Workforce Planning in Aged Care
Published: 21 April 2024
Published: 21 April 2024
Appropriate workforce planning is crucial in providing safe, high-quality care. Aged care organisations are expected to have enough staff members with an appropriate range of skills to meet the needs of all older people in their care (ACQSC 2022).
There are four crucial elements of workforce planning:
(ACQSC 2023a)
An aged care organisation’s workforce should comprise a variety of occupations, employment types (e.g. full-time, contract) and qualifications (ACQSC 2023a).
For example, there are a variety of people that an aged care provider needs to employ in order to provide comprehensive care and function as an organisation, including registered nurses, enrolled nurses, personal care workers and non-clinical staff (e.g. cleaners, maintenance staff, laundry staff and kitchen staff, including chefs).
Furthermore, it’s important that the organisation rosters the right combinations of staff at the right times in order to provide adequate care and accomplish required tasks.
Establishing a diverse workforce can lead to improved quality of care for older people and increased job satisfaction for staff. However, it’s important to note that there is no universal framework for determining the best workforce composition - this depends on each individual organisation and the needs of the older people being cared for (Koopmans et al. 2018).
In response to the recommendations made by the Royal Commission Final Report in 2021, the federal government introduced minimum care minutes for residential aged care in 2023. These include:
(DoHaAC 2024; Bryan 2022)
Standard 2: The Organisation - Outcome 2.8: Workforce planning of the strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards requires aged care providers to:
(ACQSC 2024)
As aged care models have transitioned from institutional systems to more person-centred principles over recent years, current staffing levels and workforce composition in aged care facilities have been found inadequate in achieving quality outcomes for older people (Eagar et al. 2019).
It comes down to one main principle: in order to provide high-quality, person-centred care for each older person, aged care organisations need the right number of staff with the right skills (Peters & Marnie 2021).
When planning a workforce, it’s important not to forget how older people experience the care they are receiving.
Employing the bare minimum of staff, for example, may be enough to get essential tasks done but will leave older people feeling like their care is being rushed or cut short (ACQSC 2023b).
It’s not enough to only meet older people’s needs - their preferences need to be taken into consideration as well. For example, an organisation should have enough staff for older people to request a staff member of a specific gender or choose what time they prefer to have a shower (ACQSC 2023b).
Another important aspect of the resident experience is the concept of continuity of care - repeated contact between a care recipient and a specific staff member (Wright 2018), which allows rapport, trust and a positive relationship to be established.
Older people should be able to receive continuity of care and know the staff members who will be caring for them, as this will improve their care experience (ACQSC 2023b).
Workforce planning is more than just ‘hiring enough people’.
In order to provide high-quality, safe care, aged care organisations must not only hire the right number of people but also ensure they are the right mix of people.
By ensuring the workforce can support both the needs and preferences of older people and by rostering staff so that the right combination of people are performing the right tasks at the right time, older people will receive the right amount of care and attention.
Question 1 of 3
Which one of the following is a current requirement in residential aged care facilities?