Understaffing in the Residential Aged Care

Hello everyone!!! Good morning….. Today I am going to present on the topic
‘Understaffing in the Residential Aged Care’.
Slide 1 (OVERVIEW)
In this slide we are going to discuss the fact that Australia has a relatively large
proportion of older people, with more than 15% of the population aged 65 years or over,
which has resulted in strong demand for aged care places (Cooper et al., 2013). This causes a
huge burden on the nurses who work in these residential aged care as these care homes do not
have sufficient workforce are very much frustrated and burdened with work. However, the
aged care industry currently does not have any regulation related to the minimum staff levels.
Thus, it is important to discuss the entire situation as it shows the effects of understaffing
(Hodgkin et al., 2017).
Slide 2 (BACKGROUND)
In this slide it is shown that understaffing in the residential aged care is a very
important topic as it is linked to the quality of care that is being received by the older
population and the type of treatment that is being received by the older people. The older
people prefer to stay at their own home, however they have to move to the residential care
when home care is not available or is not adequate (Sheridan & Agim, 2014). Understaffing
is thus related to the improper care and higher medication errors that can affect the positive
patient outcome (Sheridan & Agim, 2014; Jeon et al., 2017). This results in frequent change
of jobs among the nurses that also hampers the patient’s quality of care (Jeon et al., 2017).
Slide 3 (OBJECTIVE)
This slide highlights the objectives that are to be addressed for the identification of the
problems that are being caused due to the understaffing. The main aim or objective is to
discuss the main factors that can cause the burnout among the nurses (Junge, 2018). These

factors can be poor pay, poor workplace environment, and inadequate salaries. The next
objective is to discuss the effects of shortage of nurses along with other healthcare staff in the
residential care home. Finally the last objective is to find out the ways in which these factors
can be rectified so as to provide better healthcare to the older people (Jaye et al., 2016).
Slide 4 (OUTLINE OF TOPIC)
The causes can be explained by the factors such as elder abuse and neglect that affects
the status of the nursing homes and reduces quality care (Shah, 2017). The limited nursing
facilities hamper the type of care that is required for some patients that ultimately causes
medication error. The labor costs for nursing homes are very high compared to other costs
(Burns, Hyde & Killett, 2016). Some nursing homes cannot afford to have as many registered
nurses and certified nursing assistants as they need. Instead they just try to stretch their
existing staff as much as they can (Banerjee et al., 2017).
The effects can be when the staff is extremely overworked and stressed, there is a
greater risk that they will commit abusive acts out of frustration (Astrain, 2017). The
outcomes of the understaffing is such that the existing staff is pushed to work as quickly and
as long as they can. Some nurses and staff members view overtime and long hours as
beneficial because they will make more money, but many feel overworked and underpaid
even with overtime. The exhaustion after working several hours can cause a nurse to make
mistakes and miss changes in a patient’s condition.
Slide 4 (CONCLUSION)
Thus it can be concluded that understaffing is a serious problem and should be
handled properly by the management. This will help in the better patient outcome and will
even decrease the rate of job dissatisfaction among the nurses and also the other healthcare
personnel.

Understaffing is seriously affecting nursing homes and other clinical organizations as
it is clearly known that more than half of them are understaffed. Studies have shown that the
residents who live in an understaffed nursing homes are at a higher risk of malnutrition,
bedsores, weight loss, infections, dehydration, and pneumonia. The families of the elderly
patients are increasingly analysing this problem and are starting to hold the nursing homes
that are responsible for the abuses that occur as a result.