Safe Staffing in Nursing Homes
Eight out of every ten hours of paid care is provided by a home health aide, personal care attendant, or certified nurse’s aide—the primary caregivers for seniors and people with disabilities in this country. Yet more than 40 states now report critical shortages of workers and turnover rates range between 40% and 100% every year.
When long term care workers are constantly turning over, consumers lose trusted and valued relationships. The care setting is disrupted, opportunities for mistakes in patient care increase, and patients feel a lesser sense of dignity and control over their environments.
When there aren’t enough staff hours to provide care, caregivers experience higher rates of injuries and higher levels of stress and frustration, along with receiving less training and supervisory support. High turnover results in newer, less experienced workers, fewer senior staff serving as mentors, and more clients being served in a rushed or unsafe manner. This causes a spiral of instability as workers continue to leave the field and the field itself becomes less attractive to potential workers. Federal budget cuts also exacerbate the workforce shortage, increase staff turnover, and make recruitment more difficult.
In order to ensure seniors and people with disabilities receive care from trained, reliable nursing home caregivers, workers need access to fair wages, health benefits, and training. This includes health insurance, paid leave, balanced and safe workloads, higher training standards, advancement and professional development opportunities, and other employee supports provided by communities and employers.
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