The Australian Primary Health Care Nurses Association (APNA) has placed its first 76 student nurses into aged care placements as part of a new program to recruit nurses into the residential aged care sector.
The students are part of a new Commonwealth-funded aged care student nurse placement program. Launching this month, the program will place about 140 students in its first month.
APNA’s aged care student nurse placement program was launched to address recommendations made by the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety and will ultimately help aged care providers meet the commitment for all aged care facilities to have Registered Nurses onsite and on duty 24 hours per day 7 days per week as of 1 July.
The residential aged care sector will need an additional 14,000 nurses to meet this commitment. However, the Australian Department of Health and Aged Care has previously predicted a shortage of 85,000 nurses by 2025 and 123,000 nurses in Australia by 2030.
APNA’s aged care placement program will help to create a new sustainable pipeline of nurses to help fill this shortage. The program has two components:
The delivery of high-quality clinical placement experiences in aged care for 1800 second- and third-year nursing students.
The development and hosting of an online aged care knowledge hub to provide all nursing students, clinical facilitators, and placement providers with resources to support quality placement experiences.
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First nursing students placed in national aged care program (Australian Primary Health Care Nurses Association)
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