The study, conducted as part of ongoing research jointly funded by the Australian Research Council and the Australian Nursing Federation (Victorian Branch) finds that workers in the Victorian aged care sector are more stressed and more depressed than they were two years ago.

The study was based on a survey conducted this year of more than 500 registered nurses and personal care workers in Victoria who had also completed a similar survey in 2007.  A report on the findings will be presented at the Australian Nursing Federation’s Aged Care Nurses Conference in Melbourne this Friday, November 27.

University of Melbourne researchers Associate Professor Leisa Sargent, Professor Bill Harley and Dr Belinda Allen say the study also reveals that individuals’ primary motivation for working in aged care is the belief that the elderly should be properly cared for.

“Participants reported however, that their ability to provide high quality care for aged care residents was increasingly being constrained because of a lack of qualified staff, cost cutting and poor human resource management practices,” says Associate Professor Sargent.   “One respondent said ’I stopped working in aged care nine months ago due to poor wages, staffing and a lack of education opportunities. I have now secured a position in orthopaedics and I love it!’ 

“Having to work in such high pressure, hostile environments has seen participants report feeling more emotionally exhausted and less satisfied with their jobs than they were two years ago,” says Professor Harley.

“The findings indicate that workers in facilities with well-developed human resource management practices and adequate staffing levels report more positive attitudes towards their work and better physical and mental health outcomes. Individuals from these facilities also report that they are able to provide a higher quality of care for their residents.”

Dr Allen says there are clear ways for aged care providers to keep staff happy. “Providing staff with more training, having effective recruitment, selection and performance management practices and having well developed grievance procedures would seem to be crucial to retaining workers and delivering high quality care in the aged care sector. Both of these things are going to be increasingly important as the population in Australia continues to rapidly age.”   

The researchers will investigate these findings further next year with another survey. Copies of the report are available on request.