skills of the aged care workforce was a significant and important undertaking, which would also make aged care careers more attractive.

“The combining of teaching, research, care provision and service delivery in one location can only be beneficial to the aged care sector and those who work in it,” Prof Kelly said.

ANF federal secretary Lee Thomas said the union would welcome any new funding towards staff in aged care, which would help improve and maintain professional standards, and the quality of the care provided.

“We are witnessing an increasing number of highly qualified nurses leaving the sector and new funding arrangements like TRACS are a positive initiative for the aged care workforce,” Ms Thomas said.

The ANF continues to work with aged care providers and other stakeholders in a group convened by the federal government to develop a Workforce Compact.

The union hopes the Workforce Compact will ensure that $1.2 billion in funding for the aged care workforce announced in the May budget is spent on increasing wages for aged care nurses and other workers.

Above: Nieves Murray, CEO of IRT.

A collaboration between IRT and the University of Wollongong is among the 16 teaching aged care facilities funded under the TRACS program.

The project in the Illawarra region, south of Sydney, has been allocated $587,400 for joint research programs and enhanced training in nursing, psychology, exercise physiology and dietetics, according to a joint statement from two local members of federal parliament, Sharon Bird and Stephen Jones.

“We want to provide graduates studying aged care with opportunities to learn in an environment that brings together the research, training and real-world practical scenarios,” Mr Jones said. 

IRT Group CEO Nieves Murray said the combination of teaching, research and the delivery of care in one place would allow students to learn from “best-practice modeling for education in aged care”.

“In this hybrid education environment, students will be exposed to the full gamut of medical conditions and the different models of care over an extended period of time,” Ms Murray said. 

“This allows students clinical hands on experience in the management of clinical conditions.”

Angela Brown, Head of the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Indigenous Health at the University of Wollongong, said that students would be able to apply skills learned in nursing, psychology, exercise physiology and dietetics courses.

“Researchers will work on topics of immediate relevance to the care of the elderly and we hope to use the specialist courses we have on leadership to maximise the benefits of the project,” Ms Brown said.

IRT Group is also participating in another project funded by TRACS with the University of Canberra and a number of other operators.

Aged care providers and universities that received funding under the TRACS initiative are:

• Aged Care & Housing Group (SA) 
• Brotherhood of St Laurence (Vic) 
• Deakin University (Vic) 
• Griffith University (Qld) 
• HammondCare (NSW) 
• QLD University of Technology (Qld) 
• Resthaven Incorporated (SA) 
• RSL LifeCare Limited (NSW) 
• Southern NSW Local Health District (NSW/ACT) 
• St Johns Village Inc. Victoria (Vic) 
• The University of Adelaide (SA) 
• The University of Wollongong (NSW) 
• University of Canberra (ACT/NSW) 
• University of South Australia (SA) 
• University of Southern Queensland (Qld) 
• University of Tasmania (Vic/WA/Tas) 

Organisations receiving funds under round three of EBPAC are:

• Metropolitan South Institute of TAFE (Qld)
• Resthaven Inc (SA)
• Royal District Nursing Services (Vic)
• The University of NSW Chinese Community Social Services Centre Inc (NSW)
• Uniting Care Community Options
• South Australian Dental Service
• Alzheimer’s Australia Victoria