Aged care jobs FAQs
Whilst working in aged care, your focus is to care for the elderly population and to provide physical, personal and emotional support. Day to day duties depend on your role. On the floor clinical roles include:
Assistant in nursing/personal care worker
This an entry level clinical position that undertake the following duties
- Carrying out Activities of Daily Living (ADLs). This includes personal hygiene, feeding, showering, grooming and toileting
- Providing support to resident families, offering companionship and liaising with external healthcare professionals
- Administering medications (if you are a medication competent AIN)
Enrolled nurse
They are registered healthcare practitioners and provide a higher level of patient care. They are responsible for:
- Administering medications
- Monitoring residents physical and emotional well-being
- Wound care
- Creation of care planning and ongoing documentation
Registered nurse
They hold a higher level of training than Enrolled Nurses and can work in an in charge role, leading the other staff that are on the floor. Alongside the duties of an enrolled nurse, they will:
- Make decisions on the next steps in a residents medication and care plan
- Administer palliative treatments and complex pain management
- Training staff
Clinical care coordinator
A registered nurse may advance into a clinical care coordinator position once more experienced. They work closely with other registered nurses and leadership team to:
- Support to the care team
- Liaise with other staff to develop residents care plans
- Advocate for residents and aid with mental and physical wellbeing
- Provide clinical leadership
This can be the stepping stone for a registered nurse to go into management.
Managers in aged care play a pivotal role in ensuring the safety of the residents and the delivery of high quality services. They can be from a clinical and non-clinical background.
Care and facility manager usually work in conjunction with each other. Care managers will be of a clinical background, whereas a facility manager may not be. Both are responsible for the upkeep of the home, the wellbeing of their residents and staff, and running the business. The care manager will be allocated duties such as:
- Monitor care staff to ensure Aged Care Quality Standards are met and delivered
- Oversee resident care and staff management of patients
- Manage family consultations and any grievances
- Ensure appropriate documentation is completed
- Advocate for resident wellbeing
- Support with accreditation and participate in ongoing reviews
Often, they need to demonstrate experience working as a registered nurse in aged care, usually within a senior RN role.
A facility manager can be of a clinical and non-clinical background (depending on individual home requirements) and would take the responsibility of:
- The accreditation process
- Financial reviews and budgeting in accordance with AN-ACC
- Home auditing
- Administration and documentation, with extensive reporting
- Performance reviews
- Full operational management of the home
Education and quality manager
Duties for an education and quality manager role usually encompasses:
- Monitoring of the accreditation standards and Aged Care Act to ensure policies are fully implemented
- Risk assessments
- Education for all staff to ensure standards are upheld
- Review of policies and procedures and implementation of new ones
- Ensuring all homes under their management meet the benchmark of excellence
Yes, we offer continuous online training via our Learning Management System (LMS) at no cost to you. This is regularly updated to reflect new legislation and practices.
The short answer is yes. While we require six months of experience in aged care to consider you for any of our advertised aged care jobs, we offer nurses who have less than six months’ experience a trial period within a residential aged care home.
If you have less than six months' experience and are interested in applying for an aged care job with Sanctuary Recruitment, please get in contact to see what options are available to you.
To be placed in an aged care job with Sanctuary Recruitment, you will need the following qualifications:
- Assistant in nursing or personal care worker: Cert III or IV in Ageing Support, Individual Support or Health Services Assistance
- Enrolled nurse: Diploma of Nursing and an AHPRA registration
- Registered nurse: Bachelor of Nursing degree and an AHPRA registration
Plus, you will generally need six months’ or one year of Australian paid work experience for most residential aged care homes.
We are recruiting for aged care jobs on a clinical and non-clinical basis, for temporary/casual, contract, and permanent assignments. Casual work, or shift filling, is done on an ad-hoc or block booking basis. Contract roles range from four weeks - three months in rural, regional, and remote areas of the country and permanent positions are salary based, with you being employed directly by the home.
Having an up to scratch aged care resume will assist with us matching you with the perfect placement for you.
We are actively hiring for the following aged care roles:
- Assistant in nursing or personal care workers
- Enrolled nurses
- Registered nurses
- Clinical care coordinators
- Care managers
- Facility managers
- Quality and education managers
- Director of nursing
We have longstanding relationships with over 400 aged care homes across Australia. Our aged care roles are based in metro, regional, rural, and remote areas of the country.
There are many benefits to working in a casual aged care job, either on a temporary or short-term contract basis:
- Structure your workday or week to your schedule with ad-hoc shift filling
- Explore areas of the country whilst getting paid - we include free travel and accommodation
- Set your own work-life balance
- Receive higher hourly rates