According to data from the Ministry of Civil Affairs, there are more than 2 million elderly people living in nursing homes across the country, but there are only more than 200,000 caregivers, and an average caregiver has to serve nearly 10 elderly people——
In 2015, Tianjin girl Ma Qi graduated from Zhejiang University with a master's degree in food safety. She gave up the opportunity to stay in school and entered Tianjin Vocational University to teach elderly nutrition and diet courses.
Talking about why she chose this way, she said: "The proportion of our country's aging population is increasing year by year, and the silver-haired economy will be a new growth point."
According to the seventh national census, the population of my country aged 60 and above is 264.02 million, accounting for 18.70% of the total population, an increase of 5.44 percentage points from 2010.
The huge population of elderly people has brought about a "blowout" development opportunity for the elderly care industry. At the same time, the shortage of talents in the elderly care service industry has become increasingly prominent.
In March last year, the Ministry of Civil Affairs released data showing that there are more than 2 million elderly people living in about 40,000 nursing homes across the country, but there are only 370,000 staff, of which there are only more than 200,000 real caregivers, and an average caregiver has to serve nearly 10 old people.
The shortage of professional talents is a common problem faced by various elderly care institutions
During the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" period, relevant departments of Tianjin have successively issued or revised 49 pension service policies including the "Implementation Opinions on Accelerating the Development of Pension Services", covering all aspects of home pension service subsidies, pension service evaluation, and liberalization of the pension service market. The pension service policy system was further improved.
As of the end of 2019, Tianjin had 364 elderly care institutions, 1,089 care centers (stations), 16 nurseries, and 72,000 elderly care beds of various types. The rate of medical institutions set up or contracted with medical institutions in elderly care institutions was 95.6%.
The reporter visited several elderly care institutions and found that the shortage and loss of elderly care service personnel is a common problem faced by all elderly care institutions.
Kangning Jinyuan is a larger elderly care institution in Tianjin. It started operating in 2015 and has more than 1,500 elderly people living in the park.
"Almost all nursing homes are short of people, and the inability to retain young professionals is a long-standing problem that has plagued the elderly care service industry." said Wang Liang, manager of the human resources department of Kangning Jinyuan. "Funding is not the main issue, high-quality talents. It is a key factor affecting the healthy development of the industry. Most of the previous practitioners are older, less educated, and lack professional skills. Now they finally have some corresponding majors. I will observe whether they love this during the student internship. The industry, whether it is practical and willing to work, this is my core condition for selecting and hiring talents."
Liu Xuefei is the deputy manager of the housekeeping department of Kangning Jinyuan in Tianjin. He has been engaged in the elderly care service industry for six or seven years.
In just a few years, she started as a housekeeper and was promoted to deputy manager with her outstanding performance.
Liu Xuefei said: “There are 111 frontline butler staff serving the elderly here. There are more than a dozen classmates who came to work with me, and most of them have left now.”
Liu Xuefei introduced that caring for the elderly requires someone to stick to their posts 24 hours a day, and it is normal to work 12 hours a day.
Hard work, what is the salary level?
It is understood that the current annual salary of grassroots employees in the elderly care industry is generally around 40,000 to 50,000 yuan, which is obviously not sufficiently attractive.
Professional development of elderly care workers
The "Tianjin Three-year Action Plan for Promoting the Development of Elderly Care Services (2019-2021)" requires the gradual expansion of the existing senior care majors, and the employment rate of graduates will reach more than 95% by 2021.
Ma Qi's Department of Social Management, School of Public Administration, Tianjin Vocational University, first enrolled students in 2010. The subjects studied at school include basic nursing, life care, psychological care for the elderly, rehabilitation nursing, nutrition and diet for the elderly, massage and health care. , TCM health preservation, operation and management of elderly care institutions, and social work for the elderly. The first batch of graduates took up their jobs in 2013.
In 2019, Tianjin Polytechnic University and Tianjin University of Technology jointly launched the elderly welfare and management major, which is the country's first senior undergraduate major. The average teacher has a master's degree or higher. They are all dual-qualified, aiming to cultivate senior management talents.
The addition of undergraduate majors is of great significance for improving the elder education discipline system and improving the talent pool and quality of the elderly care industry.
According to incomplete statistics, after the establishment of senior-related majors in Tianjin Vocational University, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin Medical College, Tianjin City Vocational College, Tianjin Modern Vocational and Technical College and other schools have successively opened services and management for the elderly, elderly nursing, and community Professional management and service.
Xuefei Liu believes that the most useful course she has studied in college is Psychology of the Aged.
Faced with elderly people with different personalities, she needs to have different coping plans.
Some old people are "old kids" who can mingle with other old people in nursing homes and have a rich entertainment life; some old people are withdrawn and just want to repeat his life experience with the caregiver over and over again. At this time, they need great Be patient and listen to the "brilliant deeds" of the elderly.
"Different from the great sense of accomplishment that doctors have achieved in treating illnesses and saving people, our task is more to allow the elderly to enjoy high-quality old age before they die." Wang Liang said, elderly caregivers will establish emotional connections with the elderly in their daily care. Will treat them as children, tell them what is on their minds, and care about their daily lives.
Faced with the separation of life and death, caregivers often have tremendous psychological pressure.
"The sudden death of the old man will have a great impact on you." Liu Xuefei said, nursing staff sometimes need to find a psychological counselor to relieve pressure.
Moreover, the elderly have rich life experience, generally with "death anxiety", and their mood is elusive. Caregivers are often overwhelmed by the requirements of the elderly.
Shi Wenchao is the first batch of senior graduates from Tianjin Polytechnic University. He is currently the director of the medical care center of R&F Yian·Tianjin Care Home for the Elderly.
He put his professional direction on the rehabilitation of the elderly.
Although I have studied rehabilitation courses in school, the rehabilitation methods need to be adjusted for elderly people of different ages and diseases.
When asked about the difference between nurses and doctors and nurses in rehabilitation, Shi Wenchao said: “We provide'big data' for doctors’ diagnosis. Usually, elderly people have some chronic diseases that require daily medication. We observe and record their conditions to provide To the doctor so that the doctor can adjust the treatment plan."
Carry out vocational training and expand the upward channel
Shi Wenchao's grandmother suffers from Alzheimer's disease. In order to prevent her from being lost, her grandmother was locked at home.
In order to let grandma enjoy a higher quality of life, Shi Wenchao resolutely applied for the senior service and management major.
Today, he is the only boy among his classmates who stays in the pension service industry.
Shi Wenchao introduced: “I entered the elderly care industry internship in 2013. At that time, most of the elderly care institutions were crowded and cramped, and most of the elderly sent to nursing homes could not take care of themselves.” Nowadays, integrated retirement apartments, nursing homes, hospitals, central kitchens, and rehabilitation Comprehensive elderly care institutions with physiotherapy centers, cultural entertainment and fitness facilities have become a new development direction, and elderly care institutions are constantly exploring and advancing on the road of integrated development of health services, medical services, and elderly services.
Social concepts are also an important reason for the shortage of personnel in the elderly service industry.
Yuan Xin, a professor at the Institute of Population and Development of Nankai University, said: "By 2050, the number of elderly people over 80 in my country will reach more than 100 million. There will be more and more empty-nest elderly and elderly people living alone. The demand for professional talents in elderly care services will increase. It is getting bigger and bigger. The word'nurse' and'nursing worker' are different, but the social reputation gap is not small, and the income needs to be improved."
The national "14th Five-Year Plan" clearly stated that it is necessary to "increase the training of senior care and nursing talents."
Only by letting the elderly care workers gain a sense of professional accomplishment in their work and creating a reasonable career development prospect can they provide a steady stream of talent reserves for the elderly care industry.
Wang Liang introduced: "We plan employees' careers at the beginning of their employment, and provide them with two career development paths. Technical post employees can get higher salary and benefits by obtaining higher professional and technician certificates. Grassroots employees can also participate in the management's work on their behalf, learn management experience, and then compete for higher management positions. Technical post employees and management employees enjoy the same treatment at the same level."
(Our reporter Liu Qian, Chen Jianqiang, our correspondent Tang Qingjie)