As you get older, daily activities like showering, dressing, shaving, and managing medication or wound management can become difficult to do on your own. If you are looking at aged care homes because you need more support, it’s important to know that a home will provide you with enough care from Registered Nurses, Enrolled Nurses, Personal Care Workers, and Assistants in Nursing.
This page explains the different types of staffing, how it is measured, and how you can check the amount of nursing and personal care each aged care home provides.
Types of care staff
The type of staff a resident receives care from depends on their care needs. Knowing what each role involves can help you make more informed decisions when choosing an aged care home.
The difference between Registered Nurses and Enrolled Nurses is their level of education and experience. These two factors define what their responsibilities include.
Residents may also receive support from Personal Care Workers and Assistants in Nursing with daily living and activities.
Registered Nurses (RNs) complete a 3-year Bachelor of Nursing or 2-year Master of Nursing through a university, to meet the Registered Nurse standards for practice. They have more responsibilities than an Enrolled Nurse, which can include:
assessing residents
developing a nursing care plan
administering medicines
providing specialised nursing care
working in multidisciplinary teams
supervising Enrolled Nurses and junior Registered Nurses
undertaking regular professional development
performing leadership and management roles such as being a nursing unit manager or team leader
working in advanced nursing practice roles.
Enrolled Nurses complete a 2-year Diploma of Nursing through a vocational education provider, to meet the Enrolled Nurse standards for practice. They work under the supervision of a Registered Nurse and cannot act alone. Their responsibilities can include:
regularly recording residents’ temperature, pulse, blood pressure and respiration
providing interventions, treatments and therapies from resident care plans (including administering medicines)
assisting Registered Nurses and other team members with health education activities
working in multidisciplinary teams
helping residents with their activities of daily living.
Personal Care Workers and Assistants in Nursing support residents with their activities of daily living. Their responsibilities can include:
monitoring and reporting residents’ condition
providing interventions, treatments and therapies from resident care plans
helping residents with their activities of daily living, such as eating and drinking and personal hygiene
providing residents with social and emotional support
working in multidisciplinary teams.
How nursing and personal care time are measured
Since October 2022, all aged care homes have been required to record and report the amount of care that was provided to their residents by these care staff.
This includes time spent on help with daily tasks and other care activities such as updating care plans and arranging medical appointments. This is known as ‘care minutes’.
This information is reported to the Department of Health and Aged Care on a quarterly basis through the Quarterly Financial Report.
Providers have a target for the overall minutes of care and a separate target for the minutes of Registered Nurse care that they need to provide to residents, on average, at each aged care home. They are also required to have at least one Registered Nurse on-site and on duty 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
You can see how an aged care home is performing in the Staffing section of their profile when using the Find a provider tool. Their performance in relation to the care minutes targets informs the Staffing rating, which is part of the Australian Government’s Star Ratings for aged care homes.
Care minutes targets are based on the care needs of people who have lived in the home during the period that is used to work out the targets.
Since 1 October 2024, across all aged care homes, the nationwide average is currently:
215 minutes of personal and nursing care per day (from a Registered Nurse, Enrolled Nurse, or Personal Care Worker/Assistants in Nursing) and
44 minutes of nursing care from a Registered Nurse per resident per day. This may include up to 10% of the target provided by Enrolled Nurses.
This means, on average across Australia, people who live in an aged care home will get 215 minutes of care each day, including at least 44 minutes from a Registered Nurse.
As care minutes targets are an average for all residents, some people may receive more care time than others, depending on their needs.
The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety identified that having a Registered Nurse on-site and on duty is critical to the quality of care in aged care homes. The Australian Government has acted based on these findings.
Every aged care home is now required to have at least one Registered Nurse on-site and on duty 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
This ensures that residents will always have access to qualified and experienced care staff. Registered Nurses can identify and address potential risks. They can also manage some medical issues and emergencies, which can prevent unnecessary trips to the hospital.
For some smaller aged care homes in rural and remote areas, finding and hiring Registered Nurses to be on-site and on duty 24 hours a day, 7 days a week can take time.
Some of these homes have been temporarily exempted from the 24/7 Registered Nurse requirement for up to 12 months. This is to allow them more time to find and hire more Registered Nurses. However, this doesn’t remove their other obligations under the new Aged Care Act and the Aged Care Quality Standards to make sure that all residents at the home receive safe and quality care.
Aged care homes with an exemption must still report when they do not have an RN on-site and on duty. They also must inform their residents about the exemption and the duration of it, including the alternative care arrangements for clinical care in place while they are looking for more Registered Nurses.
There are a few reasons why a provider may display a ’No data’ label in their Find a provider profile.
This may be because the aged care home:
is a new provider
is operating under new ownership
has recently reopened after major repairs or renovations
has failed to submit their data in the required time period
is experiencing issues that have stopped them from being able to report on time, such as technical (IT or data) issues.
It could also be for other reasons outside of their control, such as a natural disaster.
The Staffing rating
Star Ratings provide simple information about the quality of care an aged care home delivers and how they compare to others.
Staffing is one of the 4 key areas of performance that make up the Overall Star Rating. The Staffing rating is assigned based on whether the aged care home has met or exceeded their targets for:
the total amount of nursing and personal care time a resident receives from Registered Nurses, Enrolled Nurses, Personal Care Workers and Assistants in Nursing, and
the care time a resident receives from Registered Nurses, which may include up to 10% of the Registered Nurse target provided by Enrolled Nurses.
Providers that deliver care to their residents over and above their care minutes targets will have a better Staffing rating.
The Staffing rating is updated every 3 months using care minutes information reported by the aged care home.
Under certain circumstances, some providers may not display a Staffing rating. Learn more about why a rating may not be shown.
The current Staffing rating
The table below displays the different rating levels and the number of homes nationwide that have received each rating.
Staffing rating
How many homes in Australia currently have this rating?
Excellent
11%
Good
16%
Acceptable
61%
Improvement needed
12%
Significant improvement needed
1%
Staffing rating How many homes in Australia currently have this rating?
Excellent 11%
Good 16%
Acceptable 61%
Improvement needed 12%
Significant improvement needed 1%
* Percentages may not equal 100% due to rounding.
Overall care minutes target
Less than 90% of target met
Between 90% and less than 100% of target met
Between 100 and less than 105% of target met
Between 105% and less than 115% of target met
Equal to or more than 115% of target met
Registered Nurse care minutes target
Less than 75% of target met
*
*
**
**
***
Between 75% and less than 100% of target met
**
**
**
***
***
Between 100% and less than 115% of target met
**
***
***
***
****
Between 115% and less than 125% of target met
***
***
****
****
****
Equal to or more than 125% of target met
***
****
****
*****
*****
Overall care minutes target
Less than 90% of target met Between 90% and less than 100% of target met Between 100 and less than 105% of target met Between 105% and less than 115% of target met Equal to or more than 115% of target met
Registered Nurse care minutes target
Less than 75% of target met * * ** ** ***
Between 75% and less than 100% of target met ** ** ** *** ***
Between 100% and less than 115% of target met ** *** *** *** ****
Between 115% and less than 125% of target met *** *** **** **** ****
Equal to or more than 125% of target met *** **** **** ***** *****
The new Staffing rating
From 1 October 2025, the way the Staffing rating is calculated will change. Aged care homes will need to meet both of their care minute targets to achieve a Staffing rating of 3 stars or more.
This change will be reflected in Star Ratings published on the My Aged Care website from the second Star Ratings quarterly update in 2026.
