Lauterbach wants to give nursing staff more powers
"Nursing is allowed to do less than it can," says Health Minister Lauterbach about the sector affected by the shortage of skilled workers. Additional skills for nursing staff should make their profession more attractive and speed up work processes. The Nursing Council and the medical profession support his plan.
Health Minister Karl Lauterbach's plan to grant nursing staff more rights and competencies has met with support from doctors and nurses alike. Both sides assured this after a top-level meeting in Berlin. The necessity is not in question, emphasized Klaus Reinhardt, President of the German Medical Association. The President of the German Nursing Council, Christine Vogler, spoke of a "quantum leap towards upgrading the nursing profession".
Lauterbach announced that he would be presenting a draft bill "in the next few weeks", which is to be approved by the cabinet by summer 2024. According to a key points paper, one of the plans is for nursing staff - depending on their level of training - to take on more responsibility for wound care and be allowed to prescribe nursing services, aids or even certain medicines independently. This is intended to prevent the need to wait for a doctor's prescription for a urinary catheter or a special hospital bed, for example.
Relief for the medical profession
"This will save us an incredible amount of resources," said Vogler. Reinhardt sees the project more as a relief for the medical profession: in view of demographic trends, fewer doctors will have to treat a larger number of people in future. Lauterbach also assured: "Nobody will lose anything."
In view of the shortage of skilled nursing staff, the planned reform aims to make the profession more attractive - also for workers from abroad. "Nursing is allowed to do less than it can - that's a huge problem," said Lauterbach. "This means we are losing potential nursing staff at all ends."
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The support for Health Minister Karl Lauterbach's plan to enhance nursing staff's rights and competencies extends beyond the nursing sector, with the German Medical Association also expressing approval. This reform, aimed at mitigating the nursing staff shortage, could potentially make the profession more appealing to both local and international workers, as highlighted by Christine Vogler, President of the German Nursing Council.
In light of the ongoing shortage of skilled nurses, Karl Lauterbach emphasizes the problem of nurses not utilizing their full potential, leading to a loss of potential nursing staff. His proposed legislation seeks to address this issue by granting nursing staff more autonomy in areas such as wound care and medication prescription.
Source: www.ntv.de
