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The government is encouraging unemployed people to consider becoming health care workers because there is a chronic shortage in the nursing care business. Do you think that is a good idea?

15 Comments

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15 Comments
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If the unemployed person has the desire to be a health care person, sure. But if they'd rather sit in an office with no responsibilities, no. Except for PM Abe, everyone probably realizes it's up to the individual and not the State.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

No, I don't think it is a good idea. Being a caregiver requires a special kind of person. You don't do it for money and you don't see it as a job. It requires compassion, understanding and great patience. It is a vocation and you must feel the calling in your heart.

When my mother had Alzheimer's, the first facility she was in was not good. The staff took little interest in the residents. They couldn't wait to leave at the end of the day. They never gave anything extra from their hearts.

The second nursing care home we moved my mother to was amazing. The staff gave her back rubs, were gentle, did singalongs and so on. They didn't do any of that for money.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Yes, the homeless as health care workers! Why didn't I think of this solution?!?!

0 ( +2 / -2 )

The very suggestion is an insult, to the unemployed, to the health care workers and to the people in their charge.

There is a chronic shortage of health careworkers because it is a job that is both physically and spiritually demanding, with abysmal pay. Brainiac is right when he says it is not a job that can be done for money, but if careworkers cannot get a decent living wage for the work they do, they are forced to go elsewhere.

Pay careworkers a decent living wage, give them the support they need in terms of training, back-up and working hours, and more people will be drawn to the profession.

Shoving folk who failed to get jobs elsewhere into healthcare jobs just to make the numbers look better is a recipe for disaster.

8 ( +8 / -0 )

Cleo - right on!

Health care workers working conditions and salaries are nothing short of attrocious. Sloths sitting at desks sharpening pencils get at least double the pay & benefits of such workers.

If Abe wants to increase the number of workers - do something concrete - make real changes & introduce new rules to the game. I'm not holding my breath though, coz the spooners can afford whatever it takes for their health care.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

This sounds like welfare system in disguise.

Which means the quality of healthcare will plummet.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

This sounds like welfare system in disguise.

Why would you need to disguise a welfare system in Japan? We have a robust welfare system to help those who need it, and the vast majority are quite proud of that.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

It's a great idea if we're only talking about people who are willing and able to do the job. Making it available as an option, not in the form of conscription or the like. As the other commenters have written, being a professional care-giver requires sacrifice and compassion and a pretty good head on your shoulders. I'm sure there are many people who could go through the training and excel at professional care-giving who just haven't thought of it as an option because they're keyed in on getting office jobs, but it will require careful screening. You can't just grab a mass of people and say, "Well, you're all going to be nurses now!" and expect to everyone to rise to the occasion.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Perhaps if nurses in Japan earned more than convenience store clerks, there wouldn't be a shortage. But then again, price caps in a fixed-costs national health care system limit wages. Nurses and doctors in Japan earn surprisingly little, while bureaucrats and administrators are numerous, and absorb much of what is spent on healthcare.

With health care costs heavily subsidised by a national government which is already a quadrillion yen in debt, it is not likely that health care professionals will see any increases in pay.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

Seems like a desperate suggestion.

Carers for family members aged, sick, handicapped, invalid at home may already be considered un- or under employed. So, maybe it is less necessary for the government to blanket all unemployed like that. And carers for family members frequently have the dedication which strangers would lack, with or without special training.

Yeah, as several comments above say, without appropriate training, remuneration and other support for people supporting people needing health care it, probably would bring a host more problems than it would seek to solve.

Society in Japan is one of the first to undergo these situations. I am not sure if Mr Abe and his ilk are the best ones to be governing this future course.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

For decades Japan has boasted about their longevity and how healthy they are. Now the chickens come home to roost on an ever-growing aging population, sadly, with not enough people to care for them-

1 ( +1 / -0 )

sangetsu, actually, doctots and nurses are paid pretty welll. its the nursing home/day service/home helpers that are paid appaulingly. im pretty sure if the government made the wages livable (a graduate would be starting at around 14-15万 in my area, which is incredibly low) the people who want to do this line of work, could.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

In short, its quite obvious that the growth of the older Japanese adult population will continue to increase while the Japanese birth rate plunges to record low and the death rate hit record high and that will have an unprecedented impact of the Japanese health care system especially in terms of and demand for health care workers. So they will need more healthcare workers and the struggle to fill health care jobs will remain a ongoing battle in the health care industry.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Good grief, what a terrible idea! Let's turn that around, and change it to "The government is encouraging unemployed workers to become child care workers because there is a chronic shortage in that field." Now how does it sound? Would people leave their own children in the care of desperate, pressured, underpaid and barely qualified workers? If not, then why would they inflict that standard of care on their parents?

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

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