At ACE we know that there are plenty of aged care staff out there going the extra mile every day to improve care and services for residents. But we rarely see these stories represented in the media.

This isn’t just because of the media bias towards bad news. It’s also because aged care providers are often wary of drawing attention to themselves, even for positive reasons.

Tuesday 12 May is International Nurses Day. To celebrate, we want to give you the chance to anonymously share your stories of aged care staff innovating and making a difference. We’ll then publish a selection of these stories in a subsequent article. Read on for more details or click here to share your story now.

We also want to take the opportunity to provide you with some key resources to help you maintain staff wellbeing during these stressful times.

Sharing Your Positive Stories

We want to hear your stories, but we understand that it’s not always easy to remember the key moments when you’re staring at a blank page. So here are a few prompts to get you started.

Please tell us about a time during the COVID-19 lockdown when a staff member has gone the extra mile, cleverly solved a tricky problem or just kept calm and carried on in regard to:

• Helping residents connect and communicate with each other, staff and their families
• Maintaining activities to improve residents’ quality of life
• Managing entrant screening and monitoring
• Infection prevention and control
• Using technology and systems
• Accessing supplies and services
• Managing outdoor areas and communal spaces
• Staff training and wellbeing
• Other

Staff Wellbeing Resources

• Australian College of Nursing – some great links around COVID-19 even international resources and learning to consider.
• Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) – practical advice on looking after your own health and wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (ACQSC) – success stories and innovation during COVID-19 pandemic.
• palliAged (Palliative Care Aged Care Evidence) – self-care supporting staff working in palliative care.