A number of aged care nurses have told their story on Nurse Uncut over the past few weeks, many describing violence but every single one emphasising how overworked they are. It’s imperative we achieve nurse-to-residents ratios in aged care urgently before the problems get worse. Here’s what you said:
Ensuring safe nurse-to-resident ratios in Aged Care will make a huge difference to the lives of many nurses, residents and their families. Tell us your aged care story here.
- I was a carer working in aged care in the field and in nursing homes where I had to put up with verbal and physical abuse from residents.I have been punched, had a resident try to put me in a head lock and even had to protect residents from physical abuse from another violent resident.
I loved my job working in the industry but found it very demanding and very, very understaffed. I have worked at 5 nursing homes and found every single one lacked the staff required. And the management did not care. At one stage, I was expected to look after 21 residents on my own…
- More staff would solve this as some residents need 1:1 assistance. This would benefit everyone and best of all, the residents would have a better outcome.Patients in hospital get “Specialled”. Why can’t aged care residents?? From just another enrolled nurse who wishes to see a government reform on aged care ratios.
- An internationally growing issue with safe staffing being the headline leader in many global news forums related to nursing. Governments, WHO and ICN need to be asking how violence continues to occur, not just in aged care but all areas of nursing.Then they need to put things in place to stop it. Nurses should not be abused at work, it’s a health and safety issue for the nurses but also the patients.
- And add [ratios] to our award, since there are several aged care units throughout NSW hospitals!
The NSWNMA Report into Elder Abuse in Residential Aged Care found 90% of staff have been subject to some form of aggression from residents and 61% fear repercussions if they report the abuse.
If you have an experience you’d like to share, please get in touch here: nurseuncut@nswnma.asn.au. Whether it was something that occurred in a single shift or about you’re entire career so far, we want to know.