They have won a competitive Europe-wide call for an important study and thus raised 3.7 million euros in third-party funding: 14 members of the Research Center for Inequality and Social Policy (SOCIUM) at the University of Bremen are now to develop and put into practice a procedure for the uniform assessment of personnel requirements in care facilities. They will be working under the direction of Professor Heinz Rothgang.

Action called for: insufficient staffing in care facilities

The staffing of nursing homes is inadequate: This is nothing new. It is a complaint that has been voiced ever since care insurance was introduced – and that was more than 20 years ago. The staffing situation varies considerably in different parts of Germany. For example: Stationary facilities in Bavaria employ 20 per cent more staff per person in need of care than in Saxony-Anhalt. So far, several attempts to introduce a nationwide personnel assessment procedure for the requisite number of staff have failed.

University of Bremen expertise

In the Second Pflegestärkungsgesetz [Nursing Welfare Act], the legislator therefore obliged the parties involved in nursing self-administration to develop and test a well-founded procedure for the uniform assessment of staff requirements in care facilities according to qualitative and quantitative standards. To this end, the contracting parties must commission independent scientific institutions – such as the SOCIUM, which guarantees sound expertise from the University of Bremen.

University of Bremen press release on the new SOCIUM project (German only)