The salary increases more than in other sectors, the number of employees is growing – and yet care remains a crisis area. What is the problem in practice and what can be done better?
More employees, more money: On International Nursing Day on May 12, the Federal Statistical Office compared the situation in nursing care in Germany with ten years ago.
The situation has improved in many respects, as reported by the statisticians in Wiesbaden. But that’s not enough, says the Frankfurt health economist Prof. Thomas Busse: The number of people in need of care has grown even more and the working conditions of the staff have not improved.
At least before Corona, things were definitely going uphill: the number of employees in clinics has increased over the past ten years. At the end of 2020, a good 486,000 people were employed in nursing in hospitals in Germany. That was 18 percent more than in 2010. The number of employees in nursing homes and outpatient care grew even more. Around 954,000 people worked there in 2019 – 40 percent more than in 2009.
The Federal Employment Agency in Nuremberg presented more recent figures on Tuesday: The number of employees in nursing professions is increasing despite the effects of the corona pandemic. In 2021, around 1.67 million people were employed in care subject to social security contributions. That was around 44,300 more than a year earlier.
Health economist: The nursing situation has certainly sharpened
The numbers “should not tempt us to sit back,” says Prof. Busse, Director of the Institute for Health Economics. On the contrary, the situation for care has worsened: the number of people in need of care grew by 76 percent between 2009 and 2019.
According to the Federal Statistical Office, earnings have also gone up in a ten-year comparison: in 2021, full-time specialists in hospitals and homes earned an average of 34 percent gross more than in 2011. “Therefore, earnings have increased significantly more over the past ten years than in the economy as a whole,” reported the statisticians. According to Destatis 2021, the average salary of nurses was 3697 euros gross per month.
But more money alone is not enough, believes Busse, who regularly conducts surveys. Above all, working conditions need to be improved. Nursing staff suffered from rigid hierarchies, family-unfriendly rosters and too much bureaucracy. The nursing profession must be upgraded: “Good nurses do not want to be the lackeys of residents.”
Nursing Council criticizes the Minister of Health
The positive developments are not enough for the German Nursing Council either. Corona has made the situation worse: “A federal health minister who obviously can only do “pandemic” does lasting damage to nursing care,” said Nursing Council President Christine Vogler. “The promises made in the coalition agreement, which fueled confidence and hope and are now sowing disappointment, have obviously been politically forgotten.”
And so there is still a lack of qualified personnel: the Nuremberg statisticians reported that there are currently 5,400 unemployed specialists for every 12,900 vacancies. Immigration from abroad should remedy the situation. According to Destatis, around 16,300 foreign qualifications in nursing professions were recognized in Germany in 2020. But the recognition procedures still took too long, criticizes Busse.
“Profession should be more attractive”
In addition to recruiting foreign skilled workers, he sees two other levers that could be used to attract more nursing staff in the short term: one would have to try to win back employees who have left the workforce or persuade part-time workers to increase their staff. “For that to work, the profession would have to become more attractive. And we’re not fast and creative enough for that.”
The trade unions are also demanding more than “symbolic politics with grand gestures”, as Anja Piel said, board member of the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB). “Carers make an indispensable contribution, both professionally and personally, in an increasingly aging society,” she emphasized. However, they do not only deserve respect for this on the International Day of Nurses. The President of the Social Association Germany, Adolf Bauer, warned: “The facts are on the table. Now it’s time to put it into practice.”
Source: Stern
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