What happened
Nybro Municipality has introduced new schedules in elderly care with fewer days off and more resource shifts. The change has negatively impacted staff health at the Almen nursing home. According to practical nurse Helen Gustavsson, the care home has had more sick leaves than ever before. She states that the staff had a good workplace before the schedule was changed.
Our analysis
Elderly care is sustained by people who lift, feed, and comfort around the clock. Many of them are new Swedes who have taken on the heavy jobs that keep Sweden afloat. According to Almega, the largest number of job openings among shortage occupations in vulnerable areas is precisely within care, such as practical nurses, care assistants, and personal assistants.
Politicians gladly talk about the work-first principle and the importance of self-sufficiency. But once people are toiling on the floor, they are met with schedules drawn up at desks far removed from reality. Squeezing in more resource shifts and slashing recovery time might save money in the municipality's budget in the short term. In reality, the cost is shifted directly onto the bodies and health of the staff.
It is not a lack of work ethic that creates the crisis in the welfare system. It is a management that treats care workers as interchangeable pawns. When those who carry the country are worn out until they can no longer stand on their feet, neither integration nor the welfare system works.
Explained
A resource shift is a work shift where the employee is scheduled without a fixed post in order to step in wherever staff shortages occur.