Working in senior care is a highly demanding job requiring you to dedicate your time to improving older adults’ quality of life. Read on for 11 reasons why you should consider working in aged care.
1. Endless career options
The aged care industry provides you with a wide range of career pathways you could opt to pursue. You can be a personal caregiver, support staff, care worker, nursing assistant, or senior caregiver, to mention a few.
You could kickstart your career as support staff, then work your way to managerial posts through ongoing training. Alternatively, venture into the industry by enrolling for Certificate II or III, then study a diploma course or Certificate IV as you continue working.
2. Job security
Job security is a crucial factor when choosing a career path, so you should consider venturing into aged care. Since few people choose a career in senior care and there is an increasing population of aging adults, you can count on endless job opportunities at the end of your aged care courses. The parliament of Australia estimates that the senior care sector has to triple its staff by 2050 to cater to the rising population of elderly adults, which is excellent news for you, owing to the increasing job competition in other career paths.
3. Flexible working hours
One of the most important reasons to consider a career in the aged care industry, especially when you do not like 9 am to 5 pm work schedules, is flexibility in working hours. Senior care provides a range of job structures that allow caregivers to work in different shifts and hours based on their availability and lifestyle. As an aged caregiver, you could choose to work part-time, full-time, on night shifts, during casual hours, or via a rotating roster. This enables you to strike a balance between your personal and work life.
4. It is a field with variety
Aged care provides you with endless opportunities to specialize, as workers in the field provide different care types. You could opt to offer your services within the confines of an assisted living facility with live-in patients or visit senior adults in their homes to enable them to remain independent.
The caregiving roles are also quite diverse, and you may be required to focus on medical and wellbeing checks, eating, dressing, and personal hygiene. Other roles could involve helping your patients run errands and shopping, social support, and performing their housekeeping duties.
5. Meet new people
As a service-oriented sector, senior caregiving allows you to meet new and interesting people each day. This makes your job experience varied and fun and allows you to develop solid and meaningful connections with your patients and their close family members and friends. A career in senior caregiving is similar to having many grandparents, allowing one to create and cherish new bonds and memories.
6. Every day is a learning day
As an aged caregiver, you get to meet and interact with many elderly adults eager to share their experiences and incredible stories with you. This is inspiring and allows you to gain wisdom and see things from different perspectives. Your everyday interactions with other caregivers can also help you enhance your caregiving skills.
7. It is rewarding
Working in aged care is one of the few careers that give you a sense of pride and fulfillment. Being the first person the older adult sees before they fall asleep and wake up, witnessing people with a severe illness like dementia recognize a loved one or a resident suffering from stroke struggling to talk can bring you immense joy. Helping patients move around or run errands, among other tasks they could not do on their own, is extremely rewarding.
8. You can work anywhere
If you love adventure, then a career in aged care is right. After completing your senior care course, you can move and work within any city of your choice.
9. Make a difference
Senior caregiving enables you to develop a meaningful impact in the lives of the elderly individuals you encounter. Most older adults often suffer from conditions like Alzheimer’s, dementia, and reduced mobility and balance, so caring for them enables them to enjoy a better quality of life. Even the services that appear minor to you, like brushing their hair or sitting down to talk, make seniors feel supported, comfortable, cared for, and nourished, enhancing their wellbeing.
10. Earn as you learn
Most careers require you to graduate first to start earning an income. However, this is not the case in aged care because the industry allows on-the-job training. Once you enroll in a senior care course, job opportunities start opening up to you. This means you do not have to take on side hustles to reduce your financial burden when studying to be an aged caregiver.
11. Enhances emotional intelligence
Working as an aged caregiver allows you to interact with elderly individuals with different backgrounds, races, religions, cultures, and beliefs. You have to practice self-awareness, be more empathetic, assertive, patient, and empathetic, and listen and communicate effectively to develop a healthy environment for your patients and their loved ones. This helps you to be more emotionally intelligent.
Endnote
Working in aged care is rewarding, opens doors to endless career options, provides job security, enhances your emotional intelligence, and gives you many specialized opportunities. It also allows you to meet new people and make genuine connections while making a meaningful difference in older adults’ lives. Enroll for an aged care course today to start earning as you learn.
