industry & reform
From the front line
A perspective on how aged care staff are feeling about the sector right now .
Lez Moore interviewed by Eleanor Campbell
As news headlines and political debates about Australia ’ s embattled aged care sector rage on , frontline staff have been entirely left out of the conversation , industry advocates have said .
After 12 years in the industry , former aged care nurse and aged care consultant Lez Moore says frontline staff want to be included in discussions around workforce reform and COVID-19 management .
“ We ’ re not letting them be part of the conversation and letting them be part of the bigger picture ,” Moore said .
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“ Hopefully we can get some great people on board and be able to steer it in the right direction , because without the aged care industry , we are in trouble .”
Moore currently oversees over 100 frontline care staff and line managers across NSW .
He joined Nursing Review to discuss the current state of aged care from the eyes of those working inside the industry .
NR : As we speak , members of the military are being deployed into nursing homes , more than 40 per cent of which are managing active outbreaks . Can you describe the morale of people working in the industry right now ? What are they struggling with the most ? LM : Just considering what we ’ ve been through , morale is obviously quite low at the moment . That ’ s based around a lot of uncertainty , and there ’ s increased stress and anxiety out there at the moment , and quite frankly a lot of people aren ’ t wanting to come to work and actually play a part in the industry . And this is talking to people who want to get up every day , looking forward to going to work , questioning whether they should be going to work .
It is quite tough for them at the moment , and that impacts on their work and their life and their health balance . And if morale ’ s low in the workplace , it obviously is going to impact other aspects of your life as well .
If there ’ s one thing about aged care , the constant thing is change , so we ’ re always changing and things are always adapting and moving on and moving forward .