Yrkesbehörighet i hemtjänsten : Två yrkeskategorier om utbildningens betydelse i hemtjänsten

In accordance with the Social Services, all Swedish municipalities work to ensure that older people should be given the opportunity to live independently in safe conditions. For that reason they offer them extra help and support in their own homes. This help and this support is provided by the home care and their health care workers in form of assistant nurses and orderlies. The National Board of Health and Welfare emphasizes in several of its investigations that competence in elderly care is one of the major challenges in the future. They consider this a must to meet the needs that come with an aging population and to meet the current lack of quality in health care. According to The National Board of Health and Welfare, competence development is the main element to ensure quality in elderly care. Therefore they establish that all health care workers should as a minimum have basic professional skills for their work in elderly care. The aim of this study has been to investigate whether the National Board's goal that all staff in elderly care should have the basic professional skills is relevant to professional categories: assistant nurses and orderlies in home care. The study has been based on sociological theory of professions that intend to explain the relations between occupational groups, how professional status is developed and maintained within the organization. In order to meet the aim of this study a total of twelve semi-structures and qualitative interviews have been conducted with nurses and orderlies at three different home care services. The results show us how differences between the occupational groups may affect the status and reputation of the profession when questions of competence emerges