Overworked and Under the Weather: The Persistent Sickness Among Care Workers in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
Healthcare Workers Frequently Report Higher Illness Rates Compared to Staff in Other Sectors - Healthcare Workers, Specifically Nurses, Experience Higher Rates of Illness Compared to Employees in Other Sectors
You know the drill - care workers across the nation, sweating it out day in, day out, all while sacrificing their health in the process. That's according to Manon Austenat-Wied, regional director for the Techniker Krankenkasse (TK) in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. In their latest findings, care workers in the region were on sick leave 32.6 days last year, significantly higher than the national average of 28.5 days. Ouch! 🤕
Austenat-Wied raised concerns about the environment in the care sector, encouraging care providers to prioritize employee wellbeing and cultivate a supportive environment. She's spot on, these superheroes - aka. care workers - are the backbone of our aging society, and we should treat them like the indispensable gems they are.
But why are care workers falling sick more often than workers in other fields? Let's dive into some possibilities:
- Ultra High Physical and Emotional Demands: Care work is tough on the body and taxing on the mind. The physical strain and emotional stress involved can take a heavy toll, potentially leading to burnout and health issues down the line.
- Scary Sickness Settings: Care facilities, with their revolving doors of patients and potential comic book viruses, could be breeding grounds for all sorts of illnesses.
- Shiftwork Shock: Irregular schedules and heavy workloads, common in the care sector, might throw off sleep patterns and weaken immune systems – making these hardworking individuals more susceptible to catching something. 😷
- Safety Snafus: In some care settings, safety protocols might not always be up to par, increasing the likelihood of injury or illness.
- Healthcare Hurdles: If care workers can't efficiently access healthcare services when they need them, they might end up taking longer sick leave to recover.
In a study, TK evaluated the work incapacity certificates of around 103,000 employed persons insured with TK in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, one of their largest regions. With approximately 224,000 insured members in the region, the higher sick leave rate among care workers is worrying.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health reported that over 120,000 people in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern are in need of care, with the numbers continuously rising. A whopping 21,000 care workers are keeping the long-term care facilities and services in the region running. With rising demand and increasing needs, retaining skilled care workers is a major challenge.
That's why the Pact for Care, launched in autumn 2023, aims to help retain specialists, ensuring the longevity of care services, especially in rural areas. Historically, care facilities have threatened to close due to staff shortages.
It's time we take a good, hard look at the care sector and ask - how we can better support the heroes who support our loved ones? 💪💙
- The community policy could include a focus on workplace wellness, prioritizing the physical and mental health of care workers to reduce sickness and improve their health-and-wellness, taking into consideration medical-conditions caused by ultra high physical and emotional demands, and establishing safety protocols to address safety snafus.
- As part of vocational training programs, care workers could receive instruction on nutrition and hygiene to help reduce the risk of sickness in sometimes scary sickness settings, and to better protect themselves from healthcare hurdles such as inefficiently accessing healthcare services.
- To address the rising demand for care services, the community policy could allocate resources for ongoing vocational training and education for care workers, helping them develop skills for managing shiftwork shock, improving their workplace wellness, and ultimately increasing their retention in the care sector.
