As more than 10,12 people annually quit their jobs to care for family members or nurse them, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) held a labor-management council meeting on the <>th to discuss a new support system to prevent nursing care turnover.
table of contents
Trends in "nursing care turnover"
Parties who leave their jobs as caregivers: "Isolated from society, not recommended"
Some companies have started to take measures
Support Center "Dissemination of the system and a work environment where consultation is important"
Open Table of Contents
table of contents
table of contents
Trends in "nursing care turnover"
Parties who leave their jobs as caregivers: "Isolated from society, not recommended"
Some companies have started to take measures
Support Center "Dissemination of the system and a work environment where consultation is important"
According to a survey by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, the number of people working while providing nursing care was about 365.10 million last year, an increase of more than 70,10 in the past 6000 years, and the number of people who "leave nursing care" has risen to about 12,6 per year according to a survey conducted last year.
The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) began discussions on the revision of the Child Care and Family Care Leave Act on May <> in order to prevent employees from leaving their jobs for nursing care.
Based on a report compiled by a study group of experts from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in June, as a new measure required of companies, employees who have requested nursing care should be individually informed of support systems such as nursing care leave and nursing care leave, and their intentions should be confirmed. Opinions were exchanged on making efforts obligatory for people who work while providing nursing care to make it possible for them to use the telework system.
The committee members in attendance commented, "Training for managers in particular is necessary because nursing care leave can only be taken with the understanding of superiors," and "I would like to see that people who offer nursing care should not be asked to transfer to a department where telework is possible if they are obliged to make efforts while there are occupations and business categories that cannot telework." There was an opinion.
The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) will continue discussions at the council and aim to submit a bill to revise the law at next year's ordinary session of the Diet.
Trends in "nursing care turnover"
According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, the number of people
who quit their jobs to care for family members or nursing continued to decline from
2007,14 in 5000 to 2012,10 in 1000
to
2017,9 in 9000. Last year and 2022, the number of people increased to 10,6000.
What is the support system for balancing work and nursing care?
A support system to prevent turnover and balance work and nursing care is established in the Child Care and Family Care Leave Act.
"Nursing care leave" can be taken for up to 1 days per family member and can be divided into up to three times in order to establish a system for balancing work and nursing care, such as arranging nursing care services when faced with family care.
During this period, about two-thirds of your wages will be paid nursing care leave.
"Nursing care leave" can be taken on an hourly basis, five days per year per eligible family member for visiting the hospital of a family member in need of nursing care.
In addition, there is a system for shortened working hours and exemption from overtime.
11.5% use of the system Issues with dissemination and consultation system
According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, only 2022.11% of those who work while providing nursing care in a 5 survey used nursing care leave or nursing care leave.
In a survey conducted by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in 2021 commissioned by the private sector, when multiple respondents were asked what kind of initiatives they could have taken in the workplace before leaving their jobs to provide nursing care,
55.1% said they were "individual awareness of the support system" and
33.7% said "establishment of a consultation desk."
"Training on the support system" accounted for 31.7%,
indicating that there are issues with disseminating information about the system and the consultation system.
As for the reasons for
quitting their jobs, 43.4% said that they had problems with their employer's work-life balance support system or that it was difficult to take nursing care leave, and 30.2% said that they could not use long-term care insurance services and disability welfare services,
or did not know how to use them.
The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) has decided to discuss issues such as disseminating information on support systems individually at a council made up of experts so that they can select the necessary systems, and requesting companies to hold training and set up consultation desks.
Parties who leave their jobs as caregivers: "Isolated from society, not recommended"
A man in Kumamoto City who left his job as a caregiver to care for his wife with younger-onset dementia said, "It was good to be close to my wife from an early stage, but I don't recommend leaving nursing care."
Masami Sugiyama (69), who lives in Minami-ku, Kumamoto City, was 55 years old when his wife, Nobuko, was diagnosed with younger-onset dementia.
At the time, Mr. Sugiyama was working as a manager in the sales department of a confectionery manufacturer, and spent his days visiting local department stores and large supermarkets while organizing about 20 subordinates.
However, Nobuko's symptoms gradually progressed, and incidents began to occur, such as forgetting to eat the lunch that Sugiyama prepared before going to work.
Mr. Sugiyama became worried about his wife and gradually became unable to concentrate on his work.
Ms. Sugiyama had lived solely on her work until she began nursing care and had never thought about retiring, but two months have passed since her diagnosis without being able to consult with anyone, and she says that she began to feel limited in both physical strength and energy in balancing work and nursing care.
At that time, there was a "nursing care leave" system, but Mr. Sugiyama did not know about the system and the company he worked for did not inform him of the system, so Mr. Sugiyama thought it would be difficult to continue working and decided to quit his job without using the nursing care leave system.
Mr. Sugiyama said, "It was good to be close to my wife from an early stage, but when I left my job as a caregiver, I was cut off from society and became isolated. Nursing care turnover" should be chosen at the last minute when there is no other way to go, and if anyone is unsure, I cannot recommend it. I couldn't use systems such as nursing care leave because there was no information at my time, so I hope that the system will become more widely known in the future and that it will become an option that everyone knows about and can choose when they want to use it."
Some companies have started to take measures
Some companies have started taking measures after an employee who has worked for many years wanted to leave their nursing care job.
In March, Koichi Abe, president of Brain Works Co., Ltd., an advertising company in Aoba-ku, Sendai, was suddenly told by a long-time employee that he wanted to quit due to family care.
Mr. Abe's company has 3 employees, and although he thought he had been actively communicating with them, he didn't realize that he had been cornered until he thought about leaving his job due to nursing care.
The company's work regulations had a provision for nursing care leave, but I had never used it before, and at first I had no idea of using the system.
Mr. Abe contacted the Nursing Care Turnover Consultation Center, which accepts consultations from companies, to see if there was a way for valuable employees to continue working without quitting.
When a professional counselor interviewed the employee who had requested to leave the company and the president to sort out the situation, it was found that the employee liked his job and did not want to quit if possible, although he thought that the stress of nursing care would not bother the company any more.
After that, the consultation center intervened between the company and the employees and proposed countermeasures, reduced the number of working days for employees from five days a week to three, and established a system that allows employees to work and provide nursing care with peace of mind, so that employees who have requested to leave are still able to continue working.
President Abe said, "When the company listens, they listen to what they are saying, thinking that they should not quit, and it is easy to become pressured. I'm really glad that I had a third party come in and sort it out, and after that, I started to make positive proposals in my work. While labor shortages are an issue, we must avoid losing human resources due to nursing care, and I think it is the role of the president to create a system that makes it easy to work according to the circumstances of the current members."
Koichi Sato, who once offered to leave his job as a caregiver, said, "I used to advise people that talking to them would make it easier, but when it came to me, I couldn't talk to the company, and when I decided to leave, I was frustrated every day due to stress and was cornered in a state where I didn't think about anything. I would like to continue to do so while balancing nursing care."
Support Center "Dissemination of the system and a work environment where consultation is important"
The Support Center for Preventing Turnover in Nursing Care in Sendai City receives about 300 consultations a year, mainly from companies, about leaving nursing care.
One of the trends in consultations received at the center is that caregivers find it difficult to talk to those around them about their family problems, find it difficult to confide in their superiors and colleagues about their nursing care concerns, and often have already made up their mind to leave their jobs when they report to the company.
In addition, many companies include items of nursing care leave and nursing care leave in their work rules based on the Child Care and Family Care Leave Act, but among the companies that consult with the center, in addition to the fact that employees are not aware of the system, there are cases where there is no precedent for the company to use nursing care leave or nursing care leave. The current situation is that it is not well known enough to be used immediately in an emergency.
Kazuomi Sato, the representative of the center, said, "Even if a company has a system, it cannot be used unless employees understand it, so I think it will be important to make the system known and to have a work environment where employees can feel free to consult with us. In addition, when taking nursing care leave or vacation, if you use up that period just by providing nursing care, you will only postpone turnover, so it is necessary to support how to create an environment where employees can balance work and nursing care during their leave."