On February 28, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the National Medical Insurance Administration issued the "Notice on the Promulgation of National Professional Standards for Health Nurses (Long-Term Care Practitioners)". This is my country's first national professional standard for long-term care nurses, which regulates the professional skill levels, vocational training requirements, and professional ethics of long-term care nurses.
As long-term caregivers become a new professional type of work, what changes will it bring to talent training in the elderly care industry? Can more young people be inspired to join the elderly care industry? Reporters from China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily interviewed this.
"Elderly care is the field of work that I plan to engage in for a long time." Wang Jiuda, a 22-year-old caregiver at Beijing Shohou Kangjian Yongan Elderly Care Co., Ltd., officially joined the company in June 2023 and has been working on the front line of elderly care for more than 9 months. He was very excited when he heard the news about the announcement of the national professional standards for long-term caregivers. “When the specific application arrangements are announced, I will definitely sign up and strive to get this new professional certificate as soon as possible.”
"Care work seems simple, but it is not easy to do it well."
Wang Jiuda won the second prize in the elderly care service skills competition of the vocational group in the 2022 National Vocational College Skills Competition. Although he is young, he has considerable experience in caring for the elderly. He said: "Care work seems simple, but it is not easy to do it well. Because each elderly person's physical condition is different, professional professional skills are required in the service, such as the strength to turn the elderly person over, and the bending of the elderly person's arms when dressing. All angles need to be accurately grasped. Compared with new employees and experienced caregivers, the gap can be seen at a glance."
According to the standards released this time, long-term care nurses refer to people who use basic life care and nursing knowledge and skills to provide basic life care and services to people who enjoy long-term care insurance benefits in homes, communities, nursing homes, medical institutions and other places. Practitioners of closely related medical care, functional maintenance, psychological care and other services.
Information from the National Medical Insurance Administration shows that my country’s long-term care insurance system launched a pilot program in 2016 and expanded the scope of the pilot cities in 2020. Currently, the insurance covers approximately 180 million people in 49 pilot cities across the country, with a total of more than 2.35 million people enjoying benefits. The cumulative fund expenditure exceeds 72 billion yuan. There are approximately 8,000 designated nursing institutions providing services and nearly 300,000 nursing staff. At the same time, there are more than 42 million disabled elderly people over the age of 60 in my country, and there is a serious shortage of professional and high-quality nursing service personnel, which seriously restricts the sustainable development of the long-term care insurance system.
The relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said that in order to speed up the cultivation of more professional, professional and standardized full-time long-term care insurance service personnel, the newly revised national occupational classification ceremony has specially established a new occupation type of long-term care nurse.
Long-term caregivers are complex talents who combine knowledge and skills.
The "Research Report on the High-Quality Development of China's Elderly Care Institutions in the Era of Longevity" jointly released by Beijing Taikang Yicai Charity Foundation and Beijing Normal University's China Philanthropy Research Institute in 2022 shows that, on the one hand, the construction and development of my country's elderly care institutions is showing strong momentum; On the one hand, elderly care institutions are also facing problems such as declining occupancy rates, lack of professional talents, and insufficient development capabilities. The report shows that there are 4.882 million beds in nursing homes in my country, about 2.224 million people are in the hospital, and the average occupancy rate of nursing homes is about 45.5%.
Sun Zhaoyuan, former director of nursing homes in Tianjin and member of the National Technical Committee for Standardization of Social Welfare Services, told reporters from China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily that there are 380 nursing homes in Tianjin with about 14,000 beds. Among them, Tianjin Nursing Home has a total of 850 beds. It is the largest and most comprehensive public nursing home in Tianjin. The elderly apartments are for the elderly who take care of themselves and semi-self-care, and the nursing homes are for the elderly who are disabled, mentally ill and semi-disabled. There are also geriatric hospitals.
Sun Zhaoyuan said that people with long-term disability have basically completely or partially lost their ability to live, accompanied by various life difficulties such as swallowing dysfunction, speech impairment, and movement disorders, and most of them are accompanied by chronic diseases.
"They all need professional care." Sun Zhaoyuan pointed out that there is a huge demand for front-line caregivers in nursing homes, but there are very few young people willing to work as front-line caregivers. Nursing staff in nursing homes in Tianjin are generally transported through cooperative labor agencies. Most of these nursing staff are in their forties or fifties. They only received some simple training before coming. Many of them learn and improve their nursing skills in the process of working.
The national standards for long-term care nurses released this time are clear: Long-term care nurses need to have the ability to provide basic daily care for disabled people and assist them to live a "decent" life; they need to have basic medical care knowledge and be able to detect problems in a timely manner and Emergency measures can be taken to help disabled people live a "safe" life; they need to have good moral literacy to help disabled people live a "dignified" life; they also need to know the basic knowledge of long-term care insurance, provide services as required, and ensure service quality.
"It can be seen that long-term caregivers are comprehensive talents who integrate professional knowledge and skills such as life care, medical care, health management, long-term care insurance, etc." Beijing Labor and Social Security Vocational College Smart Health Elderly Care Service and Management Professional Discipline The leader and associate professor Tan Lingfang pointed out in an interview with a reporter from China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily that long-term caregivers correspond to long-term care insurance, and long-term care insurance provides services to long-term residents who have reached a certain standard after disability assessment. Disabled persons require special attention during the training process of long-term caregivers.
Ma Qi, associate professor of smart health elderly care services and management at the School of Public Administration of Tianjin Vocational University, said that the skill requirements of the long-term caregiver profession are relatively high, and the professional functions include daily care, basic care, emergency response, functional maintenance, symptomatic care, disease care, Psychological care and other parts. Among them, disease care and psychological care are relatively new and challenging contents that require professional training and cannot be accomplished by enthusiasm alone. “In the process of providing home services to the elderly who enjoy long-term care insurance, professional long-term caregivers are particularly needed to provide better services,” she said.
How to further enhance the professional value of long-term care nurses
Since the State Council issued the "National Vocational Education Reform Implementation Plan" in 2019, many vocational colleges have carried out teaching reforms and actively aligned with the Ministry of Education's 1+X certificate system. Tan Lingfang introduced that the school's talent training program for students majoring in elderly care will be adjusted according to the latest occupation and position requirements, and will be in line with the company's new standards and new technologies. For example, there are related Boone Music Therapist strives to cultivate talents with one specialty and multiple abilities to be in line with the workplace in advance.
"The announcement of the professional standards for long-term caregivers has given the school a new direction for teaching, teaching and research. In the future, the school will further integrate new professions and new technologies, explore apprenticeship training and other models, promote the integration of industry and education, work and study, and cultivate high-quality long-term caregivers." Care talents." Tan Lingfang said that if these professionally trained students can obtain long-term caregiver certificates during college, they will not only increase their bargaining chips in finding jobs, but also inject youthful impetus into the career of long-term caregivers.
Jia Haiyu, the person in charge of Chunxuanmao (Beijing Yutingqiao) Senior Living Apartment, told reporters from China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily that she obtained the Beijing Senior Nursing Caregiver Certificate in 2017 and applied for it through the relevant welfare platform system within the nursing home in 2022. She received a job reward, and currently she receives a job reward of 1,000 yuan every month from the Civil Affairs System of Fengtai District, Beijing.
Jia Haiyu expects, “In the future, the evaluation of long-term care nurses can be linked to the personal subsidies issued by the government and to the social grade evaluation stars of enterprises. In this way, the professional content of long-term care nurses can be improved and more talents for elderly care can be attracted. Participate in training and obtain corresponding professional qualification certificates.”
Tan Lingfang introduced that Beijing Vocational College of Labor and Social Security is a socialized vocational skills appraisal point for occupations such as elderly care workers. The school will organize certificate examinations for students who graduate that year. Currently, the students are preparing to take the vocational skills assessment for intermediate aged care workers in May.
Qu Guanyin, director of the teaching and research office of the School of People's Livelihood and Welfare of Beijing Vocational College of Labor and Social Security, pointed out that front-line nursing staff still face many practical problems, including: low social status, low degree of specialization, low income and benefits, high labor intensity, long working hours, and psychological pressure. There are bottlenecks in career development. It is understood that more than half of front-line nursing staff with college degrees may change careers unless they can be promoted to a management position in their original unit or be transferred to a sales position.
Qu Guanyin believes that to solve the problem of talent shortage in the elderly care industry, in addition to launching elderly-related vocational skill level certificates and broadening career channels, it is also necessary to start from the source of talent supply and solve the problem of difficulty in recruiting smart health elderly care services and management majors. For example, adding elderly care majors to undergraduate programs, reducing tuition fees, etc. In addition, systematic incentive measures need to be formulated and implemented, such as entry subsidies, working life subsidies, etc.
China Youth Daily·China Youth Daily reporter Li Guijie Source: China Youth Daily