The last decade has witnessed a progressive ageing of the resident population in aged care facilities with an associated increase in dependency. For now, at least, and for the foreseeable future, this change is inexorable and progressive. Worryingly, the increasing demand for skilled care to meet higher levels of resident dependency has been accompanied by a progressive de-skilling of the aged care workforce. This is compounded by the fact that the aged care environment does not appear to offer strong career pathways for qualified staff, making recruitment and retention a significant problem. This raises questions about how we will ensure that increasingly dependent residents receive appropriately skilled care.
To support the transition of aged care facilities into the 21st Century we must create an environment that attracts leaders who will facilitate high performance cultures at a whole of organisation level. We need to develop formalised partnerships between universities and aged care organisations to establish a Teaching Aged Care Facilities Program that has the potential to provide:
The WDREC Teaching Aged Care Facilities Program is a partnership between
The project has three aims:
Stage 1 of the program involves undertaking a whole of organisation approach to developing a teaching aged care facility environment. This stage will comprise concurrently designing and implementing:
a new innovative and mentor based aged care facilities clinical placement program – the Evidence Based Best Practice Placement Model (EBBPM) of quality clinical placements in aged care - and
A model of organisational design and leadership to enable the successful implementation and embedding of EBBPM
Stage 2 will involve formalising a partnership between UTAS and the aged care partners to establish UTAS Teaching Aged Care Facilities. Our industry partners in this first phase of the project include the Queen Victoria Home Inc. and Masonic Peace Memorial Haven of Northern Tasmania Inc.