The numbers are sobering: In Vorarlberg, there are 200 beds missing in long-term care and 100 in the hospitals. At the Rankweil State Hospital alone, 50 beds are empty. The reason: acute staff shortage. Patients therefore have to be released early and coercive measures are becoming more common once more, the patient advocate criticized on Tuesday in ORF Vorarlberg.
Nursing emergency: AK raises the alarm
The Chamber of Labor is sounding the alarm when it comes to nursing shortages. The diploma training at the nursing schools must be guaranteed and a double-digit salary.
requirement for wage negotiations
The Chamber of Labor sounded the alarm on Thursday: Nursing is heading for an absolute emergency. A nursing job must be family-friendly, not overwhelming and well paid. This means that the 10.2 percent increase in wages that was decided in Vienna on Wednesday is a requirement for the negotiations that are just beginning in the country, says AK Director Reiner Keckeis: “Every penny was fought over, even though the union has said for years that we are going into a nursing emergency, that we are having problems recruiting people and that there was actually a consensus between the nursing service managers and the union: we have to do something.”
At least a two-digit degree required
But the state has always slowed down, according to Keckeis: “And then the state councilor now stands up and says we have to pay people more. That’s the crux of the matter now: if there’s a deal this year that’s not in double digits, then we’re going to look black,
that you can keep the necessary staff in the care sector at all.”
Education goes in the wrong direction
According to the AK, nursing training is going in the completely wrong direction: following the last reform, senior nursing professionals are only trained at the university of applied sciences, criticizes AK President Bernhard Heinzle: “There are 100 places in the university of applied sciences, 60 of which are occupied. There is a 25 percent dropout rate. That never works out in life.”
Nursing assistants and nursing specialist assistants are trained at nursing schools. That’s 100 a year. Additional training is required for psychiatric care, and there is a lack of interested parties here as well. The AK therefore calls for fundamental changes.
AK requirements for a functioning care system
- Better framework conditions for people already working in care (work schedule security, no shared services, compliance with the higher care key, skill-grade mix that corresponds to legal regulations and does not overwhelm caregivers, family-friendly working conditions, childcare offers, etc.)
- More training places specifically for the higher services (continue diploma training at nursing schools for at least ten years)
- Implementation of the AK model for hiring caring relatives
State Councilor promises improvements
Health Minister Martina Rüscher (ÖVP) explained on Thursday in a broadcast on the personnel problem in the Rankweil State Hospital that the modernization of the building would create attractive jobs. Outpatient clinics have already been expanded, there is constant de-escalation training and work is being done on further training for psychiatric nursing assistants.
