Combating staff shortages

Five-point plan for hospitals and care homes

Provincial Councillor Ludwig Schleritzko and LGA Board Member Konrad Kogler (2nd from right) in discussion with doctors.(Bild: LGA/Robert Herbst)

A recipe against the acute shortage of doctors and nurses: State health agency and politicians focus on a new career model and more time for trainees in medicine and nursing.

Making the work of doctors and nurses throughout the country easier and clearing it out! This is to be made possible by a five-point plan, which Provincial Councillor Ludwig Schleritzko (ÖVP) has now presented at the St. Pölten Provincial Hospital together with Provincial Health Agency Board Member Konrad Kogler, primary physicians and nursing experts.

The five points: 

• An apprentice offensive has already been initiated. 140 people (74 of whom were accepted in 2023 alone) are being trained in eight different professions. 
• Speech recognition means that doctor's letters and findings can now be created fully automatically, which saves time. Training has been underway since January and the program will be ready for use from April. 1400 doctors are interested in using this software.

• Since the beginning of the year, the organization has also taken a different approach. Previously, the primary physician was responsible for everything in a department, but now "managing senior physicians", "leading senior physicians" and "functional (senior) physicians" can also take on managerial responsibility.

• As part of "senior mentoring ", retired doctors are reinstated and entrusted with training agendas. This enables young doctors to benefit from their wealth of experience. Senior mentoring is already being used at Horn Hospital.

• More time for practical instruction benefits trainees in the nursing field. Until now, the training time for the practical instructors ran alongside their nursing profession. Now, a designated amount of time per trainee is to be made available to the practical instructors. These are valuable hours that will exclusively benefit the trainees for individual support