Did you know that 91 percent of nursing homes lack the adequate number of staff for basic care? The workforce shortage in long term care facilities is an increasing problem and going to escalade if we do not start to change policy. I am asking that every long term care facility be required to house enough staff to care for each resident 24 hours a day.
This change would automatically cause an increase in cost for long term care facilities, but what if we collaborated with other businesses and the government to prevent the drastic increase. Over 8 billion dollars are annually spent by the federal government to prepare primarily low-income and unemployed individuals for new and better jobs. If the government and long term care facilities started to work together we could help these people get jobs and trained for the workforce while increasing the number of workers in the long term care field.
The access for jobs will dramatically increase for those who are willing to go into the long term care field. Genworth Financial states that “The U.S. will need to recruit 200,000 new direct-care workers each year to meet future demand among our aging population.” In the state of this economy and the need for jobs in long term care, I see this looking like a place that the government should invest its money. This would help supply more jobs for the people and benefit long term care.
When there is enough staff to supply the needs of each resident the quality of that facility will flourish. This is a serious problem when residents have to wait 30 plus minutes to use the toilet, to get dressed, or to receive medications. If there were enough staff this would not be problem.
This is an important issue that is a part of our lives and is only going to increase in time. We need to move now, and help change policy! Think of your future and how you would like to be treated. Let us do the same for our family, friends, and neighbors.
1) Critical Issues in Long-Term Care (LTC) (2008, May). Retrieved March 28, 2009, from http://www.ltcop.org/StayInfSection2.htm
2) Long Term Care-Confronting Today's Callenges . (2003). Academy of Health . Retrieved March 28, 2009, from http://www.academyhealth.org/files/publications/ltcchallenges.pdf
3) Niesz, H., Price-Livingston, S., & Diamond Arsenau, K. (2002). LONG-TERM CARE WORKER SHORTAGE. . Retrieved March 28, 2009, from http://search.cga.ct.gov/dtsearch.asp?cmd=getdoc&DocId=16173&Index=I%3A%5Czindex%5C2002&HitCount=0&hits=&hc=0&req=&Item=4
4) Looming Workforce Shortage Pressures Long Term Care Costs, According to Research (2008, April 29). Retrieved March 28, 2009, from http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/news/sections/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsLang=en&newsId=20080429005958
5) Stone , R. I., & Wiener, . M. (2001, October 26). Who Will Care For Us? Addressing the Long-Term Care Workforce Crisis. Retrieved March 28, 2009, from http://www.urban.org/url.cfm?ID=310304
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I definately do think the shortage of health care workers is a huge problem. I think even if there were more jobs opened that it would not fix the problem because there are so many job openings as it is. I think we definately need to find a way to change this problem because the patients in these facilities deserve good care.
ReplyDeleteI think that the need for more workers is very prevelant, but how are you going to make it happen? What if some people just don't like working with older adults?
ReplyDeletePeople I know who work in long term care facilities are always complaining about the facility being understaffed. I know for many it has lead them to actually leave the facility becuase the hours they ended up working made it too difficult to perform their family responsabilities. This was especially true for the single moms.
ReplyDeleteThere are some good ideas here and I have been hearing about shortages of nurses in long term care facilities in the news lately so clearly it is a problem. My question is will you be sure that these employees being hired have the appropriate skills and training needed to give adequate care and attention to those in need of long term care assistance?
ReplyDeleteMore workers at nursing homes would be super! I know that many nursing homes hire CNAs to do a lot of the grunt work, which is a nice learning experience since many are going into a future career in healthcare. But care for the resisidents shouldn't rely on just CNAs. I think many CNAs are pushed to their limits doing more than they are asked, and this could lead to poor care of the residents. If more RNs could be hired for better more through care I think the quality of care would increase greatly. CNAs are not trained to do the things RN are supposed do. Hiring more nurses and giving them incentives would help to increae the quality of care for those individuals.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a great idea. Even though costs may increase, people need help and that's what needs to come first. However my question is how are you going to persuade people if there are going to be cost increases? Unless it applies directly to people, they aren't going to want to pay for it
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