Nursing and healthcare guide
What are the aged care care minute targets, and what do they mean for my roster?
Residential aged care providers must deliver required direct care minutes to residents, including care delivered by registered nurses. The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing sets a sector wide average of 215 care minutes and 44 registered nurse minutes per resident per day, and each home has its own target based on its residents. In practice the target turns every unfilled RN line into a compliance problem, not just a roster gap.
What counts
Care minutes are the direct care delivered by registered nurses, enrolled nurses and personal care workers. The registered nurse minutes are reported separately, which is why RN vacancies hurt twice: they pull the total down and the RN figure down at the same time. Agency cover counts, but it is expensive and it does not build the continuity that residents and families notice.
What it does to hiring
Homes now recruit against a number that is published. A Care Manager or Director of Nursing who can hold a stable RN roster is worth more than one who cannot, and permanent RN and EN lines in Sydney, Brisbane and regional New South Wales are being filled faster and at better rates than two years ago. Lily sees the strongest demand for RNs willing to take a permanent night or weekend line, and for Care Managers who have run a home through a compliance visit.
How we check before a nurse reaches you
AHPRA registration checked for validity, scope and conditions at intake and tracked for renewal. National Police Check current. Working With Children Check where the setting needs it. Immunisation evidence to the standard the facility sets. Right to work and ID verified. References taken before a nurse is put forward. Lily reads every file herself.