Staffing and Patient Care in Aged Care Homes

This essay analyzes the effect of staffing problems on the quality of patient care in aged care homes. It discusses the concept of aged care homes, highlights staffing issues, and explores the factors contributing to the shortage of healthcare professionals. The essay concludes by suggesting a staffing policy and implementation measures for aged care homes in Australia.

Running head:STAFFING AND PATIENT CARE IN AGED CARE HOMES
THE EFFECT OF HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONAL’S SHORTAGE ON PATIENT
CARE OFFERED IN AGED CARE FACILITY IN AUSTRALIA
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

1STAFFING AND PATIENT CARE IN AGED CARE HOMES
Introduction
As opined by Bradley et al. (2015), the quality of care which is being offered to the
patients greatly depends on a conglomeration of different factors like the treatment methods
which are being used by the healthcare professionals, the qualifications of the same, the number
of staff that the healthcare organizations boast of and others. Hussein et al. (2016) are of the
viewpoint that in the present times because of the large number of health ailments faced by the
elderly patients in Australia the work load of the healthcare professionals had surged up in an
exponential manner. However, as discussed by Zboril-Benson (2016), in the face of the
exponential surge in the work load of the healthcare professionals in the aged care homes of
Australia, the healthcare organizations or the aged care homes have not increased the number of
staff to help the healthcare professionals to fulfill the needs of the patients while offering high
quality treatment services to them. More importantly, it had been seen that because of the
staffing problem faced by the healthcare organizations it had been that the quality of care which
is being offered to the patients had declined in a significant manner (McGilton et al., 2016). This
can be explained on the basis of the fact that the increased workload that the healthcare
professionals are required to shoulder is taking a toll on their abilities to provide quality
treatment services to the patients.
The purpose of this essay is to undertake an analysis of the manner in which staffing
problem affects the quality of care which is being offered in the aged care homes. The paper
firstly introduces the concept of aged care homes and the healthcare services which are being
offered by them. The paper next highlights the staffing issues faced by the aged care homes in
Australia and also the effect of the same on the quality of patient care which is being offered to

2STAFFING AND PATIENT CARE IN AGED CARE HOMES
the elderly patients in these care homes. The paper also undertakes a discussion of the major
factors which has given rise to the staffing issue faced by the aged care homes in Australia.
Lastly, the paper concludes by suggesting the staffing policy that the aged care homes in
Australia need to follow and also suggests adequate implementation measures for the same.
Aged Care Homes
Shihundla, Lebese and Maputle (2016) are of the viewpoint that the aged care homes can
be defined as the care homes for the elderly or for that matter the senior citizens wherein they are
being able to lead their remaining lives with dignity and the required medical help. Adding to
this, Burns, Hyde and Killett (2016) have noted that the elderly patients suffer from different
kinds of health ailments and even are unable to perform the daily tasks which are needed for
their sustenance. Furthermore, it had been seen that the different healthcare organizations
although they offer specialized healthcare treatment facilities to the elderly patients yet have
failed to offer adequate amount of care which is being needed by these individuals on the score
of their age and also the inability of their body to perform their daily tasks (Mozley, 2017). In the
light of these aspects, the differed aged care homes or for that matter the aged care centers have
gained a substantial amount of prominence. More importantly, it had been seen that different
aged care centers take the help of diverse healthcare professionals including professionally
trained registered nurses, doctors and others for offering the required amount of care or treatment
services to the elderly or for that the aged individuals (Lavoie‐Tremblay et al., 2016). However,
recently researchers have clearly shown that one of the most important issues that these aged
care centers in Australia are facing presently can be attributed to the staffing issues that they are
facing which in turn can be attributed to the difficulty in getting adequate number of healthcare
professionals in these aged care homes or centers (Buchan & Seccombe, 2018).

3STAFFING AND PATIENT CARE IN AGED CARE HOMES
Staffing Issue in Aged Care Homes
As discussed by Cooke and Bartram (2015), the kind or for that matter the number of
staff that a particular aged care home or center boasts of greatly influences the quality of care or
aged care services which are being offered by the same. For instance, the aged care homes in
Australia are required to have a specific number of registered nurses, doctors and other
healthcare professionals who would work in tandem to ensure that the healthcare needs of the
elderly people who are residing in the aged care homes are being fulfilled in the best possible
manner (Shin & Hyun, 2015). Furthermore, it had been seen that the nation of England or for
that matter the other nations of the world do not have any particular law or stipulations related to
the number of staffs or the staffing policies that the different aged care homes are required to
follow (Dellefield et al., 2015). In this relation, it needs to be said that the national government
of England and those of the other nations of the world have mandated the qualification criteria
that the healthcare professionals needs to fulfill or for that matter the manner in which the elderly
patients or the individuals are required to treat them yet there are no significant legislations
which dictate the number of registered nurses, doctors and other healthcare professionals the
aged care homes are required to have (Feo et al., 2017). This can be explained on the basis of the
fact that the staff requirement of the aged care homes greatly depends on the number or for that
matter the kind of elderly patients that they have and thus it is very difficult for the national
governments or the other regulatory bodies to determine beforehand the number of healthcare
professionals that the aged care homes need to have (Dewing & Dijk, 2016). This difficulty in
determining the number of healthcare professionals that the aged care homes need to have
beforehand had given rise to the issue under discussion here.

4STAFFING AND PATIENT CARE IN AGED CARE HOMES
Effect of Inadequate Healthcare professionals in Aged Care Homes on Patient Care
Talbot and Brewer (2016) are of the viewpoint that the inadequate number of staff in the
aged care homes of Australia has given rise to different kinds of issues and also adversely
affected the quality of aged care which is being offered by these aged care homes. For instance,
it had been seen that in the absence of the required number of registered nurses or for that matter
the other healthcare professionals, the healthcare professionals who are a part of the different
aged care homes need to deal with a Herculean amount of workload. As opined by Cope, Jones
and Hendricks (2016), in the absence of the required number of healthcare professionals, the
professionals who are a part of the aged care homes not only need to perform their own job roles
but also of the healthcare professionals who the aged care homes have not recruited because of
funding issues and others. This in turn had substantially enhanced the workload or for that the
work stress of the healthcare professionals who are a part of these aged care homes and thereby
adversely affected the quality of aged care services which are being offered by them to the
elderly or the senior citizen patients (Gao et al., 2015).
According to Flo et al. (2016), the entity of burnout or for that matter excessive work
pressure is an important factor which not only adversely affects the manner in which work is
being performed by the different healthcare professionals but also the manner in which the
required level of aged care is being administered by them to the patients. For instance, recent
researchers has clearly revealed the fact that if the work pressure or for that the burnout faced by
the registered nurses or the healthcare professionals is very high then this is likely to reduce the
quality of the aged care which is being offered by them to the elderly patients and others (Knapp
et al., 2018). However, at the same time it needs to be said that the elderly patients or the senior
citizens because of the vulnerable condition of their health and body need the constant care as

5STAFFING AND PATIENT CARE IN AGED CARE HOMES
well as supervision of the healthcare professionals which they are not required to offer because
of the shortage of healthcare professionals which in turn had enhanced the level of their work
load or burnout (Castle, Ferguson-Rome & Teresi, 2015). Furthermore, in the absence of
effective supervision or for that matter adequate care which is being needed by the elderly
patients the condition of their health rather than improving or being stable is likely to deteriorate
and this in turn is likely to adversely affect not only the reputation of the aged care homes but
also the different healthcare professionals who are associated with the same as well (Houghton et
al., 2016). Thus, it had been become imperative for the aged care homes to effectively resolve
the staffing issues that they are presently facing so as to not only improve the quality of care
which is being offered by them to the aged or the elderly patients but also their reputation as
well.
Factors which have given rise to inadequate healthcare professionals in Aged Care Homes
Feo and Kitson (2016) are of the viewpoint that there are various factors which have
given rise to the issue of shortage of staffs or the healthcare professionals within the framework
of the different aged care homes. In this relation, it needs to be said that one of the most
important factors which had given rise to the problem of inadequate number of staffs within the
spectrum of the different aged care homes can be attributed to the inadequate funding (Bradley et
al., 2015). For instance, it had been seen that the funding that the different aged care home
receive in the present times had substantially declined while the amount or for that matter the
number of aged or elderly patients that they are required to serve had increased in an exponential
manner. More importantly, it is seen that the aged care homes in order to offer quality aged care
to the elderly patients need to take the help of various specialized equipment, medicines,
undertake research and development activities and others which incur a substantial amount of

6STAFFING AND PATIENT CARE IN AGED CARE HOMES
capital (Burns, Hyde & Killett, 2016). Thus, it is seen that the aged care homes are left with very
little of capital to pay the healthcare professionals their wages or remunerations and this in turn
had directly contributed towards the issue under discussion here. In addition to this, it had been
seen that the national government of UK even in the present times had not come forward with
any policy or for that matter regulation which is related to the staffing policy or the number of
registered nurses, doctors and other healthcare professionals that the aged care homes are
required to have (Shihundla, Lebese & Maputle, 2016). This in turn had given rise to the
situation wherein it is seen that the aged care homes recruit for that matter appoint the registered
nurses, doctors and other healthcare professionals as per their convenience or their requirements.
However, the recent surge in the number of elderly patients which these aged care homes are
presently getting is making it very difficult for the registered nurses, healthcare professionals and
the doctors related to them to offer the required aged care to these elderly patients (Hussein et al.,
2016). It in the light of these aspects, it can be said that it had become important for the aged care
homes to device a new staffing policy which will enable them to have the required number of
healthcare professionals and thereby improve the quality of healthcare services or for that matter
the care which is being offered to the elderly patients.
Staffing Policy that the Aged Care Homes need to follow
The aged care homes rather than formulating a general staffing policy related to the
number of registered nurses, doctors and other healthcare professionals that they need to have
should take into account the number of elderly patients that they have. For instance, within the
framework of the different aged care homes it is seen that the number of the elderly patients or
the senior citizens that they have is not at all constant and keeps on changing frequently
(McGilton et al., 2016). Thus, if the aged care homes formulates a general overall staffing policy

7STAFFING AND PATIENT CARE IN AGED CARE HOMES
then it is likely that it would not effectively resolve the issue when the concerned aged care home
would get a higher number of elderly patients or for that matter when the patient flow would be
less the healthcare professionals would not have any work to do and this in turn would adversely
affect the financial resources of the concerned aged care home. Therefore, it is important for the
aged care homes to make a forecast of the number of elderly patients that they are likely to have
in the coming six months or one year and on the basis of the same they can appoint the required
number of registered nurses, doctors and other healthcare professionals. For instance, for the
purpose of delivering quality aged care services to the elderly patients it is highly advisable for
the aged care homes to keep one registered nurse for around three elderly patients, one doctor for
an estimated seven to ten elderly patients and others. However, at the same time it needs to be
said that these numbers are likely to change not only on the score of the number of elderly
patients that the aged care home would get but also because of the gravity of the issues faced by
the elderly patients as well (Dewing & Dijk, 2016). Furthermore, just the recruitment of the
healthcare professionals is not enough the aged care homes also needs to formulate adequate
roasters keeping into perspective the fact that there should be adequate number of healthcare
professionals at all times so as to attend to the needs of the elderly patients (Talbot & Brewer,
2016). This policy is likely to help the aged care homes to effectively resolve the issue of staffing
shortage faced by them which in turn is presently adversely the quality of aged care that is being
offered by them to the elderly patients.
Implementation of the Staffing Policy
The aged care homes for the implementation of the above mentioned policy related to
staffing of healthcare professionals have the opportunity to take the help of different change
management models. For example, it had been seen that the best possible model for the

8STAFFING AND PATIENT CARE IN AGED CARE HOMES
implementation of the different changes related to the healthcare or clinical setting is Lewin’s
Change Management Model. As discussed by Talbot and Brewer (2016), the effective usage of
this model requires the healthcare organizations to take into account its three stages, namely,
unfreeze, change and refreeze. In the first stage, the aged care homes would have to explain the
management team and also the healthcare professionals regarding the reasons for the change
which is being implemented and also the benefits that the intended change would offer to them
and also the elderly patients who opt for the services offered by them. In the second, the aged
care homes would have to actually undertake the process of the implementation of the staffing
policy under discussion here. Furthermore, the aged care homes also have the option to
implement the changes for a trial run or for a pilot test and thereby integrate the results that they
have got from the pilot test or the trial run within the actual policy intended by them for
implementation. More importantly, this is the stage during which the roles played by the leaders
and the management team of the aged care homes becomes important since they are entrusted
with the work of offering the required amount of training, mentoring, coaching and others to the
healthcare professionals so as to overcome the resistance that the aged care homes would face
from the healthcare professionals (Lavoie‐Tremblay et al., 2016). Moreover, this is also likely to
help the healthcare professionals to derive the maximum amount of benefits or for that matter
advantages from the staffing policy which is being implemented by the aged care homes and
thereby improve the quality of the aged care that is being administered to the patients. Lastly, in
the final stage of the change management, the aged care home would have to integrate the
staffing policy that they have implemented within the organizational or for that matter the
workplace culture which is being followed by them.

9STAFFING AND PATIENT CARE IN AGED CARE HOMES
Conclusion
To conclude, the work performed by the healthcare professionals or for that matter the
quality of care offered by the healthcare professionals within the clinical setting is greatly
dependent on the workload or work pressure that they had to handle. For instance, if the work
load or the work pressure faced by the healthcare professionals is very high then this is likely to
adversely affect the quality of the aged care services offered by them to the elderly patients.
However, the inadequate staffing policy followed by the aged care homes had greatly enhanced
the work stress faced by the healthcare professionals and thereby the quality of aged care that is
being offered by them. Thus, for the improvement of the aged care which is being offered by the
aged care homes it had become imperative for the management teams related to the same to take
the help of adequate staffing policy. These aspects of aged care and the staffing policy that they
need to follow for the improvement of aged care become apparent from the above discussion of
the same.

10STAFFING AND PATIENT CARE IN AGED CARE HOMES
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