Manpower biggest issue in meeting new nursing home standards

SINGAPORE — Nursing homes Channel NewsAsia spoke with say lack of manpower is the biggest issue they face following the introduction of the new enhanced nursing home standards this month.

The Government implemented the standards in April 2015 to ensure that seniors receive consistent quality care.

Over 90 per cent of nursing homes have participated in a voluntary baseline assessment by the Agency for Integrated Care to identify potential areas for improvements to meet the new standards.

The new standards are divided into three aspects — clinical areas such as pain management and advanced care planning, social aspects like dignity of care and psychosocial well-being, and the area of governance such as staff training and emergency preparedness.

Man Fut Tong Nursing Home underwent the assessment last year. It has since taken steps to improve care in areas such as monitoring patients for acute pain and providing oral care services, but the nursing home says this can be a challenge due to a lack of manpower. It has had to overcome this by beefing up training for staff.

“Even though we do not have enough manpower, by changing the mindset of the people — not doing your job, but providing a service, the purpose of being here — putting in all the soft skills, they know that even though there is insufficient manpower, they will learn to cope and work as a team,” said Ms Christina Loh, director of nursing at Man Fut Tong Nursing Home.

Ms Loh says the nursing home is mostly prepared with the new standards with more work needed in the areas of capability building and aligning processes.

The enhanced nursing home standards will be enforced after a one year grace period. While some nursing homes say this deadline is sufficient, there are others who feel that it may be a bit of a rush, as it takes time for the standards to be implemented on the ground.

The Health Ministry has said if there are severe breaches at the nursing homes, the admission of patients could be suspended or licences revoked.

MORE TIME NEEDED

United Medicare Centre executive director Huang Jiahan says an extension of the grace period by another ten months will allow all staff to be fully trained in how to implement the standards.

“You write the best policy but people on the ground are going to maintain and sustain that standard, so without all these capable healthcare professionals to help implement things on the ground, I think that would be a bigger challenge than actually implementing these standards itself,” said Mr Huang.

The standards also apply to areas like incontinence care. “Last time, you put on a diaper and then that is it,” said Mr Huang. Now if you want to have that standard you have to take off the diaper, you have to monitor when he or she goes to the toilet, how many times, intake, outtake. That process itself, already involves a lot more staff to help, to effectively implement that.

Nonetheless, nursing homes Channel NewsAsia spoke with say the new standards will ensure that care is patient-centred. CHANNEL NEWSASIA