workforce
Personal effects
Julie Martyn (centre). Photo: University of the Sunshine Coast
Workers who provide aged care to individuals
need a source of ongoing education
and training that suits their needs.
Julie Martyn interviewed by Dallas Bastian
A
n Australian research project has revealed shortfalls in
education programs for personal care workers and led to
a formal program to fill the gaps.
The study identified differences in the quality of vocational
education for personal care workers and a lack of targeted
education programs once they were on the job.
Julie Martyn, a senior lecturer in nursing at the University of the
Sunshine Coast, conducted focus groups, interviews and surveys
with managers and personal care workers at residential aged-care
facilities in Hervey Bay and Bundaberg.
Martyn says personal care workers play a vital role in the agedcare sector, yet they are not regulated by the agency responsible
for monitoring doctors, nurses and other health professionals.
As of November 2014, Department of Employment data
showed, the personal care workforce was 230,000 strong. While
most personal care workers hold a post-school qualification and
employers in the aged-care sector require workers who hold a
certificate III in aged care or community care, Martyn says there is
no driver for these workers to undertake ongoing education, as it
is not mandated.
“Ongoing education is mandatory for other health professions
to meet their requirements for registration; however, there is no
impetus for care workers because they are unlicensed,” she says.
“We expect this workforce to be the frontline in providing
physical care and also to be the eyes and ears of nurses when it
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comes to looking after older people in nursing homes.
“Continuing education is vital to enable them to practise safely
and effectively, with the ultimate goal of improving care.”
Martyn’s program has been designed in consultation with
workers and managers in the Wide Bay region but she thinks it can
easily be adapted to suit the needs of aged-care service facilities in
regional Australia.
Aged Care Insite sits down with Martyn to talk about her
research and the aspects of care the education program covers.
ACI: Why is this an important area to examine at the moment?
Why did you decide to explore an education program for
personal care workers?
JM: I work for the University of the Sunshine Coast but the
campus I work on is in Hervey Bay, Fraser Coast. Just recently, our
primary health network for this region did a health needs analysis
and found that we are a highly sought after area for retirees and
our population is ageing exponentially faster than other areas in
Australia. That just got me to thinking about the health needs of
those people, and then I realised we have a huge personal care
workforce that provides health services to our ageing population.
Then I realised that particular workforce is unregulated and,
therefore, they’re not targeted for continuing education like
regulated workforces.
It got me to thinking about the ongoing education needs of the
personal care workforce and, fortunately, around that time, the
central Queensland, Wide Bay, Sunshine Coast Primary Health
Network was offering some funds for research or services in aged
care and I applied and was successful. So I got to do my own
education needs analysis of personal care workers in Hervey Bay
and Bundaberg.