News Release

Online Calculator Now Available to Measure Direct Care Workforce Turnover

September 19, 2005

The WIN-A-STEP-UP program at the UNC Institute on Aging has released an Online Turnover Calculator to help North Carolina's long term care facilities and administrators measure their workforce turnover. The Online Turnover calculator is available on the WIN-A-STEP-UP web site at http://www.aging.unc.edu/research/winastepup/.

The calculator asks users to fill out some key data about staff changes, and then calculates the turnover rate. Users can also compare their rate to the 2004 statewide rate.

Monitoring turnover rates is one step in the process of improving the situation of direct care workers (such as personal care workers, nursing assistants, bath aides, restorative aides, and home health aides). Turnover of direct care workers in North Carolina has become a pressing issue. For example, nursing assistants provide 80 to 90% of the direct resident care and make up the majority of all nursing home direct care personnel. Yet, nursing assistant turnover levels in North Carolina's nursing homes have exceeded 100% for several years, far above that of LPNs and RNs.

About WIN-A-STEP-UP

The WIN A STEP UP program is a partnership of the NC Department of Health and Human Services and the UNC Institute on Aging. WIN A STEP UP is aimed at improving the situation of nursing assistants in the long-term care industry in North Carolina. WIN A STEP UP stands for Workforce Improvement for Nursing Assistants: Supporting Training, Education, and Payment for Upgrading Performance. To learn more about WIN-A-STEP-UP, please visit: www.aging.unc.edu/research/winastepup/

About the UNC Institute on Aging

The IOA is an inter-institutional program of the University of North Carolina with a mission to enhance the well-being of older people by fostering statewide collaboration in research, education and service. Its areas of research focus include the aging workforce and retirement, healthy aging, the long term care workforce, and diversity and aging issues. To learn more about the IOA, please visit: www.aging.unc.edu