A delegation of 60 aged care nurses from across Australia visited Parliament House in Canberra recently to speak to politicians about the staffing crisis in the sector.

Members of the NSWNMA joined with nurses from Queensland, the ACT and Tasmania to meet with

parliamentarians from across the political spectrum, to send a message that many aged care centres are not meeting mandatory staffing levels, and that nurses, carers and residents deserve better.

Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF) secretary, Annie Butler, said many providers were “cutting corners” and failing to comply with the mandatory care minutes and staffing requirements that came into effect last year.

“Our members are reporting that many providers are failing to meet the mandatory staffing requirements and are instead rearranging rosters to appear compliant,” Annie said.

NSWNMA General Secretary, Shaye Candish, said nurses and carers needed to feel empowered to speak up about their workplace conditions. She added that nurses and carers should have the right “to monitor compliance and identify risks in real time, to ensure aged care facilities are meeting quality standards”.

EVERYTHING COMES DOWN TO STAFFING

One of the NSWNMA delegates to Canberra, Stella Moktan Lama, said she wanted politicians to understand that staffing levels are impacting the quality of care residents receive.

“Everything comes down to staffing. When we don’t have enough staff, we can’t give the residents the care they deserve,” said Stella, a registered nurse RN who works at a small regional facility of 40 beds.

“We are running between residents, rushing to do the shower. If patients all press their buzzers at the same time and we are taking care of someone else at that moment, we either have to leave the patient or pull staff from another wing, or not attend. It’s a mess.”

“If we had a proper ratio of staff and the residents, we could provide proper care.”

Stella said constantly running between residents makes it harder for staff to manage residents with challenging behaviours.

“Some residents will hit staff or abuse them verbally or emotionally. But I think if we had the time to build up a proper relationship with them, we could better predict and control those behaviours before they happened.

“At the moment, staff are physically exhausted, emotionally drained and mentally stressed. We are burnt out. Everyone is frustrated and feeling guilty that they can’t give their 100 per cent at work,” said Stella, who was part of a group that spoke with crossbencher Dai Le, the independent member for the Parramatta-based seat of Fowler.

Nurses who were part of the delegation to Canberra broke into small groups to meet with politicians from across the political spectrum, including the Minister for Health and Aged Care, Mark Butler, and his colleague Anika Wells, the Minister for Aged Care.

They spoke about a staffing crisis that meant people are working on tasks beyond their level of training, and about what appears to be a reluctance among facility managers to hire more staff.

Stella said at her facility there are staff who would be happy to increase their hours, adding that management isn’t properly consulting with staff before setting rosters, to ask if they are available.

“When I get old, if I end up in an aged care home, I don’t want people to rush me to do the care and rush me to eat. I would like to have a real relationship with the people caring for me. It may be a workplace for us, but for them it’s their home.”

ADVOCATING FOR BETTER STANDARDS

Attending the delegation to Canberra was “empowering”, Stella said. “When I saw there were so many people like me, from all over Australia, I felt stronger and I was not scared to speak up.”

“I was a member of the union before, but I did not realise the unity and the power to meet the leaders of the country.”

Stella was particularly pleased to see other nurses from Nepal at the delegation, her home country.

And with so many nurses from Nepal now working in Australia, she is keen to build a network of Nepalese nurses within the union.

Shaye Candish said members in the Aged Care sector are the best advocates for improving standards in their own facilities.

“They see the flaws in the system and know what needs to change to enable them to provide the care that every resident should receive. We also need to see greater financial transparency from providers. The federal government should not be topping up their funds with taxpayer dollars, while they are failing to improve the quality of care for older Australians.”

On the day, several parliamentarians agreed to sign the union pledge asking them to support aged care nurses in their campaign for compliance in care hours and quality standards, and in their fight for fair pay and conditions.

Mandatory staffing in aged care

• Since 1 July 2023, aged care providers have been required to have an RN on duty 24/7.
• From 1 October 2023, providers were required to deliver 200 mandated

minutes of care per resident every day, with at least 40 of those care minutes delivered by an RN.

• From 1 October 2024, the care minutes will increase to 215 care minutes per resident per day, including 44 minutes

of direct RN care. Also from this date providers will be able to use up to 10 per cent of RN targets with care time provided by ENs. For example, for a service with an RN target of 44 minutes, 4.4 EN minutes may be counted.