Faculty a boon to aged care nursing careers

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Against the backdrop of Australia’s ageing population and aged care nursing skills shortage, RCNA’s new Health and Wellbeing in Ageing Faculty is welcome news for aged care nurses and providers. Among its numerous objectives a key policy area for the Faculty, which officially launched on September 3 at the 2009 RCNA Annual Conference in Melbourne, will be to foster sustainable career pathways for aged care nurses. RCNA CEO Debra Cerasa says the Faculty will encourage continued commitment from the Government to support the education and qualification of nurse practitioners in the aged care sector. It will also support greater recognition and rewards for nurses undertaking advance practice care in residential care settings. Part of fostering this recognition will be the development of research and funding opportunities for nurses in the aged care sector. “RCNA is looking at partnering with a number of Australian universities on a variety of projects in the near future,” Cerasa confirms. “In addition, the Faculty will also look at a variety of professional issues within aged care. These include nurse-led models of care and how such models can be beneficial to nurses; such as providing a career structure, creating leadership opportunities, and allowing nurses to work to the extent of their scope of practice.”Alexis Watt, Manager of Education and Training for Royal District Nursing Service (SA), welcomes RCNA’s new Faculty. As holder of a key educational role with the largest provider of community-based nursing and healthcare services to South Australians, with the majority of RDNS (SA) clients falling in the category of “older people”, Watt confirms providing attractive careers for nurses in aged care is a key challenge for the sector, and one that RCNA’s new Faculty will be uniquely positioned to tackle. “Despite the growing demand for aged care services, there remains a substantial and chronic shortage of nurses in this sector,” Watt says. “The Faculty will be well positioned to create, inform, and drive strategies and policy to address this situation, and RDNS (SA) would expect the Faculty to commit substantial effort to this outcome.”Watt adds that identifying and communicating career pathways into aged care nursing, coupled with disseminating information and knowledge about the sector, will be valuable activities.“RDNS (SA) would expect the Faculty to actively engage with population sectors such as school leavers, career changers, those returning to the workforce, and those seeking part-time workforce participation, dynamically and widely promoting the benefits of employment in aged care.”Emma Hamilton is a registered nurse who has worked extensively in aged care. A passionate promoter of the sector’s profile, she’s also founder of agedcarer.com.au – a website dedicated to fostering a more positive image of aged care nursing. She believes aged care nursing needs to be promoted as a good career choice for young nurses and this can only be achieved if the positive aspects of aged care nursing are promoted. “Hopefully the RCNA Faculty will encourage more nurses to recognise that aged care nursing can be a rewarding and dynamic career path. Establishing a Faculty that recognises the unique skills of aged care nursing, establishes best practice based on current aged care research and promotes aged care nursing as a valuable career choice, is hugely beneficial.”From the RCNA’s perspective, fostering better career opportunities for aged care nurses is just one part of a holistic approach designed to raise standards across the whole aged care nursing sector. CEO Debra Cerasa emphasises that the new Faculty is tasked with addressing a number of issues. These include the need for standardised training for unregulated carers who work in nursing teams; greater access for nurses to research money to support sociological, psychological and physiological research as well as care option research; involving more nurses in decision making and policy design; reviewing the aged care standards model to enhance its flexibility and quality and addressing the need for higher quality residential care.Underpinning all the Faculty’s activities will be a firm commitment to abolishing negative stereotypes of older people and of the aged care nursing sector, she says.“Australia has an ageing population; that’s the reality, so we want to play a role in setting the standards that allow older Australians to enjoy a healthy ageing journey. Ageing can be a very positive process if the right choices are made and the right structures and workforce are in place to support those choices. Nurses already play an essential role in the aged care workforce; in residential care facilities, in hospitals and out in the community. They could play an even better and more comprehensive role if they were given the opportunity to work to the extent of their scope of practice; to use what they know, what their experience and expertise has taught them to enhance this really important period in older people’s lives.”

By Belinda Smart

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