Supporting the aged care workforce
The Government is investing $310 million over the next four years to develop a better trained aged care workforce and also to encourage people to work in aged care. This will improve the care older Australians receive and underpin the sustainability of our aged care system as Australia’s population ages.
The Government is shifting the focus of workforce programs to improving clinical care. This will more closely match sector workforce requirements, assist recruitment and retention and help to create career paths in aged care.
During 2011, agreements have been offered to eligible registered training organisations to allow 9,289 aged care workers to undertake certificate level training. This has also allowed a further 1,435 aged care workers to undertake studies leading to an enrolled nurse qualification, with over 8,200 short courses also being funded.
Enrolled nursing training places and undergraduate nursing scholarships for aged care workers also received funding. This will help support approximately 950 clinical placements for student nurses and 1300 clinical and graduate nurse placements nationally over the next three years. During 2010 - 11, 395 undergraduate scholarships, 310 postgraduate scholarships and 10 nurse practitioner scholarships were offered under these measures.
The funding round for Nurse Practitioner Projects has been advertised and the guidelines for the Aged Care Education and Training Incentive (ACETI) program are now available, with Medicare Australia commencing payments under this initiative from December 2010.
A fact sheet is available on aged care workforce reforms:
What's happening
eHealth.gov.au
eHealth.gov.au is your gateway to Australia's personally controlled electronic health record system, linking you to information about eHealth records and the system itself. Visit www.ehealth.gov.au
Living Longer. Living Better.
On 20 April 2012, the Prime Minister and Minister Butler unveiled a comprehensive package of reforms to build a better, fairer, more sustainable and more nationally consistent aged care system.
Privacy Impact Assessment on the PCEHR system
A detailed Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) into the PCEHR system has been undertaken by Minter Ellison Lawyers and Salinger Privacy. The PIA report made 112 recommendations.
