Red alert

New nursing training brings new problems

Austria has a shortage of thousands of nursing staff in hospitals and care homes. The problem is not new and has been on the political agenda for years. A reform of training was intended to remedy the situation, but the change has led to new problems. Krone+ has the details.

The Healthcare and Nursing Act was fundamentally revised in 2016. The aim was to introduce a standardized three-stage training for nursing staff. This involved 1. transferring the training for qualified healthcare and nursing staff to universities of applied sciences and 2. creating the profession of nursing assistant with a two-year training program in addition to the one-year training program for nursing assistants.