As of: February 5, 2024, 7:34 a.m
By: Katrin Woitsch
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Press
Split
Politicians have long announced that they will reduce bureaucracy in nursing.
But you hardly notice it on site, reports a home manager from Unterföhring.
Dorothea Homann heads the senior center in Unterföhring in the Munich district.
There, 68 residents are cared for by 65 employees.
There are currently two nursing positions vacant.
It is difficult to find new employees, says Homann.
Without forces from abroad it would no longer work for a long time.
But that means a lot of bureaucracy.
Nursing assistants are important for caring for seniors - and will be needed even more in the future.
© Werner Krueper
How important are nursing staff from abroad for your retirement home?
Homann:
Very important.
Without them it doesn't work.
Of our 65 employees, 20 come from Germany.
The others have 28 nationalities.
Everyone has been with us for a long time.
Politicians have tried to simplify the hiring of foreign nursing staff with the Skilled Immigration Act and the Fast Lane. Do you feel that?
Homann:
I don't notice anything about it.
Just the other day I had a case that I can only shake my head about.
A woman from Bosnia completed a one-year training course to become a nursing assistant in Bavaria.
She then applied for a job with us.
I needed her immediately and wanted to hire her on November 1st.
But she did not receive any declarations of consent because Bosnia is not an EU country.
In addition, the justification was that nursing assistants were not in short supply.
Are nursing assistants just as important to you as the specialists?
Homann:
Yes, they always have been.
In particular, nursing assistants with one-year training have become more important - due to the new staffing limit that has been in place since July.
There is still a transition period until the end of 2025. We still have a skilled worker quota of 50 percent in our facility.
The other 50 percent are nursing assistants.
But most are unskilled.
You have experience but have not completed the one-year training course.
Until now this wasn't necessary.
Due to the change in the law, I will need 25 percent trained nursing assistants in the future, but the proportion of nursing specialists will be smaller.
But there are not enough trained helpers on the market.
That would have been the woman from Bosnia.
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Dorothea Homann, home manager in Unterföhring © private
What do the nursing assistants do?
Homann:
You support the nursing staff in their daily work.
They accompany and look after the seniors, including helping with personal hygiene, dressing and undressing or going to the toilet.
However, you are not allowed to provide treatment care.
So don't inject insulin, check your blood pressure or blood sugar or give medication.
In the future, long-term employees without one year of nursing assistant training will no longer be allowed to carry out these tasks.
This will be difficult to explain.
Many are not prepared to do another training course.
If we do not have any trained nursing assistants available until the end of the transition period, the new staffing will not relieve the burden on nursing staff - on the contrary.
What would you like to see from politics?
Homann:
Less bureaucracy – it is still the big problem.
Don't just talk, do it too!
Foreign nurses must fill out forms every year to get a work permit extension.
This could really be simplified.
How did you find your nursing staff from abroad?
Homann:
There was a recruitment campaign in Bosnia many years ago.
After that, it was word of mouth.
We are currently working with a Romanian agency and are trying out social media.
How smoothly does it work with foreign nursing staff in everyday life?
Homann:
Unfortunately there are often language problems.
Especially if people have only recently come to Germany.
Some nurses speak to each other in their native language.
This is not pleasant for the residents.
We offer language courses to foreign staff and adjust the roster accordingly.
We also help you find accommodation.
We have eleven staff apartments and would like to rent more to make them available to new employees.
A nursing assistant who earns 2,000 euros net cannot afford rent of 1,500 euros.
The shortage of nursing staff will become even greater in the future...
Homann:
I have been a care home manager in geriatric care since 2010, and even then people warned about the shortage of skilled workers.
Hardly anything has happened since then.
It is important that employees feel comfortable and enjoy tackling these challenging tasks every day.
This is where I am challenged as an employer.
Will geriatric care benefit from the new general studies training?
Homann:
I don't think so.
Hospitals in particular will benefit.
The image of geriatric care needs to be improved.
It's a great job with a future in which you also have great opportunities for advancement as a woman.
Unfortunately, people talk about it in far too negative terms.
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