NSWNMA members are hopeful of seeing improvements to aged care after receiving a warm reception from government ministers.

Aged care RN Pranita Rai travelled to Canberra as part of the NSWNMA delegation to launch the ‘Australia needs care you can count on’ campaign at Parliament House.

The delegation met with Aged Care Minister Sam Rae, Immigration Minister Tony Burke, Assistant Immigration Minister Matt Thistlethwaite and other MPs to share the experiences of workers on the frontline and discuss changes needed across aged care.

Pranita said the campaign was not about one provider or one facility, but about ensuring that aged care workers have safe and sustainable working conditions and that residents receive safe, timely, dignified and high-quality care.

“We gave them the real story about what we are facing every day at our workplaces. I said to Sam Rae, ‘Please don’t believe what you read on the providers’ spreadsheet data.’

“Some of the MPs and ministers we spoke with were surprised by the experiences shared by members from NSW, Queensland, the ACT and Tasmania. When we spoke with Sam Rae and Matt Thistlethwaite, they asked us, ‘Is this really happening?’

“It was important for us to bring these frontline experiences directly to policymakers and make sure they understand the need for safe staffing, appropriate ratios, workplace safety, transparency and accountability across the aged care sector.”

Pranita said she felt “valued and respected” by the politicians she met at Parliament House.

“It made us feel proud to be there. It was meaningful to have our voices heard and our work recognised. I hope aged care workers can receive the same level of respect and appreciation in their workplaces.”

She said Sam Rae “was very active in listening to our issues individually. He gave us hope that there will be changes and said he will closely look into what is going on”.

Pranita has worked for more than four years in the aged care sector in Sydney – initially as an Assistant in Nursing (AiN) and now as a recently graduated RN.

“The workload is piling up day by day, and I haven’t seen the improvements we need,” she told The Lamp.

She said staff on sick or annual leave were not always replaced, increasing the workload for those remaining. She said similar staffing and workload concerns were being raised by aged care workers across different states.

Pranita also said that greater transparency was needed around mandatory care minutes and how they were calculated.

“Even if a provider is meeting the required care minutes on paper, we need to ask whether that is enough to meet residents’ actual care needs. Meeting the required number should not be the only measure of quality care.”

She said that staff on sick leave were not always replaced, increasing pressure on the remaining staff.

“Residents can sometimes wait 30 to 40 minutes for essential personal care, including assistance with toileting, repositioning or transferring to a recliner chair.”

She raised the issue directly with Matt Thistlethwaite, asking him to consider how he or a loved one would feel in the same situation. “I asked him, ‘If you needed to use the toilet, could you hold your bladder for 30 or 40 minutes while waiting for assistance?’”

She said aged-care workers are also required to perform non-direct care tasks, such as cleaning, laundry and organising recreational activities.

“I believe that providers may be counting the time spent on these activities as direct care minutes, even though these duties are not direct care.

“Our members are coming forward and raising concerns about how staff time is being used. I am not saying residents should not have celebrations, special meals or activities, they absolutely should, because these things are important for residents’ wellbeing and quality of life.

“My concern is when significant staff time is being spent on presentation, decorations and events while frontline staff are already struggling to meet residents’ basic care needs.

“We need to make sure that celebrations and activities are properly supported with adequate staffing, so that they don’t come at the expense of residents waiting for essential personal or clinical care.

“Our campaign is not going to stop. We want to make the situation transparent and speak up and go public. We will continue until we achieve our goal.”