馮潔(音譯)是一位接受過培訓的護士，一年半前她決定辭去在國有醫院的工作，然後在一家私人護理公司工作。
她說與在醫院的工作不同，現在她可以有更多黃金時光和病人在一起，而且額外的獎勵也多了。不過很少人步她的後塵，“來這裡工作是有風險的，我的同學們都還在醫院工作，這個行業和這種工作是新興的領域，所以我想試一下。”
中國人口的老齡化速度是全世界最快的，截至本世紀中葉，有4.5億多人將在60歲以上。
人民大學老年醫學研究所的杜鵬(音譯)說中國缺少為老年人提供的設施和人員，該研究所是中國唯一的此類研究專案。“我們有400萬張床，每三個老人一位護士。我們應該增加100萬護理人員，如果未來老年人人數達到3000萬，那麼就需要1000萬護理人員。但現在中國只有6000名持有老年醫學專業的護理人員。”
目前中國的大多數養老院都是國有的，但通過向私企、護理人員提供激勵，並為老年人提供補貼金，政府希望能發展這一市場。
李欣悅(音譯)說這樣的激勵幫助自己畢業後很快在一家私人護理公司找到了工作，“在學校時我思考過畢業後到哪裡工作，當時政府發佈支持私有機構的政策，當時有很多私有機構可以進，所以可以有更多選擇。”
除了削減繁瑣程式使得更多外國和私人投資進入老年護理行業，政府還想辦法鼓勵護理人員接受更多培訓，使更多有資格證的護士留在這個行業。
“這有點像30年前中國的經濟體制改革，但是主要是國有企業，後來就打破這一現狀，促進了經濟發展。現在我們看到的情況類似，也是突破現有的瓶頸。”
隨著越來越多的中國老年人到養老院接受護理，政府希望投資者能在本國的人口地理挑戰中看到贏利點，在目前主要是國有養老院的基礎上增加40萬家養老院。
BEIJING — China has the world’s largest population of citizens over age 65 and in the coming decades their numbers are expected to quickly grow. Already, officials are struggling to cope with the rising numbers of elderly at a time when there is a shortage of nursing home beds and certified caregivers.
Feng Jie is a trained nurse who decided a year and half ago to leave her job at a state-run hospital and work with a private nursing company.
She says that unlike her job at the hospital, she now gets to spend more quality time with patients and as an added bonus her pay is better. Still, few have followed in her footsteps. "It was a risk [to come work here]. All of my classmates still work in hospitals. I thought that I'd give it a try because this industry, this type of job is still an emerging field,” she said.
China's population is aging at one of the fastest rates in the world. By the middle of the century, more than 450 million people will be over 60 years of age.
China lacks both the facilities and the staff to adequately care for the elderly, says Du Peng, director of the Institute of Gerontology at Renmin University - the only program of its kind in China. “We have four million beds available, one caretaker for every three elderly. We should have more than a million caretakers, if in the future we will have 30 million elderly then we need 10 million caretakers," she explained. "But at the moment in China every year only 6,000 gerontology professionals are certified.”
Right now most of China’s nursing homes are state owned, but through incentives to private enterprises, caregivers and stipends for the elderly, the government is looking to shake up the market.
Li Xinyue says such incentives helped her quickly find a job at a private nursing home after graduating. “When I was still in school I thought about where I would work afterwards, and at the time the government was issuing some policies to assist private institutions…there were many privately run institutions available, so there were more to choose from,” Li Xinyue stated.
In addition to cutting red tape to allow more foreign and private investment in elderly care, the government is testing ways to encourage caregivers to seek more training and keep certified nurses in the field.
“It is a bit like the reform of China 's economic system thirty years ago, when it was mostly state owned enterprises and there was a break with that and a promotion of economic development. Now we are seeing a similar thing with the break down of the bottleneck,” said Peng.
As more elderly Chinese turn to nursing homes for care, authorities hope investors see profit in the country’s demographic challenges, and add to the 400,000 nursing homes that now are mostly state run.
