POORLY trained aged care workers with little experience or knowledge of personal care, manual handling or infection control; and staff without enough English to read a medication chart or care plan is the reality in many Australian aged care facilities.
The substandard quality of many graduates from Australian aged care training organisations has been raised in a number of submissions to the Senate Inquiry – The Future of Australia’s Aged Care Sector Workforce.
And an audit by the Australian Skills Quality Organisation of 324 of the 417 registered training organisations (RTOs) offering aged care qualification resulted in a quarter (79) having some level of non-compliance and 21 having their registrations cancelled, suspended or not renewed.
After a review, seven of these were able to show compliance and had their registrations reinstated.
A Salvation Army Aged Care Plus submission to the senate inquiry said it was not uncommon to come across a Certificate III holder with no knowledge of a mechanical lifter, slide sheet, bed pan, commode chair and many other pieces of equipment used in aged care.
“We believe a regulation must be introduced which compels RTOs to train people to acceptable levels of spoken and written English,” the submission says.
“For people who speak English as a second language it can be difficult, if not impossible, to read through 14 units and write the assessments when they can hardly read and write in English.
“Further, poor written and spoken English means personal care workers struggle with basics such as giving verbal and written reports to their supervisors. Poor written and spoken English also means they are unable to understand complex issues that older people face, follow a written care plan or understand a medication chart.”
The Dementia Training Studies Centre’s submission says having no standardised training requirement for carers to work in the sector is a major factor influencing quality of care.
“Consequently there is considerable variation between workers in terms of skills, knowledge and capability to work effectively. Even among certifications there may be considerable differences between states regarding their requirements and delivery.”
The Australian College of Nursing’s submission says the quality and consistency of qualifications is fundamental to securing a skilled workforce.
It wants to see the separate Aged Care Home and Community Care and Disability qualifications replaced by an Individual Support Certificate III qualification and a requirement that all students undertake a minimum of 120 hours workplace training with many competencies assessed in the workplace.
In November, The Senior reported that the Aged Care Complaints Commissioner had received 521 complaints relating to facilities in its first six months of operation.
The most common issues complained about were clinical care (267), the administration of medication (200), continence management (178) and the choice and dignity of the person receiving care (163).
The senate inquiry is due to report on April 28.
Skills ‘not well defined’
National Seniors said working with older people requires social and emotional skills that could be cultivated through formal training and mentoring.
“But these skills are not well-defined or generally taught,” it said. “This is unfortunate because a lack of social and emotional skills places pressure on other workers and diminishes the quality of care to residents and clients.”
On the issue of language skills, National Seniors said increasing the proportion of personal carers with a language other than English was important as it meant more staff who could communicate with residents and clients from non-English speaking backgrounds. But it could also present problems if it made communication difficult.
Its submission quotes a member who reported that many of the care workers in his mother’s facility were foreign, with heavy accents, which meant his mum could only understand a fraction of what was said to her even though she would smile and nod. “This had the potential to cause serious problems and on a couple of occasions, if my visits had not been so regular, her wellbeing would have been compromised.”
