The nursing sector has been suffering from a shortage of skilled workers for years, the Bundestag has now passed a law that aims to counteract this with standardized training and easier recognition of foreign educational qualifications. On Thursday, the CDU/CSU and SPD voted in favor of the bill proposed by Health Minister Nina Warken and Family Minister Karin Prien (both CDU) in the plenary session. The AfD, Greens, and Left Party abstained. The law still has to be approved by the Bundesrat.
“Standardized nursing assistant training is an important building block for modernizing nursing care and securing the personnel required for nursing care in Germany,” both ministries said in a statement. The draft law aims to create an independent and nationally uniform job profile. The new regulation replaces the 27 nursing assistant and nursing care assistant training programs that previously existed under state law. This should make it easier for trained nursing staff to move between federal states in the future.
The training is generalist in nature and includes compulsory placements in inpatient long-term care, outpatient long-term care, and inpatient acute care. The training usually lasts 18 months, although it can be shortened if the applicant has relevant professional experience. A secondary school diploma is required, but applicants without a formal qualification can also begin training if the nursing school gives a positive prognosis.
After completing the training, further training to become a nursing specialist is possible. For nursing staff with foreign qualifications, a uniform regulation with a knowledge test or adaptation course is planned instead of a comprehensive equivalence test. The newly structured nursing assistant training program is remunerated and is scheduled to start in 2027.
After the decision, Health Minister Warken stated: “In an aging society, we need a broad spectrum of professional qualifications and clear career prospects in order to secure nursing care in the future.” With this law, the federal government wants to “get more people excited about this profession.”
Her cabinet colleague Prien spoke of an “important sign that the Bundestag decided on this law today in a very swift procedure, thus taking into account the desire of the states and professional caregivers for the federal regulation to come into force quickly.” The new training program is “modern, remunerated, and offers a wide range of development opportunities.”
The fact that it is also open to people without a school-leaving certificate creates “educational opportunities and opens up new training potential.”
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