my wife has worked in age care for 20 years and I find that hard to believe

Mum was in a nursing home for five years, up until she died last year. She had a shower daily, at a set time, of her choosing. She used to have it at around 10am. She was immobile & it took two carers to shower her. She received excellent care for the five years. I'd think there would be health & hygiene regulations in place to cover that type of thing. Cheers Pete

Sue has also worked in aged care they should shower them every day max second day

Yes my friends husband is in a nursing home and has to pay extra for daily shower . Rules change very often so what was the case last year my not be the case now .

wife and I are doing our Carers courses at the moment and the norm is daily.

Once a week is a major issue and puts the patient at risk of infection, not to mention the smell of the place if everyone is only showered once a week - wouldnt be good for prospective customers or relatives visiting to check the facility out and be assailed by the odour

I work for Qld Health and asked a mate in State run aged care what the norm was. He said A mobile patient was every day and a bed bound patient was every two to three days. However the patient had to have a thorough bed bath on the off days.
If the patient is in a private home the staffing may not allow more frequent washes and at present there is no staffing model that applies to nursing homes, i.e. there is no minimum number of staff to patient so in theory one "carer" could be expected to look after ten, twenty or more patients.
The unions are presently fighting to have staffing levels brought in, this is for staff and patient safety.

Hope this helps you.

Allan

I read in the Melbourne Age newspaper a few weeks back that aged care profits grew by 40% last year. Low staffing levels contributed to that. Patient/staff ratios have dropped to alarming levels. The number of actual nursing hours per patient in Australia has dropped below the recommended level in the US. As with most things these days it boils down to greed.

My mum has a shower daily in her Nursing Home

DD. There is such a shortage of aged care workers (that nurses and carers), especially in NSW where they think theyre short by over 3000 staff, that the Federal Senate is running and enquiry when they return to "work" this year on how to attract and retain staff.

The problem is many nurses in the aged care system are over worked and many return to general hospital work where the pressure is off them and they often also get paid better. The rates of pay for Carers is low - the average rate is $19.38 an hour, so it often pulls young people who need work and then they leave for something better when they find it.

The Senate committee has already had some ground work done and worked out that staffing conditions and pay will have to be increased to attract more people who will work in the sector.

We do it because theres a national shortage of work and we can pick up work almost anywhere in Aust on our travels when we need it and we do enjoy working with most of the patients

So, what are the nursing homes spending the money they get from the "inmates"???? Not carers that is for sure.