Aged care workers’ inspiring efforts to keep older Australian safe during COVID-19

“A concerning element of these results is the reports that staffing has not been increased and, in some cases, has actually been reduced since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak in Australia, across the aged care sector, despite a majority of workers reporting that they would be willing to work additional hours to help out during the pandemic,” Ms Butler said.

“Perhaps even more concerning is that once again, aged care workers are reporting significant levels of stress, pressure and a lack of support as the sector grapples to combat COVID-19. This is while they continue to be the ‘glue’ that is holding the system together. A fact that has been unacknowledged by the government and the sector since the pandemic began.”

The major issues of concern are captured in comments from the survey’s participants:

1. “I TRULY, TRULY hope it doesn’t make it into the facility. I fear short staffing. It occurs anyway (working short), as [we] can’t get replacements. Carers not allowed to have bottles of sanitiser on trolleys during pad/continence night rounds. Means only hand washing and a wall sanitiser left. Not as used as time poor. So infection control is now compromised.”
2. “They stated that if we suspect [COVID-19] in the facility, that we would ask for a test but not put precautions in place until we have a positive result which I feel vulnerable being exposed to the risk of Coronavirus …[W]hy should staff have to be asked to attend to residents as normal without being provided with adequate PPE or told off if we use PPE without a Coronavirus confirmed case? I understand there is limited supplies on PPE, but I still believe that we aren’t being given a fair opportunity to protect ourselves and our other residents that we have to care for.”
3. “We are working short staffed now. My concern is if we have an outbreak, the staffing numbers will be reduced even more and our residents are going to suffer.”
4. “I don’t think employers are being adequately advised by the government. They’ll take minimum measures required by government rather than look at overseas trends. The main issue with aged care from a carer’s perspective is a lack of staffing. This guarantees that carers will not be able to provide perfect care. Standards inevitably slide. This is why there’s so much hidden neglect in Aged Care.”
5. “I would want to help out in any way to nurse any patients and ease the pressure on permanent staff.”
6. “We don’t feel valued. Feel like they don’t care about our safety. Poor communication and lack of direction on how things need to be put in place More and more responsibility assigned every day, day-by-day workload increasing, high chance of forgetting things/making mistakes. It’s overwhelming.”
7. “Exhausting when you are working short, not only registered staff hours but also care staff hours. We are compromising our health, our ability to complete workload which is horrendous at any time. We have extra workload with COVID-19 and residents emotional needs – sad and missing families.”
8. “I work by myself with forty residents on a night shift. Not only do I care for my residents, I am expected to do their laundry, clean my area, cook for the residents and many other tasks.”
9. “Since March I’ve been told I wasn’t allowed to come to work and haven’t been offered any shifts as I’m a casual and also work at another institution. They said that it’s their policy to not allow staff that work elsewhere to work there. I had all my upcoming shifts cancelled and haven’t had any work since March.”
10. “We have been in total lockdown for months now. No family or visitors. Only if family bypass management and go higher up to CEO. We have palliative residents and family can only come in for a couple of hours. They are so grief stricken not being able to be with loved ones. When staff complain they are disciplined very harshly.”