Providers fighting for nurses with higher care minute targets just weeks away

Australia’s nursing staff shortage is reportedly turning into a “knife fight for staff” in regional areas as aged care and hospitals scrap for qualified staff. 

Aged care’s increasing care minute requirements aren’t helping with higher targets forcing more providers to dig deep into relatively shallow talent pools in thin markets.

Current care minute targets require a sector-wide average of 200 total care minutes per day, including 40 from Registered Nurses (RN). This increases to 215 total minutes and 44 RN minutes in just four weeks, beginning October 1.

The only reprieve is that Enrolled Nurses (ENs) can contribute 10% of RN time, meaning ENs can likely cover the additional clinical care time. 

Regardless, many providers are still struggling to meet existing expectations amid long-term projections of a worsening nursing shortage.

The Department of Health and Aged Care’s Nursing Supply and Demand Study 2023-2035 predicts an overall nursing shortage of almost 80,000 nurses by 2035.

Official figures reveal that the aged care sector is currently about 5,000 nurses short of where it needs to be, with that shortage expected to grow to over 9,000 full-time nurses next year and more than 13,000 nurses by 2030. 

Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation Secretary Annie Butler told The Sydney Morning Herald that there needs to be a mechanism to ensure care targets are met, particularly as she believes the funds are available for providers to offer higher nursing salaries to match those paid in hospitals.

“It’s been a chronic shortage – it just can’t be denied, and we need to keep addressing it,” Ms Butler said.

“Unless there’s a consequence for not meeting those standards, it’s not going to happen.”

She added that incentivising nurses to join aged care organisations will also help strengthen the talent pool. Streamlining the process for bringing qualified international nurses and increasing investment in local nurse training are other ideas she mentioned.

The aged care workforce has been buoyed by notable pay rises under the Aged Care Award and for relevant workers under the Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services (SCHADS) Award. 

Direct care workers will receive a pay rise of up to 13.5% split across two phases in January 2025 and 2026. 

RNs and ENs still face the waiting game, however, with ANMF’s own pay submission for experienced nurses on the Nurses Award and Aged Care Award under review by the Fair Work Commission.

But with hospitals more likely to offer higher wages, this ultimately means that aged care providers are fighting against the tide. If permanent workers cannot be found there are above-average expenses on agency staff, while any successful recruitment typically means poaching a nurse from another aged care home or hospital.

“There’s a knife fight for staff in the regions, with aged care and hospitals scrapping for the same staff,” Duncan McKimm, CEO, Clarence Village, told The SMH.

“The combination of staff constraints and care minute targets make building new aged-care facilities largely unfeasible.

“The government knows there aren’t enough registered nurses to meet the targets. We need to design and fund an aged-care system based on the forecasts rather than pretend thousands of registered nurses and carers are going to materialise.”

Elsewhere, there are concerns that workforce shortages are far worse than existing projections. Catholic Health Australia’s Director of Aged Care Policy, Laura Haylen, said the sector likely has 60,000 nursing/care worker vacancies. 

“The introduction of care minutes has required a significant uplift of staff,” Haylen told The SMH. 

“While we welcome the government’s decisions to fund a wage increase and begin to recognise the importance of enrolled nurses by letting their minutes count towards the requirements, more needs to be done to address the workforce crisis. 

“The government should subsidise nurses’ rents, help build more affordable housing for workers and restore [independent statutory body] Health Workforce Australia.”

Limited housing and accommodation options continue to impact the recruitment of workers who are interested in relocating to a regional area. Providers have flagged a need to develop or source their own housing before recruiting new workers, including overseas staff.

There is fear that without increased funding and support for aged care, the sector will also be 21,200 beds (places) short by 2030. 

The Federal Government is making small gains after releasing an additional 100 residential care places for Multi-Purpose Service (MPS) program providers in rural and remote communities. However, without dedicated funding for widespread growth – or even sustainability – those gains could be overtaken by losses.