Cultivate Inter-disciplinary Elderly Care Workers in the New Era to Promote the Development of the Aging Industry

Yougen WU, Haizhi YANG, Yujun WU, Weiqi XING, Chunhui CHEN

1. Nanchang Vocational University, Nanchang 330500, China; 2. Jiangxi University of Applied Science, Nanchang 330100, China

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to point out the urgency and importance of cultivating inter-disciplinary elderly care workers in the new era by analyzing the prominent problems facing the current pension industry in China. Based on data analysis, survey and summary, multi-disciplinary integration and other means, training methods for inter-disciplinary elderly care workers in the new era are put forward, including enhancing multi-disciplinary theoretical knowledge reserve, improving professional skills and psychological communication skills and improving nursing ability of elderly care workers. The coping strategies proposed in this article have certain reference value for cultivating inter-disciplinary elderly care workers in the new era.

Key words New era, Elderly care worker, Aging industry

1 Introduction

According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics: as of December 2019, China had a population of 253.88 million people aged 60 and over, accounting for 18.1% of the total population. Among them, there are 176.03 million people aged 65 and over, accounting for 12.6% of the total population. TheOpinionsoftheGeneralOfficeoftheStateCouncilonPromotingtheDevelopmentofElderlyCareServices(Guo Ban Fa [2019] No.5)[1]points out that we must actively respond to the aging of the population, and accelerate the development of industries related to elderly care services, so as to continuously meet the growing demand for elderly care services of the elderly. This is an urgent task in today’s society. TheOpinionsrequest that by 2020, service organizations or institutions such as institutional care for the elderly, home and community life care and nursing care throughout China must provide more than 10 million elderly care service jobs. TheOpinionsalso point out that the construction of the nursing staff team closely affects the quality of the skills and level of the nursing profession. The results of a study initiated by the China Academy of Social Management show that it is estimated that by the end of 2020, the number of disabled elderly in China would reach about 6.5 million, and the number of semi-disabled elderly would reach about 70 million. If calculated according to the international standard ratio of 1∶4.5 for elderly care workers to elderly population, the number of elderly care workers in China in 2020 should reach 17 million. However, at present, there are only about 100 000 elderly care workers nationwide holding professional qualification certificate[2].

This shows that in the context of increasing aging population in China, the number and quality of existing nursing staff are far from meeting the needs of the market, and there is a very serious gap. In the training of elderly care workers, China has being facing a serious of prominent problems, such as late start, slow development, single level of talent training, small scale and absence of scientific training pattern[3-11]. TheNationalOccupationalSkillsStandardsforElderlyCaregivers(2019 Edition)[12]has specific requirements for elderly caregivers only in life care, common disease care, and psychological care. In the new era, China’s elderly population has increased substantially, and the spectrum of diseases is complex and changeable, seriously threatening the physical and mental health of the elderly. Reflecting on the novel coronavirus pneumonia epidemic, the vocational skills of elderly care workers are not comprehensive, their professionalism is relatively insufficient, and their ability to response to public health emergencies is limited. This not only harms the physical and mental health of the elderly but also has sounded the alarm for China’s elderly care industry.

Relying on the resources of high-quality teachers majoring in community rehabilitation and nursing, modern health rehabilitation training center, nursing training center, psychological counseling training center, a training model for vocational inter-disciplinary elderly care workers is constructed in this article. Through multi-professional theoretical knowledge teaching and comprehensive skills training, students’ elderly care service skills are improved. This has certain reference value for training inter-disciplinary elderly care workers in the new era and promoting the development of aging industry in China[13-18].

2 Training measures

2.1 Enhancing multi-disciplinary theoretical knowledge reserve to enhance disease prevention awarenessCurrently, China is rapidly entering an aging society, and the deterioration of the environment makes diseases complex and diverse, posing a serious threat to the health of the elderly. Improving the elderly’s awareness of disease prevention is very important. Elderly care workers are those who directly care for and manage the clothing, food and daily life of the elderly. The disease prevention awareness has a greater impact on the health of the elderly under care. According to the physical condition and psychological characteristics of the elderly, multiple disciplines such as community rehabilitation, food and nutrition, medicine, and elderly care should be integrated effectively to build a multi-disciplinary knowledge theoretical framework. Nursing knowledge is used to help students to master common nursing skills for the elderly; rehabilitation knowledge helps students to master the skills of recreational activities and functional exercises for the elderly with chronic diseases; knowledge of medicine helps students to master the correct medication guidance for common diseases of the elderly; and food knowledge helps students to master the dietary and nutritional treatment methods suitable for the physical characteristics of the elderly. Through multi-disciplinary theoretical knowledge reserve, the nursing ability and disease prevention awareness of nurses is effectively improved, thereby achieving the goal of preventing illness beforehand and protecting the elderly from diseases to the greatest extent possible.

2.2 Paying attention to the improvement of professional skills to improve the elderly’s ability to prevent diseasesStrengthening physique is one of the important means of fighting diseases. Improving the physical fitness of the elderly in daily nursing work can effectively help the elderly respond to public health emergencies. Common Chinese medicine diet, Chinese massage, Chinese medicine fitness exercises have good effect in improving the body’s immunity and enhancing disease resistance. To this end, in cultivating inter-disciplinary elderly care workers in the new era, focusing on the improvement of various professional skills is very necessary. Elderly care workers in the new era need to be familiar with the properties, compatibility and efficacy of common Chinese medicines. They should be also able to simply prepare a medicated diet for replenishing qi and blood and regulating physique, improving the constitution of the elderly and fundamentally establishing a line of defense against diseases. Elderly care workers also need to master the common massage techniques and acupoints’ efficacy of traditional Chinese medicine and be able to massage the common diseases of the elderly to relieve the diseases and improve the effect of body function. Finally, elderly care workers need to master the common fitness exercises in Chinese medicine, including Tai Chi, Qigong, Baduanjin,etc.[19-21]to lead the elderly to exercise daily, stimulate the circulation of blood, cause the muscles and joints to relax and adjust mood, helping improve the immunity of the elderly. In this novel coronavirus pneumonia epidemic, the governments at all levels have promulgated targeted Chinese medicine prevention and treatment programs, anti-epidemic fitness exercises, and Baduanjin exercise. The clinical effect shows that early intervention of traditional Chinese medicine can effectively improve the effect of disease treatment and reduce the criticality and even mortality. If elderly care workers can master key skills, it can greatly help the elderly to resist serious diseases and sudden diseases.

2.3 Strengthening the training of psychological communication skills to improve the ability of psychological comfort

Public health emergencies such as the novel coronavirus pneumonia epidemic are so harmful, causing a strong psychological impact on Chinese people. The elderly population is relatively lacking in understanding of diseases. In the face of a sudden epidemic, the elderly may feel anxious, fearful or even desperate. Excessive psychological burden easily leads to tension, anxiety, compulsion, hypochondriasis, insomnia,etc. Also, it may lead to poor appetite due to excessive emotional out-of-control, which adds a lot of stress to the body and mind, leading to a sharp decline in the body’s resistance, further aggravating the severity of the underlying disease. Under public health emergencies such as novel coronavirus pneumonia, elderly care workers need urgent and targeted psychological comfort ability, help the elderly calm their minds and build confidence. They should also strengthen the training of psychological communication skills, especially the ability of psychological service to respond to public emergencies, pay attention to the psychological counseling, warm companionship and humanistic care of the elderly in emergency situations, to give the elderly enough psychological care[22]. This can help the elderly quickly adapt to the situation, adjust their mentality, and actively respond to the realization, which is very helpful.

3 Conclusions

With the advent of global aging, the aging industry including elderly care institutions and nursing and care will be the sunrise industry in the 21stcentury, and elderly care professionals will become one of the most in-demand talents in the 21stcentury. After entering a new era, China’s demand for nursing talents has been inevitably increasing, and it has paid more attention to the quality of talent training. The talent training programs of elderly care service and management major of vocational colleges and their requirements for the professional skills of elderly care workers must be continuously adjusted and optimized as the market demand of the elderly care industry and the physical and mental health requirements of the elderly change. Public health emergencies caused by severe infectious diseases such as novel coronavirus pneumonia are extremely easy to cause serious harm to the physical and mental health of the elderly. The talent training program should promptly expand the professional quality requirements for responding to public health emergencies, in order to cultivate practical professionals for the society, meet social needs, serve the elderly, and build a harmonious society.