Staff burnout has been identified as an important issue following our discussions with the aged care sector and the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (ACQSC). Burnout is the experience of feeling exhausted, ineffective, and mentally distanced from work. Staff working in aged care face specific challenges which may increase the risk of burnout. They were adversely impacted throughout the COVID-19 pandemic by having to work long hours, keep residents/clients and their own families infection-free, enforce distressing social interaction restrictions, all while keeping up to date with new regulations and public health information that changed daily.
Understanding what can support aged care staff and services to remain healthy and productive is critical to stem the problems of staff job satisfaction and maintaining a workforce adequate to provide high-quality care.
The Knowledge and Implementation Hub has gathered evidence of approaches and best practice relating to staff burnout, along with learning and practical resources to support the aged care sector. This involved:
- A scoping review of the research to identify issues existing pre-pandemic as well as COVID-19 specific factors.
- An environmental scan of online resources for aged care, as well as a search for exemplar approaches and resources from related industries. Relevant, high-quality resources were then added to the Resources collection.
- A review of tools and scales relating to staff burnout.
This new topic has just been released on the Knowledge and Implementation Hub.
Round 4 of our Grants Program is now open, and we encourage applications from organisations that have a project that can increase retention of the aged care workforce by addressing staff burnout.
You can read the evidence for all our Aged Care Topics find a resource that is relevant to your setting and scope of practice. We also welcome feedback and additions to our resources so please get in touch with us at kih@ariia.org.au
