Aged Care Employee Day celebrates each and every team member involved in the journey of caring for people who receive aged care services – from the nurses and care workers, to the allied health professionals, cooks and hospitality teams. Not forgetting drivers, cleaners and laundry employees, to the volunteers, to the leisure and lifestyle officers and administration teams.

Through their work, these people often develop meaningful relationships with our older loved ones – becoming de facto family members in the process.

Aged Care Employee Day puts these everyday heroes in the spotlight, celebrates them, and highlights the many different roles of those involved in the aged care journey.

To all aged care employees, we thank you and honour you on Aged Care Employee Day. This day is for you, to celebrate the incredible work you do, and to show you just how much you make a difference to the lives of older people.

Is Aged Care Employee Day different to International Nurses Day?

Yes, Aged Care Employee Day is a separate day, however as nurses are a core part of the team who work in aged care, they are also recognized and celebrated as part of this new national day.

While initiatives like International Nurses Day are a fantastic and well-known recognition day, they only touch a small percentage of the incredible people involved in the industry.

The aged care workforce in Australia

Everyone who works in aged care, be it residential care or home care, contributes to the overarching care and wellbeing of older people, and this new day is to celebrate the entire workforce.

Australia’s aged care workforce is made up of over 350,000 individuals who contribute to caring for older people. Approximately 80% of these people are working in roles other than Nurse Practitioner, Registered Nurse and Enrolled Nurse. Most of our workforce is comprised of roles like Personal Care Assistants, Hotel Services, Catering and Chefs, Cleaning and Laundry, Leisure, Administration, Maintenance, Management and much more.

The individual people who make up the above workforce all have a valuable and essential role to play in caring for our elders, and it is time to recognize the entire group for the difference they make to our communities.

The Aged Care Workforce Strategy Taskforce (2018) has identified that “the value of the Personal Care Worker is underestimated. Personal Care Workers form most of the aged care workforce and are the eyes and ears of the entire aged care system”.