National standard set for long-term care workers

China has released a national working standard for the profession of long-term care worker, as it faces the challenges of an aging population and many elderly people losing the ability to care for themselves.

The move also aims to produce higher-quality, more skilled care workers and optimize the operation of long-term care insurance in the future.

It's the first such standard for this profession in China, and was jointly released by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the National Healthcare Security Administration.

According to the new standard, long-term care workers should possess basic life care and nursing knowledge and skills. They should provide life care and psychological services in homes, gated communities, nursing institutes or hospitals to individuals who have lost the ability to look after themselves and are covered by long-term care insurance.

People above the age of 16 are allowed to work in the profession without limits regarding their educational background, and the profession has a three-level evaluation system based on workers' skills.

For example, a long-term care worker at entry level is required to provide individuals in need with cleaning of the face, teeth and body, and with assistance in eating, among other duties.

A senior-level worker — the highest level — can offer healthcare guidance to individuals with chronic diseases and assist them in limb-function training. Senior-level workers are also required to have the ability to offer psychological services.

"Nursing the elderly and giving them good care is an urgent problem, considering the nation's increasing aging population. We now face a great labor shortfall in the sector," said Wu Xiaolan, a researcher from the China Research Center on Aging.

She said current nursing services may not meet the needs of the elderly in the future, as current services mainly focus on basic life care and domestic services, while rehabilitation and psychological services for the elderly are now not easily accessible.

"The long-term care worker is a profession requiring complex working skills, and the worker needs to provide comprehensive services based on the needs of the elderly, including basic life care, medical care and psychological care. The workers should not only possess sound knowledge and skills, but also the ability to show compassion and be patient. Thus they can offer professional and humanistic services to the elderly," Wu said.

According to the National Healthcare Security Administration, the nation launched the long-term care insurance system, a state-level campaign to offer nursing assistance and financial subsidies to elderly people who have diseases or lose self-care ability, in 2016. It is a supplementary social insurance.

The administration said that 49 cities so far, including Beijing and Qingdao, Shandong province, have conducted trial operation of the insurance program, with about 180 million people participating. Around 8,000 designated nursing institutes are currently authorized to offer the long-term care, with the number of employees reaching 300,000.

"The nation now has over 42 million elderly people who are above 60 years old and have lost self-care abilities, while there is a critical shortage of professional and high-quality care workers," the administration said.

Wu, the researcher, said that the long-term care worker standard clearly defines the work and skill requirements of the job.

"The more professional and standardized development of the profession will attract more people to join the industry and work in the profession, bringing the healthier and more sustainable development of the industry," she added.