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 government-funded aged care home provides.
On this page
Types of care staff
How nursing and personal care times are measured
The Staffing rating
Where can I find more information?
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
Registered Nurses 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
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
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
- 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 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, Disability and Ageing 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
Where can I see an aged care home’s care minutes information?
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.
What are the care minutes targets?
Care minutes targets are based on the care needs of people who have lived in the aged care 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 resident 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 a residential care home will get 215 minutes of care each day, including at least 44 minutes from a Registered Nurse.
However, as care minutes targets are an average for all residents, some people may receive more care time than others, depending on their individual needs.
What is the 24/7 Registered Nurse target?
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.
Learn more about the responsibilities of 24/7 Registered Nurses on the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing website.
What are the temporary 24/7 Registered Nurse requirement exemptions?
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 at a time. This is to allow them more time to find and hire more Registered Nurses. However, this doesn’t remove their other obligations under the relevant legislation 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 a Registered Nurse on-site and on duty. They also have to 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.
Learn more about aged care home 24/7 Registered Nurse exemptions on the Exemption from the 24/7 RN responsibility, Department of Health, Disability and Ageing page.
For a list of current exempt providers from 24/7 Registered Nurse requirements please visit the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing website.
What if an aged care home is showing no 24/7 Registered Nurse data?
There are a few reasons why an aged are home 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 with care time 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 quarterly 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.
Staffing rating calculation
The tables below display the different rating levels and what they mean.
| Staffing Rating | |
 | Excellent |
 | Good |
 | Acceptable |
 | Improvement needed |
 | Significant improvement needed |
Staffing rating and rules-based matrix
| 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 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 | 12% |
| Acceptable | 48% |
| Improvement needed | 27% |
| Significant improvement needed | 1% |
* Percentages may not equal 100% due to rounding.
From 1 October 2025, Star Ratings will transition to a redesigned Staffing rating.
Aged care homes need to meet both of their care minutes targets to achieve a Staffing rating of 3 stars or more. The thresholds for ratings have also changed. Thresholds determine a provider’s Staffing rating based on how well they met both care minute targets using percentages (see table below).
This change will be reflected in Star Ratings published on the My Aged Care website from the second Star Ratings quarterly update in 2026. Until this time, Star Ratings will continue to be calculated using the pre-October 2025 rules-based matrix (see table above).
Staffing rating and rules-based matrix from 1 October 2025
| Overall Care Minutes Target | |||||
| Well below target (<90%) | Below target (90-<100%) | Meets target (100-<105%) | Above target (105-<110%) | Well above target (>110%) | |
| Registered Nurse Care Minutes Target | |||||
| Well below target (<90%) | | | | | |
| Below target (90-<100%) | | | | | |
| Meets target (100-<105%) | | | | | |
| Above target (105-<110%) | | | | | |
| Well above target (>110%) | | | | | |
Where can I find more information?
You can read more about care minutes on the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing website.