professionals
Nursing: Warning of further growing shortage of staff
A nurse applies a compression bandage in outpatient care. There is a shortage of nursing staff. photo
© Sebastian Gollnow/dpa
Nursing staff are desperately needed in Germany. An initiative is sounding the alarm: By 2030, there could be an additional need for almost 100,000 full-time positions.
According to a calculation, the shortage of nursing staff in nursing homes and outpatient services threatens to worsen further. By 2030 there could be an additional need for up to 99,000 full-time jobs – based on 655,000 jobs in 2021, said the “Initiative for a sustainable and generation-fair care reform” after its own projection based on various scenarios.
It includes associations of employers and private health insurance companies. According to the Federal Employment Agency (BA), the industry remains massively affected by staff shortages.
“Caring has been one of the bottleneck professions for many years,” said BA board member Daniel Terzenbach of the German Press Agency in Nuremberg. The number of employees had risen to 1.7 million people in September 2022 – an increase of ten percent in five years. The total number of employees across all sectors increased by six percent in the same period.
qualification matters
However, there is a lack of skilled workers. “The demand is still high,” he emphasized. “The number of registered jobs significantly exceeds the number of unemployed”. However, the situation is reversed for less qualified nursing assistants. There are more applicants than positions.
Therefore, the qualification – also in the company – is a decisive component, explained Terzenbach. An important step was taken by the reimbursement of the school fees previously paid by trainees. However, employers could still do a little more. “We can promote that,” said the BA board.
The aim is to qualify from the helper activity to the specialist activity. This is a particular issue for people who come from abroad. Regulations in the German system for the recognition of foreign training meant that people could only be used as assistants. The question must be resolved.
demands of the initiative
The initiative explained that, according to its projection, around 190,000 additional full-time jobs could be needed by 2040, and warned: Just hoping for nursing staff to immigrate is not enough. Domestic potential must be used.
In order to increase the attractiveness of the profession, specialists should be given more powers and relieved of bureaucratic tasks through digitization. More flexibility is needed in the deployment of personnel and personnel requirements. Preventive measures should be strengthened. It is particularly important to strengthen the skills of older people and enable them to stay at home longer.
According to the analysis, even in a scenario with moderate demographic development, a proportion of the total number of people in need of care in nursing home residents that falls and the number of staff in the outpatient sector remaining the same, the need for additional positions will increase significantly over the next 10 to 15 years.
The initiative includes the employers’ association for care, the Federal Association of Care Services, the Confederation of German Employers’ Associations, the associations of family entrepreneurs, young entrepreneurs and private health insurance.