Like many other European countries, Austria will be facing a sharp increase in the demand for health and care professionals in future years. At the same time, the attractiveness of the nursing and care professions is stagnating. To make the nursing and caring professions more attractive and to strengthen health and care professionals and family carers, the Austrian parliament adopted a EUR 1 billion reform package for nursing and long-term care (LTC) on 14 July 2022. The reform aims to improve training of nurses and LTC professionals, working conditions and caring situations of LTC recipients and caring relatives. It covers 20 measures which are grouped in three areas:
- training of nurses and LTC professionals
- working conditions in nursing and LTC, and
- improvements regarding the situation of people in need of LTC and caring relatives.
Training of nurses and LTC professionals
The reform foresees strong investment in training of nursing professions. There will be a federal training subsidy of at least EUR 600 per month for the entire training period for those who are doing their first training in a caring profession. A nursing scholarship for those switching (or switching back) to the nursing profession of up to EUR 1 400 will be funded by the Austrian Employment Agency. Besides vocational schools there will be a second way of qualification, the so-called Care Apprenticeship (Pflegelehre) which initially will be planned as a pilot project. In addition, caring relatives who attain short term courses for home care will receive a State contribution. Finally, the recognition of training acquired in non-EU countries will be significantly simplified and accelerated. Qualified staff may start to work even before the process of professional recognition has been completed and qualified nursing professionals may also apply for the “Red-White-Red Card” for particularly highly qualified persons more easily.
Working conditions in nursing and LTC
Working conditions will be improved among other things through substantial salary increases. For 2022 and 2023, a total budget of EUR 500–600 million will be made available to pay about one additional monthly salary per year. Care professionals over 43 years old will also be granted one additional week of paid vacation and all employees in inpatient long-term care will receive two hours of time credit per night shift. Moreover, medical competencies will be expanded for certain professions.
People in need of LTC and caring relatives
LTC allowances for persons with severe mental disabilities and dementia will be increased to pay for up to 20 additional caring hours per month. The entitlement to care leave for caring relatives, including cash benefits, will be expanded from one to three months and about 30 000 self-insured persons or those who stopped working because of caring responsibilities will receive a bonus of EUR 1 500 per year.
The planned measures represent one of the largest reforms implemented in the nursing and long term care sector. However, the main structural weaknesses of the LTC system have not been systematically addressed: these include fragmentation of responsibilities between the state and federal government levels, different access across regions, financial sustainability and a lack of quality standards and measurement.