Disaster threatens the elderly: 40 percent of nurses could get out - study shows vicious circle

Created: 01/13/2022, 4:10 PM

New coalition, old problems: Hubertus Heil (right) and Olaf Scholz visiting a care facility in Berlin.

© Wolfgang Kumm / picture-alliance

(Almost) everyone wants to get old.

Care could then be necessary - but it is precisely in this area that a vicious circle threatens.

One study provides alarming figures.

Hanover - The times when old people were cared for in the family seem to be over in Germany - and where relatives look after relatives, the burden is often great. The result of a current study is all the more worrying. Because care for the elderly in Germany could experience a real flight of staff in the coming years. The reasons are poor pay, high workloads and too little time for those being looked after.

A study entitled “Care for the elderly in focus” shows: 40 percent of those surveyed are considering quitting their jobs.

Bernadette Klapper, Managing Director of the German Professional Association for Nursing Professions, presented these results on Thursday.

The expertise was initiated by her association together with the geriatric care specialist publisher Vincentz Network.

“That is alarming.

We need a turnaround in care for the elderly, ”said Klapper.

Specialists are already being sought desperately in some cases *.

Nursing misery in Germany: 500,000 workers too few by 2030?

Lack of time and bureaucracy hurt

For the study, a total of 686 employees in inpatient care were surveyed in August and September 2021. According to the specialist publisher, experts have calculated that around 500,000 nursing staff will be missing by 2030. 73 percent of those surveyed said that the shortage of staff had worsened in the past two years, in the middle of the corona pandemic *. In 2018, 71 percent said this. 68 (2018: 60) percent said it was becoming increasingly difficult to ensure good care. This is also due to the fact that there is too little time for the residents, said 67 (2018: 65) percent of those surveyed. 56 percent said new quality inspection rules created more bureaucracy.

The employees carried these worries home, because more than one or two people feel negative effects on family and private life, the study found.

In addition, the challenges and effects of the corona pandemic have been a burden for the past two years.

According to the information, 96 percent of those questioned did not even believe that politicians understood the situation and were trying to improve it.

Long-term care: Many think about change - a shortage of personnel scares existing and potential employees

According to the study, a total of 67 percent of respondents are planning a career change - either by upgrading their skills in nursing (41 percent), studying (14 percent) or switching to another employer (22 percent). According to an estimate of 90 percent of those surveyed, keeping more skilled workers in the care of the elderly or recruiting them can only succeed if more staff are employed. If it is not possible to improve staffing levels, the existing staff will not be retained - and potential additional staff will be deterred.

Klapper then called for a whole range of measures - more staff, better salaries and a reform of long-term care insurance.

According to the study, only 8 percent of those surveyed said that their salary had improved significantly in the past two years, while 38 percent said that the situation in nursing would only improve if nurses were paid better.

Currently, nurses are mostly female - and often work part-time, as official figures show *.

Care in a crisis: Expert criticizes private providers - patient representatives: "People in need of care cannot flee"

Herrmann Brandenburg, holder of the chair for gerontological care at the Vallendar University of Applied Sciences, emphasized that the problem is not just that caregivers earn too little. They also experienced the dilemma of a mismatch between what they understand by good care and the fact that they are controlled by others. In this context, he criticized private chains on the German market, claiming that there are often quality problems there. The private sector must be scaled back, he demanded. Recruiting abroad is also a "poor certificate". According to a study by the media service Integration, one in eight caregivers now comes from abroad.

The board of directors of the German Foundation for Patient Protection, Eugen Brysch, told the German Press Agency that more than two thirds of the elderly care workers doubted being able to guarantee good care.

“The victims of this misery are 820,000 nursing home residents and over a million people who are also cared for at home by an outpatient service,” says Brysch.

He called for a sustainable and attractive concept to keep people in the job: "It must also be clear that, unlike the skilled workers, those in need of care cannot escape their fate." (

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