Residential Care Home Workforce Development: the Rhetoric and Reality of Meeting Older Residents’ Future Care Needs

by Deidre Wild at al

Can workforce development meet care home residents' future care needs?

This study examines the best way of meeting the future needs of older care home residents. Exploring evidence from an in-depth study of three residential homes, it confirms that training care staff in basic clinical skills can enhance health and social care provision for older people in residential homes.

It found that:

* This approach could boost older people's quality of life by making them more comfortable, increasing their well-being, and reducing the chance of them being unsettled by a move to a nursing home

* Residential homes will not be able to provide this choice unless there is financial support for new role carers and their training.

Key points

* Older people and their relatives want residential homes to offer a 'home for life'. However, as residents age, their health needs become more complex. Care home staff will need enhanced personal skills and support from healthcare professionals to meet these needs.

* An in-depth study in three residential homes confirms that health- orientated education and training of care staff can be successful, leading to increased confidence and professionalism in care staff and stronger relationships with community nurses and GPs.

* The level of basic nursing activities suitable for care staff in their new roles remains unclear. A robust accountability, liability and competency framework therefore needs to be identified at a national level to protect both care staff and older people.

* A strategic approach is also required to ensure financial support for 'new role' carers and their training. Up-skilling staff without any extra income for care homes is likely to be unsustainable. Care homes may need to price ‘bed units’ to incorporate enhanced care costs.

* Developing new role carers should improve choice, control and quality of life for older people in residential homes, enabling them to stay longer rather than having to move into a nursing home or hospital.

* Residential homes can provide enhanced care to the benefit of older people and the care workforce. But policy-makers will need to address the issues identified.

The research - by a team from the University of the West of England, Bristol, and the University of Warwick.
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