2023-08-07 02:30:00
A little more than 1,300 beds in Upper Austrian nursing homes cannot currently be used because there is a lack of the necessary nursing staff.
In order to combat the shortage of nursing staff, Social Provincial Councilor Wolfgang Hattmannsdorfer (VP) and the Association of Towns and Municipalities have decided on a nursing specialist strategy with 50 measures. “We are consistently implementing this strategy for nursing. In a next step, we want to reduce the part-time quota for nursing staff,” announces Hattmannsdorfer. According to Hattmannsdorfer, there are mandatory annual meetings between the home management and part-time employees to find out how the number of hours might be increased.
The part-time rate among nursing staff in Upper Austria is currently 72.6 percent, although there are major regional differences: between 41 percent in the Schärding district and 89 percent in the Rohrbach district. On average, part-time nursing staff work 25.2 hours. In the OÖ Nachrichten summer interview at the end of July, Hattmannsdorfer pointed out that the 1,300 unused beds might theoretically be occupied if every part-time caregiver added 3.5 hours.
In general, Hattmannsdorfer calls for more incentives to work longer in this context. “Anyone who increases their weekly hours from 30 to 40 and gets a gross 1,000 euros more, only gets 480 euros net. That’s not attractive for many.” The 38th, 39th and 40th hour should be worth more than the 30th, the state council demands. Because currently it hardly pays off to increase hours. In addition, the allowances for night and weekend work must be expanded, says Hattmannsdorfer.
Targeted Recruitment
For Hattmannsdorfer, a second line of attack once morest the shortage of personnel is the targeted recruitment of workers from abroad. The project with nursing staff from the Philippines is a success story. The first came last year, now there are 64. Another 16 will follow in the autumn.
Austria does not even begin to use the potential. “We know that Austria is not a factor on the Philippine job market. There are around 12 million migrant workers there, so we have to be present,” says Hattmannsdorfer. In this context, he calls on the federal government to develop a central strategy for recruiting foreign nursing staff and to improve the Red-White-Red Card. “We have to compensate for decades of abstinence on the international labor market and should concentrate our resources on promising countries like the Philippines,” says Hattmannsdorfer.
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