Caregivers’ attitudes to education and supervision in work with the older people in a nursing home

Summary 

Community-based care in Sweden has problems recruiting and keeping staff with formal competence and education. Both the caregiver’s well-being and the receiver’s care improve when the personnel receive support in the form of continuing supervision and education. Yet the caregivers in this study did not participate in a training and supervision programme during working hours. The aim of this study was to describe the attitudes towards education, support and supervision in the care of older people in municipal care in Sweden. The study used a qualitative approach with a descriptive design. Twelve caregivers, nine enrolled nurses and three nurses’ aides from four wards in a nursing home were interviewed. The interviews were analysed with qualitative content analysis. The main findings showed that all of the caregivers were positive towards the idea of participating in training and asked for education and supervision but felt that the management did not create conditions that made it possible to participate during working hours. According to the findings there is a need for developing new forms and methods for learning that can be integrated into working life.

Keywords: Nursing home, Caregivers, Older people, Education