1st of all, Zorgnet Icuro is not only “warning of the aging”… that could sound like if the improvement in our life expectancy could be kind of a danger… Honestly, that looks more like a clickbait…
Instead, following the actual words of the director of the healthcare organization, she is actually warning because each year there is less and less healthcare workers, and they wont be able to cope.
​
>*”We now have about 210,000 people over the age of 85 in Flanders,” she says in “The appointment”. “By 2036, there will be almost 300,000. This means that there will be 50 percent more people over the age of 85. In addition,* ***the number of healthcare workers is decreasing. That is why we fear that we are heading for a healthcare infarction****. If we continue like this, we cannot take care of all those people.”*
>
>*According to Cloet, the staff shortage is the biggest challenge. “****The biggest concern of managements of hospitals, residential care centers and home nursing services is that they cannot find staff.*** *Eight out of ten hospitals in Flanders are phasing out activities because they cannot find staff. For example, geriatric departments are already closing and there are patient stops at GPs.”*
​
According to the laws of “supply and demand”, the wage and conditions of nurses would have to rise to attract enough people to fill the need. Why that is not happening?
Instead, could it be that the very hard work of a nurse is not so well paid, in accordance with the dedication, the social relevance and the “market” need? Are companies making profit while exploiting the hard work of healthcare workers?
I have a profound admiration for the nurses, especially the ones that take care of the old people.
IMO, their vocation and demanding profession should be better rewarded, especially if it is a social need; after all, most of us will need care in the future.
With recent IFIC reforms, at 10 years of experience, you get 4746.66 gross, not taking into account special titles and weekend/night bonuses. It’s about 1200 more than an admin job at the same hospital. What would a fair wage be for this type of work? I’ve no clue.
I assume it’s more about available budget for hospitals than anything else, or at least where the budget goes to. The way hospitals are getting funded completely counters a doctor’s way of earning as much as possible. Definitely lacks efficiency.
Natuurlijk gaat er niks gebeuren.
Is nu al soort van een “crisis” hoor, al jaren personeelstekorten e.d. En dan het zoveelste pleidooi om “het beroep aantrekkelijker te maken, betere loonsvoorwaarden, minder wekdruk, blablabla” in Terzake.
Je zal maar heel je leven je kloten afdraaien om je laatste jaren te slijten voor tv met een vuile pamper. Hoogtepunt van de dag is blokken en den dessert na het avondeten.
Meanwhile, more and more elder care facilities are bought up by real estate investment firms to then be rented out to local communities, because certainly that’s not going to cause any issues.
Ze heeft gelijk, aan de andere kant hebben ze de 3jarige bachelor opleiding voor verpleegkundigen veranderd naar 4j !
4 jaren….
Voor een bachelor.
Wil je spoed en intensieve verpleegkundige zijn moet je 4j +1j(spoed)+1j(intensieve) studeren: 6j studeren!
Voorheen was dat 3j+1j(spoed+intensieve)
Er starten nu amper 30 nieuwe studenten/schooljaar per hogeschool.
Waarvan misschien de helft afstudeerd.
Ik denk dat ze de komende verpleegkundige tekorten nog zwaar onderschatten.
Maybe we could try to attract professionals from abroad? Is there nowhere with too many nurses? More pay is also a great idea- especially since there doesn’t seem to be a lack of money to pay medical specialists, etc.
But we do need *more* people overall.
I can attest these worries because i work as a nurse myself in a care-home. Covid definitely accelerated these understaffing problems, because 5 years ago it felt like we had too many people working at my workplace.
Currently we survive because of interims and jobstudenten. Our staffing is basically “weekenddienst” the entire week, and it feels like you only have time to do the essential stuff. As a nurse at our home, sometimes you are responsible for up to 60 residents per shift, and most of the time you also have to juggle alot of administration, doctor visits, family calls etc.
I remember a time that was not that long ago (5 years), that it was next to impossible to get a voltijdse as a zorgkundige (80% max), much less a vast contract. At the moment, everybody gets a voltijdse and a vast contract. The moment you show them your “zorgkundige visum”, they hire you. It goes as far as hiring people with known chronic backproblems who will be on sick leave for 2/3 of the year. Also alot of people jobhopping, and listing some insane demands when they come to apply for a nursing job.
Alot of my nursing colleagues are also on longterm sickleave for up to a year , ranging from burnouts, backproblems etc. These people also don’t get replaced because they can’t find anyone.
Looking at the future, no way in hell we’ll be prepared. There’s a big wave of retirements coming that is already starting, and the incoming workforce wave is very small. They made a bachelor Nursing 4 years instead of 3 (because of Bologna), where in the final year you basically work fulltime for free. Why would anyone wanna study nursing, unless they feel it their calling? Payment is o.k. i guess, but remember you gotta work on holidays, weekends, nights… and alot of overtime.
I hope this warning will gain some traction, but i doubt anything major will happen before next years elections.
As someone who transitioned from troubled youth care to another sector, I can confidently state that I am never going back.
Working in the care sector involved 5 different shifts, irregular workweeks, physical and psychological violence, being confronted with things like rape, drugs, sexual abuse, self-harm, suicide attempts, etc.
My current job is 9-5 and while it is undoubtedly a challenging career, I get faced with none of the above.
*Can you guess which job pays better?*
Sorry if this might sound a bit too negative but maybe a solution to this can be to stop forcing people to be alive so long.
In my direct family/social circle I know multiple people with parents/grandparents who are “forced” to stay alive since it is almost impossible to get euthanasia once your mental capacity starts declining. My own great-grandmother died a few weeks ago and in every talk I had with her for what felt like the last 10 years had a sad undertone since she physically could no longer do things herself and was unhappy to be in a nursing home, same with my grandfather who is declining more and more the last few years and as a family we can only watch him suffer.
If your pet starts to suffer and gets to a point where there is no longer hope for a good, fulfilling life we are willing to put them down.
Why can we not offer our human friends and family the same comfort? I have a very good bond with my grandfather, and I will miss him a lot. But I do not wish to see him suffer like this for the next years.
Worked in hospitals as a security guard for 3 years, when I left I had so much more respect for nurses etc…every damn day I had to kick out or berate people because they just can’t behave like a normal person to people that are trying to take care of them. Yes some nurses have developed a bad attitude or are demotivated and give bad care but that’s no reason to be an ass to every single nurse.
Glad I’m out, told every nurse I knew they’re damn nuts to do what they do for such a miserable pay and barely any benefits. My gf is a nurse, nothing changed 🙂 I encourage her to do jobhopping and ask for a raise every time she does, at least she gets paid a tad better now.
10 comments
1st of all, Zorgnet Icuro is not only “warning of the aging”… that could sound like if the improvement in our life expectancy could be kind of a danger… Honestly, that looks more like a clickbait…
Instead, following the actual words of the director of the healthcare organization, she is actually warning because each year there is less and less healthcare workers, and they wont be able to cope.
​
>*”We now have about 210,000 people over the age of 85 in Flanders,” she says in “The appointment”. “By 2036, there will be almost 300,000. This means that there will be 50 percent more people over the age of 85. In addition,* ***the number of healthcare workers is decreasing. That is why we fear that we are heading for a healthcare infarction****. If we continue like this, we cannot take care of all those people.”*
>
>*According to Cloet, the staff shortage is the biggest challenge. “****The biggest concern of managements of hospitals, residential care centers and home nursing services is that they cannot find staff.*** *Eight out of ten hospitals in Flanders are phasing out activities because they cannot find staff. For example, geriatric departments are already closing and there are patient stops at GPs.”*
​
According to the laws of “supply and demand”, the wage and conditions of nurses would have to rise to attract enough people to fill the need. Why that is not happening?
Instead, could it be that the very hard work of a nurse is not so well paid, in accordance with the dedication, the social relevance and the “market” need? Are companies making profit while exploiting the hard work of healthcare workers?
I have a profound admiration for the nurses, especially the ones that take care of the old people.
IMO, their vocation and demanding profession should be better rewarded, especially if it is a social need; after all, most of us will need care in the future.
With recent IFIC reforms, at 10 years of experience, you get 4746.66 gross, not taking into account special titles and weekend/night bonuses. It’s about 1200 more than an admin job at the same hospital. What would a fair wage be for this type of work? I’ve no clue.
I assume it’s more about available budget for hospitals than anything else, or at least where the budget goes to. The way hospitals are getting funded completely counters a doctor’s way of earning as much as possible. Definitely lacks efficiency.
Natuurlijk gaat er niks gebeuren.
Is nu al soort van een “crisis” hoor, al jaren personeelstekorten e.d. En dan het zoveelste pleidooi om “het beroep aantrekkelijker te maken, betere loonsvoorwaarden, minder wekdruk, blablabla” in Terzake.
Je zal maar heel je leven je kloten afdraaien om je laatste jaren te slijten voor tv met een vuile pamper. Hoogtepunt van de dag is blokken en den dessert na het avondeten.
Meanwhile, more and more elder care facilities are bought up by real estate investment firms to then be rented out to local communities, because certainly that’s not going to cause any issues.
Ze heeft gelijk, aan de andere kant hebben ze de 3jarige bachelor opleiding voor verpleegkundigen veranderd naar 4j !
4 jaren….
Voor een bachelor.
Wil je spoed en intensieve verpleegkundige zijn moet je 4j +1j(spoed)+1j(intensieve) studeren: 6j studeren!
Voorheen was dat 3j+1j(spoed+intensieve)
Er starten nu amper 30 nieuwe studenten/schooljaar per hogeschool.
Waarvan misschien de helft afstudeerd.
Ik denk dat ze de komende verpleegkundige tekorten nog zwaar onderschatten.
Maybe we could try to attract professionals from abroad? Is there nowhere with too many nurses? More pay is also a great idea- especially since there doesn’t seem to be a lack of money to pay medical specialists, etc.
But we do need *more* people overall.
I can attest these worries because i work as a nurse myself in a care-home. Covid definitely accelerated these understaffing problems, because 5 years ago it felt like we had too many people working at my workplace.
Currently we survive because of interims and jobstudenten. Our staffing is basically “weekenddienst” the entire week, and it feels like you only have time to do the essential stuff. As a nurse at our home, sometimes you are responsible for up to 60 residents per shift, and most of the time you also have to juggle alot of administration, doctor visits, family calls etc.
I remember a time that was not that long ago (5 years), that it was next to impossible to get a voltijdse as a zorgkundige (80% max), much less a vast contract. At the moment, everybody gets a voltijdse and a vast contract. The moment you show them your “zorgkundige visum”, they hire you. It goes as far as hiring people with known chronic backproblems who will be on sick leave for 2/3 of the year. Also alot of people jobhopping, and listing some insane demands when they come to apply for a nursing job.
Alot of my nursing colleagues are also on longterm sickleave for up to a year , ranging from burnouts, backproblems etc. These people also don’t get replaced because they can’t find anyone.
Looking at the future, no way in hell we’ll be prepared. There’s a big wave of retirements coming that is already starting, and the incoming workforce wave is very small. They made a bachelor Nursing 4 years instead of 3 (because of Bologna), where in the final year you basically work fulltime for free. Why would anyone wanna study nursing, unless they feel it their calling? Payment is o.k. i guess, but remember you gotta work on holidays, weekends, nights… and alot of overtime.
I hope this warning will gain some traction, but i doubt anything major will happen before next years elections.
As someone who transitioned from troubled youth care to another sector, I can confidently state that I am never going back.
Working in the care sector involved 5 different shifts, irregular workweeks, physical and psychological violence, being confronted with things like rape, drugs, sexual abuse, self-harm, suicide attempts, etc.
My current job is 9-5 and while it is undoubtedly a challenging career, I get faced with none of the above.
*Can you guess which job pays better?*
Sorry if this might sound a bit too negative but maybe a solution to this can be to stop forcing people to be alive so long.
In my direct family/social circle I know multiple people with parents/grandparents who are “forced” to stay alive since it is almost impossible to get euthanasia once your mental capacity starts declining. My own great-grandmother died a few weeks ago and in every talk I had with her for what felt like the last 10 years had a sad undertone since she physically could no longer do things herself and was unhappy to be in a nursing home, same with my grandfather who is declining more and more the last few years and as a family we can only watch him suffer.
If your pet starts to suffer and gets to a point where there is no longer hope for a good, fulfilling life we are willing to put them down.
Why can we not offer our human friends and family the same comfort? I have a very good bond with my grandfather, and I will miss him a lot. But I do not wish to see him suffer like this for the next years.
Worked in hospitals as a security guard for 3 years, when I left I had so much more respect for nurses etc…every damn day I had to kick out or berate people because they just can’t behave like a normal person to people that are trying to take care of them. Yes some nurses have developed a bad attitude or are demotivated and give bad care but that’s no reason to be an ass to every single nurse.
Glad I’m out, told every nurse I knew they’re damn nuts to do what they do for such a miserable pay and barely any benefits. My gf is a nurse, nothing changed 🙂 I encourage her to do jobhopping and ask for a raise every time she does, at least she gets paid a tad better now.