Berlin. The Federal Minister for Health intends to present a draft “Nursing Skills Bill” by the summer holidays. At least that’s how it was announced. The industry is already eagerly waiting to see the range of tasks assigned to it updated. What a current survey by the Professional Association of Nursing Professions (DBfK) proves once again.
According to the association’s announcement on Tuesday, 6,139 full-time or intern nurses participated in the survey from the beginning to the end of March this year.
Subsequently, new professional role descriptions such as “Advanced Practice Nurses” in nursing facilities or clinics, the “Community Health Nurse” in primary care centers or in the health service, or the “Nursing Specialist with additional training” are widely accepted. Up to 48 percent of respondents said they were interested in these new professional profiles and the associated expanded areas of responsibility.
“Few vacancies”
Those who were not interested in this stated, among other things, that they were satisfied with their current work structure (40%), that more skills and more responsibilities were not worth it financially (37.5%) or that they were necessary for the corresponding position. descriptions There are “very few jobs” (23.3 percent).
“This is an important message from the professional group in the context of the development of the Nursing Skills Act: We are ready to expand our skills and take on more responsibilities if the conditions are right”, comments Bernadette Klapper, managing director of DBfK.
Other survey results: Despite the impression that the media often gives otherwise, job satisfaction is high in the sector. Well over 60% of participants were satisfied with the working hours and structure of the list. Salary and career opportunities are good for more than half of respondents. The satisfaction criterion “employer appreciation” had the worst performance, with just 35 percent approval.
Satisfied – but also willing to change
Almost 60 percent would “return to the nursing profession” and well over 80 percent consider it “meaningful”. However, only around 25 percent of respondents feel that their skills and competencies are socially recognized.
The fact that, despite the high general level of satisfaction, around a third confirm that they are willing to leave their job completely (29 percent) or change employers (34 percent), the association’s manager, Klapper, further once believes that this is due to the lack of professional demands.
In previous surveys, the desire to change “was always around 30 percent”. What is “particularly notable” is that “in the current survey, 46 percent of respondents who said they were not able to fully utilize their skills often thought about giving up the nursing profession.” (cw)