Respite care

There are fears a shortage of nurses in aged care is having an impact on residents being able to access medication, with one nurse claiming it is resulting ...

She says there needs to be a rebuilding of "Compassionate Communities … that is physically impossible to do, so I would prioritise by who would complain the least. "If we are to have quality of life and quality of death, the community and palliative care services need to work in partnership." She said the aim should be to provide respite care for older palliative patients in aged care facilities. "That allows the carers of older adults to have time to rest and look after their own needs for a while," she said. "Furthermore, not only do we need to address the current shortfall, we need to increase workforce supply into the future to meet growth in demand for aged care services," Mr Symondson said. "The impact of the pandemic, the loss of workers from the sector and the financial strain being felt by a majority of aged care providers has meant the situation is even worse." "I am in so much pain in the morning, I am unable to function." "I would have … "In aged care homes, we would get everyone's medications out and put them on a trolley because we didn't have time individually to go between that cupboard where the medications were held and the residents' room. But she was shocked to be told that there would not be enough nurses on duty to dispense her pain medication on a four-hourly basis. - Palliative patient *Leah was told there would not be enough nurses to dispense her regular pain medication when she was in an aged care home for respite