ANMF
Media Release. 21 February, 2020.
ANMF WELCOMES SENIOR COUNSEL'S CALLS FOR MINIMUM STAFFING IN AGED CARE
The country's largest union, the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF), supports the recommendations of Senior Counsel Assisting, Peter Rozen, to the Aged Care Royal Commission today for mandated minimum staffing levels and skills mix in the system, which importantly includes having a registered nurse on duty at all times.
In a Submission put to the Royal Commissioners in a Hearing in Adelaide today, Mr Rozen's recommendations focused on addressing dangerously-low staffing levels in nursing homes, in order to achieve safe, high-quality care for residents and stop the 'exodus' of workers from the industry:
- an approved provider of residential aged care services should have to meet mandatory minimum staffing requirements;
- registered nurses, including nurse practitioners should make up a greater proportion of the care workforce than is presently the case;
- all aged care workers should receive better training;
- unregulated care workers should be subject to a registration process with a minimum mandatory qualification as an entry requirement;
- the care workforce should be better remunerated and should work in safe workplaces;
- the organisations for which they work should be better managed and governed, and
- the Australian government should provide practical leadership.
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