workforce
So my skillset as a community nurse is
quite different to the skillset I had when I
was working in acute care.
How do nurses manage seniors who may
have a number of chronic illnesses?
Well, if you look at the fact that one in two
people in Australia at any age have a chronic
condition – that’s 11 million Australians
wandering around with chronic disease.
That’s not limited to older people. But
obviously as you get older, you’re more
likely to have a chronic illness, and you’re
probably more likely to have more than one
chronic illness. I think it’s acknowledging,
then, the impact that chronic disease has
on the person – that’s really important. And
acknowledging that may well reduce their
function, either physically or cognitively. So,
it’s just really being aware of that.
I think it is important at any point in
somebody’s nursing career to look at the
human being in front of them holistically,
not look at the fact that they’ve got a
leg ulcer or that they have a wound or
whatever else you’re doing for them,
it’s actually acknowledging that they’ve
probably got a whole heap of other things
going on for them. And in fact, in some
ways those other things might actually
impact on their current health status.
There’s a perception that working in
aged care means losing valuable nursing
skills. What do you think of that?
Oh, again, I think that’s just a bit of a
myth made up by people that have never
really worked in aged care. Part of it is
that I think nurses are a little bit of their
own worst enemy in that regard as well,
perhaps because working in aged care has
historically been seen as the job you do
just before you retire or at the end of your
career. I think that’s perhaps where some of
those perceptions have come from.
But I have to tell you that when I recruit
nurses, and for myself personally, the
clinical skills that I have are just as good
as, if not better in some regards, than
the clinical skills of nurses working in,
say, hospitals.
If you’re a nurse working in an aged care
setting, you have to be very confident of
your own decision making. You are often
the only nurse available, or you might have
one colleague. Particularly in community
care settings where you’re visiting people
in their own homes, you don’t necessarily
have another nursing colleague or a doctor
around that you can call on to be able to
get advice.
So you do have to be very confident
and very capable. You have to be able to
assess people, because you have to make
decisions yourself and very autonomously.
So for nurses that are really looking for
autonomous practice, working in aged
care can provide that.
I think what’s happened is that, because
historically it was seen as the end of the
line for some nurses, perhaps some of the
systems and processes in residential aged
care particularly haven’t lent themselves to
nurses viewing working in that environment
as a legitimate career choice. But as the
number of people requiring aged care
increases and there is a need to have a
workforce, and as providers look at different
models of providing aged care services,
then yes, aged care nursing will certainly be
a very important choice for nurses.
With the population ageing, what
does this mean for nurses in aged care
facilities?
I think what’s happening now, certainly
in residential aged care facilities, is that
because people want to stay at home for as
long as possible – and that’s a reasonable
choice for people to make – the sort of
people moving into those environments
are a lot more frail, both physically and
cognitively. Perhaps they also have a
cognitive impairment as well as physical
health issues. So all the more reason that
the nurses working in those environments
need to have great clinical skills, because
the residents they’re looking after are often
sicker, if you like, and I use that term broadly.
The other thing is, if you look at a
residential aged care facility as being
somewhere where people will spend their
last days and potentially receive palliative
care, then that skillset is important as well
for nurses.
For nurses that have an interest in
palliative care, working in a residential
aged care setting can be quite rewarding,
because if you can do it well, you can
support the person and their family very
nicely in that stage of their lives. ■
Our clients join us for many reasons:
Accounting solutions
aged care providers rely on
Our fully integrated suite of software is designed to help you navigate
your way quickly and confidently through the aged care minefield.
✓ Real time reporting from their aged care financials
✓ A team that has industry experience, listens and
provides useful, practical solutions
✓ Fully supported software with help desk support
and product training
✓ Stable, cost effective aged care software
✓ Specialised financial management solutions for
Residential & Home care applications
✓ Payroll Bureau or fully outsourced financial
management services
✓ Data hosting and recovery services available
These are only a few reasons, so give us a call, AIM may have a solution that’s just right for you
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