The subject of study of this research is the assessment of vocational knowledge in the health andsocial care program in upper secondary school. The study focuses on the first period of workplacelearning in health and social care program, which mostly occurs in elderly care. Eight tutors invarious nursing homes and seven nursing teachers at three schools participated in the interviews. Thestudy was conducted using qualitative analysis grounded on socio-cultural theory. The purpose ofthis study was to examine how tutors and health teachers interact and assess skills and knowledge inworkplace-based learning. The study reveals core aspects of vocational knowledge in health andsocial care. Findings of the study allow identifying four different categories of vocationalknowledge: Relational-, Medical-, Organizational- and administrative- and Theoretical skills inworkplace learning. The study highlights various tools and situations used in the assessment ofvocational knowledge, such as various checklists, assessment forms and student self-assessment. Thestudy also showed situations that consisted of consulting colleagues, consulting health teachers andtutors. The results of the study shows that students` personal qualities such as sociable, empathetic,initiative taking and being punctual was highly valued in the assessment. The study also showeddifferences in the assessment made by health teachers and tutors. Health teachers strongly focus onthe key goals of the course when they assessed the student's professionalism, whereas the tutorsfocused more on personal qualities important in the field.

Yes / Although training and workforce development are high on the policy agenda at present (eg DoH 2009), there has been less progress in thinking about the kind of education that might be needed in order to provide dementia care that is genuinely person-centred. A continuing obstacle here is the tendency to assume that people who have dementia are to be understood ¿ as a group ¿ by virtue of their shared diagnosis rather than by their lived experience, in which diagnosis is an interruption rather than the whole story. Three approaches to overcoming this obstacle that I will discuss below are arts-based learning, teaching social history awareness, and increasing the involvement of the ¿experts by experience¿, people with dementia themselves.

No / In this paper we will discuss the current tensions that exist between UK anti-discrimination legislation and the professional and statutory regulatory bodies (PSRBs) that govern registration of health and social care practitioners in the United Kingdom. The tensions arise from aspirations for a work force that reflects the wider community and the need to safeguard patient safety. We present an overview of the relevant legislation and the requirements of the main health and social care professional statutory and regulating bodies, whose overall aim is safeguarding the general public. Four individual case studies, which have drawn on qualitative and quantitative data to explore some of the ensuing challenges and seek resolutions, are discussed and their outcomes synthesised to make recommendations. Conducting research with disabled participants requires specific considerations; we reflect on these in this paper and discuss our experiential learning.

No

Yes / The development of a clear personal and professional identity – ‘knowing oneself’ – is frequently cited as a key factor in supporting anti-oppressive practice. In the field of health and social care, work placements are a major vehicle for equipping students to become anti-oppressive practitioners committed to making effective diversity interventions in a range of organizational settings. This article highlights some of the tensions inherent in the formation of such an identity and pays particular attention to issues such as discomfort, power inequalities, the discursive production of the self and ways in which educational and workplace organizational settings can simultaneously promote and inhibit such identity development. The article concludes that the discomfort experienced by students as part of this learning process is not only inevitable but necessary to becoming an anti-oppressive practitioner, and that the narrative process offers ways of empowering both students and service users to challenge oppression.

Yes / Ensuring an informed and effective dementia workforce is of international concern; however, there remains limited understanding of how this can be achieved. This review aimed to identify features of effective dementia educational programs. Critical interpretive synthesis underpinned by Kirkpatrick’s return on investment model was applied. One hundred and fifty-two papers of variable quality were included. Common features of more efficacious educational programs included the need for educational programs to be relevant to participants’ role and experience, involve active face-to-face participation, underpin practice-based learning with theory, be delivered by an experienced facilitator, have a total duration of at least 8 hours with individual sessions of 90 minutes or more, support application of learning in practice, and provide a structured tool or guideline to guide care practice. Further robust research is required to develop the evidence base; however, the findings of this review have relevance for all working in workforce education.

No / Ex-offenders re-enter their communities with limited pre-release preparation for the continuity of access to health care once outside prison. Once released, these individuals become hard to reach, do not consider health a priority and consequently use services to address their health and social care needs in a crisis-led way. Nevertheless, how nurses can best support these health-excluded group of individuals in the community remains vague and requires discussion. It is argued that current dominant discourses around equity of care are contradicted in the provision of health and social care services to ex-offenders in the community. Effective engagement with community interventions may be achieved if ex-offenders maintain contact with frontline providers who can support both their structural and health needs. Nurses are uniquely positioned to initiate and sustain contact with ex-offenders, intervening at points of greatest need in the community to address the socially significant health and social care issues that plague them. The use of nurses in the provision of health and social care interventions to ex-offenders is a strategy, which could increase equity in access to health care, reduce reoffending and improve both the health and life chances of these individuals.

Social care and health services for older people in Cambridgeshire have been integrated since April 2004. This study examines the effect of the integration programme on service users. Previous research into health and social care integrations predominantly centre on process issues and pay much less attention to outcomes. No study has evaluated the impact of fully-integrated care services for the whole user group of older people. Theory-led programmatic approach was used in this study. Multi-method data collection and analysis were employed to uncover and examine the causal links, the contextual conditions, the implementation process, causal mechanisms, and intended and achieved outcomes of the integration programme. This study reveals an improvement in the physical functioning of one in three occupational equipment users; a rise in the level of satisfaction of 85% of occupational health and 82% of physiotherapy users; older people with complex problems and high-level needs were able to be helped to live at home; and waiting time for both assessment and for services within two weeks and four weeks were below the national achievement and the ministerial targets. It also reveals a lack of change outcomes in social care, and service users’ low level of satisfaction with social care services, which appear to be associated with the privatisation of long-term social care and the predominant aim in social work of achieving maintenance and prevention outcomes. The integration programme’s goals—unifying the care system, easier and simpler access to services and a single and quick assessment—were not fully reached, mainly because of users’ low awareness of the integration, incompatible ICT systems and lack of funding. This study contributes to knowledge on how the total integration in Cambridgeshire has benefited users and how theory-led programmatic approach can be used in this area and in the study of this kind of complex social programme.

Denna uppsats undersöker från ett brukarperspektiv om det finns några kvalitetsskillnader mellan den privata och kommunala äldreomsorgen inom Borås kommun. Undersökningen använder sig av sekundärdata, där Socialstyrelsen gjorde en enkätundersökning runt om i landets alla kommuner och som vi därefter sammanfattade alla svar utifrån det vi undersökte. I denna studie så samlades sekundärdata in för att sedan analyseras, för att sedan komma fram till hur kvaliteten är men även hur den skiljer sig åt på den kommunala samt privata äldreomsorgen. Kvaliteten som undersöks är bemötandet, tiden, tryggheten samt 4 äldreomsorgens olika områden som helhet. I studien finns även olika teorier kring kvaliteten samt hur man ska effektivisera arbetsplatserna så kvaliteterna höjs, så att man får fler nöjda brukare. Studien undersöker äldreomsorgen från tre olika sidor, vi undersökte hur kvaliteten är på ett äldreboende, särskilt boende samt hemtjänsten på både kommunal och privat äldreomsorg. Efter analysen av datamaterialet som används så fick vi fram ett resultat kring frågeställningen som löd, "Hur skiljer sig kvaliteten åt på kommunala kontra privat äldreomsorg?". Resultatet blev inte exakt som vi tänkte. Vår hypotes var att kommunal äldreomsorg skulle vara bättre på alla punkter med tanke på att privat äldreomsorg har mer med ett vinstdrivet tänk att göra. Slutresultatet var att det var ganska så jämnt, inom vissa områden var kvaliteten på kommunal bättre och i vissa fall så var kvaliteten inom privat bättre. Om man ser resultatet i helhet så var kommunal äldreomsorg bättre inom flera områden men inte med stora skillnader. Det vi kom fram till vara att kvaliteten på kommunal äldreomsorg är i sin helhet bättre än den privata äldreomsorgen. Vård och omsorg är ett brett ämne och vi rekommenderar att man forskar vidare kring det för att få en större samt djupare inblick i det hela. / This study has been made from a user perspective to discuss and find out if there are any differences in quality between the municipal and private performers in elderly care in Borås municipality. The study was made through secondary data/information where the national board of health and welfare (Socialstyrelsen) made a survey in Sweden where the municipalities in Sweden participated, where we summarized the answers based upon our study. The valuable secondary data was collected and analyzed to learn how the quality is and how it differs from each other in private and municipal performers. The quality that is studied is the treatments, the time, and the feeling of safety but also the different parts that are included in the elderly care. The study also includes different theories that discuss the quality and how to make the workplaces more effective so that the quality could be improved so you have more satisfaction among the users. The study researches the elderly care from three different perspectives and how the quality is in a retirement home, special homes and home care in private and municipal performers. After analyzing the information and the data we got an answer on the question "How is the difference in municipal performance compared to private performers?" where our hypothesis was that the municipal performers would be better because the private ones are often profit-driven. The result was that they are pretty equal, in some areas the municipal was better than the private ones, but in some the private ones was better than the municipal. If we zoom out and look at the bigger picture, the municipal performers were better in more areas, but there wasn't that big of a difference, so if you compare the difference in performance between the municipal and private performers, in the whole big picture the municipal performers have better quality. Health and social care is a big subject and we recommend further study for better knowledge and differences that may come up.

Det övergripande syftet med denna studie var att beskriva, tolka och förstå vårdlärares upplevelse av att arbeta med distansundervisning på vård- och omsorgsprogrammets vuxenutbildning. Studien genomfördes som en kvalitativ intervjuundersökning med hermeneutiskt perspektiv. I resultatet framkom nio metaforer som konkretiserar vårdlärarnas upplevelse av arbetet. Metaforerna gestaltar distansformens betydelse för vårdlärarna och visade att vårdlärarna upplevde den egna erfarenheten som ett oumbärligt didaktiskt verktyg. Vårdlärarnas personliga egenskaper var av större betydelse än de tekniska hjälpmedlen. Vikten av att etablera en personlig relation med den studerande och att stötta och stärka den studerandes självkänsla förstods som centralt i vårdlärarnas arbete. Både det webbaserade samtalet och det fysiska mötet samt snabb återkoppling bidrog till att etablera en personlig relation, vilket främjar lärandet. Svagheter med distansformen var när språket inte räckte till, när den studerande hade begränsad studievana, brist på erfarenhet av vård- och omsorgsarbete samt tidsbrist. De flesta av vårdlärarna hade genomfört sina egna vårdlärarstudier på distans. Vårdlärarnas förförståelse, kompetens i flera ämnen med lång och bred yrkeserfarenhet, ett tydligt mål i form av en hög vård- och omsorgskvalitet, samt ett starkt intresse för att den studerande skulle lyckas, gjorde arbetet som distanslärare meningsfullt och betydelsefullt för de studerandes kunskapsutveckling. / The overall aim of this study was to describe, interpret and understand nursing assistant teachers’ experience of working with distance learning for adult students within health and social care education. The study was conducted as qualitative interviews with hermeneutic theoretical perspective. The result indicated nine metaphors that concretize nursing assistant teachers’ perception of their work. The metaphors show the meaning of the distance learning for the teachers and that they regarded their own experience as an indispensable didactic tool. Nursing assistant teachers’ personal characteristics were more important than the technical aids. The importance of establishing a personal relationship with the student, to support and enhance the student's self-esteem were understood as central to the teachers work. Both the web-based conversation and the physical meeting along with rapid feedback helped establish a personal relationship, which promotes learning. Weaknesses in the distance form was when the language was insufficient, when students had limited study habits, lack of experience of care work and lack of time. Most of the nursing assistant teachers had themselves experience of distance learning from their own studies. Nursing assistant teachers’ pre-understanding, expertise in several subjects with extensive professional experience, a distinct aim to higher health-care quality, as well as a strong interest to see the students succeed, made the distance teacher role meaningful and important for the development of the students’ knowledge.