Summary
Germany faces a critical shortage of health-care workers, with 47,400 unfilled positions in 2023/2024, particularly for physiotherapists (11,600 vacancies), dental assistants (7,350), and nursing staff (7,100), according to a study by the German Economic Institute (IW).
The aging population is driving increased health-care demand, with those aged 65+ projected to rise from 21% to 29% by 2030.
The study highlights a broader labor market issue, with over 530,000 skilled worker vacancies across all industries, including 42,000 in construction-related fields.
Part of the problem in Germany is also the language barrier. A lot of employers are simply refusing to hire someone who doesn’t know German and their inflexibility. But if they want to continue striving, they sure as hell need to adapt to the new reality and make things more appealing to young professionals.
The truth is that salaries in the sector for those roles are on the lower end and a lot of people prefer to find better paid jobs.
The shortage is not due to an aging population, it’s because nobody wants to go into this field.
And that is due to the pay not reflecting the extreme exploitation of the workers, in an environment that’s not very conducive to a happy life. They all end up burnt out and have nothing to show for it.
They tried keeping the pay down by hiring Eastern European medical personnel, who would work below their qualifications (doctors as nurses for example), but apparently they don’t want to work here anymore.
The problem has been going on for such a long time it is now systemic.
Seriously, “aging population”?
What you say is true, but so is an ageing population.
An ageing population does result in more demand and less workers.
aging population
Must be the German equivalent of “nObOdY wAnTs To WoRk AnYmOrE”
Oh no, we have that one too.
Bud, fucking pay them and improve the working conditions, then you’ll get somebody who can be fucked. Dumb older people (and not only them) vote for austerity, lower taxes, lower social expenditure, increased burden on the young, and are then gobsmacked when the young can’t be fucked to work in low-paid jobs with a bad working environment. Brought it upon yourselves you dickheads.
germany has an immigration(or long visit) program that requires 2y of specialized training.
Hmm…
Germany was one of a couple nations we’ve been considering immigrating to. My wife is an experienced RN, too.
My main concern is whether Germany will be able to brunt the far-right movement there or if it’s as inevitable as it was here in the US.
Don’t know if it is an european phenomenom, but all the european countries seem to deal with the same problem considering nurses. The pay is ridiculous, workload is massive, every country is competing against each other hiring nurses abroad, but when the pay is what it is, people end up leaving sooner than later somewhere else. There is no future with declining workforce and increasing workload. The problems could be solved by paying sufficiently, but that never ever happens. Non-europeans stay until they become RN in europe, then they leave and I would do exactly the same if I were them. Considering that one should care for the patients best,things are not really looking good.
Ensure that your wife’s credentials are accepted here. I know people who were nurses in the US and couldn’t work as one here because their accreditation wasn’t seen as valid.
I’m not 100% sure, but might just need to take the Staatsexam. It’s a funny situation because registered nurses in the US go through a four- year bachelor’s, which doesn’t exist in Germany: just a trade school
You can also do work+university, best I can tell there’s actually no pure university option.
It’ll be a question whether you have 9/10 or 13 years of primary+secondary education: The latter qualifies you to study anything, while the former qualifies you for trade school, which then qualifies you to study anything remotely connected to the profession you learned.
If you want to bee-line for say a Doctor in physiotherapy starting with trade school might actually be faster, while with less hands-on medicine the route directly to university will likely take less time. On the trade school route university won’t really be teaching you the subject, any more, but focus on how you can turn your experience into novel research.
This “just a trade school” thing just doesn’t really make sense in the German context. You can study metallurgy and still not be able to weld for shit, or you can become a welder and then study metallurgy (skipping some courses) and be somewhat lost when interpreting Goethe because you didn’t spend three additional highschool years on a generalist skillset.
I know. I understand German higher education. I work there. I also have most of my family (back in the US) in medicine at various levels.
The US registered nurse degree is usually a four-year degree that involves practical experience, but has a level of biology, physiology, anatomy, and biochemistry that the German regiment has no time for. It’s one of the reasons that nurses in the US can do things German nurses can’t, like give shots.
We could go further and talk about physician education, where someone can be a GP with only a bachelor’s in Germany, but maybe a later time…
My point was: OP’s wife might only need to take the certification test. I’m sure she’s over overqualified too be a basic nurse here. Degrees are generally recognized ever since Germany switched to the international bachelor/ Master/PhD system about 15 years ago
GP without doctor is just a consequence of the vast majority of doctoral thesis in medicine, for ages, having been slop without academic value. You don’t need to be a good researcher to be a good healer, to know what you’re doing, and if you want to spend your career setting bones then there’s probably not much to research to be had in that area, anyway, so why force practitioners to come up with random stuff to investigate.
Did you know that you can become Heilpraktiker with Hauptschulabschluss, though? The only real requirement is the Gesundheitsamt judging you to not be an active hazard to patients and you can practice medicine. With or without scare quotes, from martial artists doing off-brand physiotherapy to complete but “studied” quacks like homeopaths.
Yeah, I saw where this was going. You have a thing against studying.
I don’t know what you mean with the second paragraph. I already don’t believe in that sort of voodoo. Keep in mind, Germany invented much of that bullshit. They still hawk homeopathic mumbo jumbo at pharmacies
Yeah, I saw where this was going. You have a thing against studying.
Not at all. Learning pointless stuff and producing pointless doctorates is not studying it’s wasting time and effort. Whatever happened to the virtue of laziness.
I don’t know what you mean with the second paragraph. I already don’t believe in that sort of voodoo.
The physiotherapy part isn’t voodoo it’s just off-brand.
They still hawk homeopathic mumbo jumbo at pharmacies
You could call it placebopathic and people would still go for it because wanting symbolic reinforcement of your wishes is a very human thing. Medicine shouldn’t be in the business of telling humanity how to be on a fundamental level, that’s a battle for philosophers, but in the business of providing health. The current situation around homeopathy is not ideal, especially those prices for sugar cubes are ludicrous, but this reductive “everyone’s an idiot and everything’s pointless” attitude isn’t making it any better, either. What would your way to kiss a boo-boo be?
a little less democracy creates a buffer against populism. Half of the legislature is chosen by the parties off a list (after winning support; sort of like voting straight-ticket). The parties make the lists, so they aren’t as likely to pick crazies as rogue voters. Then, a party has to get 5% of the votes to get a place in the assembly. Yes, the AFD has been meeting that occasionally, but, for the first reason, the real nutjobs find themselves in the lesser parties. On top of all this, the prime Minister isn’t directly elected, so a Trump (who most of his own party despises) is less likely. Germany is having problems lately; mostly with infighting and inter- party cooperation, but it’s harder for the populace to elect surprise officials
I appreciate the insight. So if I’m understanding you correctly, the AfD while they’re picking up fringe support, hasn’t really been able to broaden its coalition and lacks the capacity to hijack the government, even from a position of plurality.
I’m curious how the overall public perception of immigration will be for Germans going forward, considering the assimilation of the Syrian refugees Merkel took in, Germany’s aging workforce, as well as the existing need to fill jobs like medicine. Are there polling data trends available on this?
Depends.
Are you white and preferrably blond? If your ancestry traces back to Italy, the Balkans, southern France or Spain, you should expect racism.
I considered myself white, but a big 9 on blue eyes; nix on blond hair. I do trace my ancestry back to Italy (doubled: both grandpas), but I don’t get malevolent racism; maybe some benign. People think I’m Spanish, or are surprised about my job, but it’s not so bad
