Äldreomsorgen står inför en rad nya utmaningar, en ökande andel äldre befolkning som har stora vård- och omsorgsbehov samtidigt som resurserna till verksamheterna minskar. Detta innebär att verksamheterna behöver organiseras och ledas för en hållbar och hälsofrämjande arbetsmiljö för medarbetarna med chefer som leder med delaktighet och tillit som grund. Hur visar sig denna förmåga hos chefer att bjuda in till delaktighet och ge stöd i vardagen? Syftet med studien är att beskriva chefers förhållningssätt som blir synligt i mötet med medarbetare i äldreomsorg. En kvalitativ observationsstudie med induktiv ansats har använts och enhetschefer inom äldreomsorgen har observerats med ett passivt deltagande av författarna. Resultatet redovisas utifrån de underkategorier och kategorier som innehållsanalysen gav. De tre kategorierna är Kommunicerande förmåga, Relationsskapande och Uppdragsinriktad. Resultatet visar att enhetschefer uppvisar relationsskapande och kommunicerande förmåga till medarbetarna. Enhetscheferna förstärkte sina ord och tankar med sitt kroppsspråk i kommunikationen med sina medarbetare. Enhetscheferna arbetade aktivt med att få medarbetarna engagerade i verksamheten och när olika problem uppstod var enhetschefen tydlig med att låta medarbetarna själva komma med olika förslag på lösningar och bjöd in dem till delaktighet. Resultatet kan sammanfattas i temat Ett förhållningssätt som synliggörs genom att ha fokus på uppdraget grundat i kommunikation och skapandet av relationer. / Elderly care is facing several new challenges, an increasing part of the old population with significant health and care needs, as the same time as limiting resources for the function. This means that the operations need to be organized ang managed for sustainable and health-promoting work environment for the employees with managers who lead with participations and support? The purpose of the study is to describe managers attitudes that become visible in the meeting with elderly care workers. A qualitative observational study with inductive approach has been used and unit managers in the elderly care have been observed with the passive participations of the authors. The result is reported based on the sub-categories and categories that the context analysis provided. The three categories are Communicative Ability, Relationship Creation and Mission-oriented. The result show that unit managers show relationship-building and communicative ability to employees. The unit managers complemented their verbal language/ communication by using bode language in communication with their employees. The unit managers worked actively to get the employees involved in the business and when various problems occurred, the unit manager was direct in allowing the employees themselves to come up with different proposals for solutions and invited them to participate. The result can be summarized in the theme an approach that is made visible by focusing on the assignment based on communication and the creating of relationships.

The purpose of the study is to gain an understanding and to contribute with new knowledge on how unit managers in elderly care, manage the competence of assistant nurses. Furthermore, the study discusses what type of challenges assistant nurses might encounter. In their work, due to the increasing age. amongst residents in Sweden. Assistant nurses in Swedish elderly homes make a great effort to increase the quality of life for elderly people. However, in the long term unit managers in elder care will need to increase their amount of staff and also increase their unit of assistant nurses work competence. This is to give elderly people an even higher quality of care since the demands in healthcare are increasing in society and also people's life span is longer than before. Through semistructured qualitative interviews with eight unit managers in the elderly care field from the southern part of Sweden. We discovered that there are three types of competences unit managers define as an important source for working as an assistant nurse which are: language, technology and mental illness. Results show that unit managers have different ways to increase the competence of their staff, but it differs depending on what county they are in.

På ett år anger 27% av alla vuxna i åldern 18–65 inom EU, Island, Norge och Schweiz någon form av psykisk ohälsa. Trots denna statistik finns en kunskapslucka kring forskning mellan ledarskap och hälsa, då ledarskap tidigare har undersökts i relation till effektivitet, produktivitet och resultat (Wallo & Lundqvist, 2020). Denna studie undersöker i stället hur enhetschefer inom kommunal äldreomsorg beskriver att deras ledarskap kan bidra till psykiskt välbefinnande hos sina medarbetare. För att göra detta är studien utformad som en kvalitativ studie för att få en djupare förståelse om enhetschefernas upplevelser kring ämnet. Semistrukturerade intervjuer har utförts på nio respondenter för att kunna besvara syftet och studiens tre frågeställningar. Empirin som har samlats in har bearbetats genom en hermeneutisk ansats eftersom vi är intresserade av att tolka och förstå de meningsfulla fenomen som respondenterna har delat med sig av. Därefter har materialet tolkats utifrån våra valda teorier KASAM och Salutogent ledarskap. Resultatet i studien visar att enhetschefernas uppfattning om hur de kan arbeta för att öka det psykiska välbefinnandet är genom situationsanpassat ledarskap, men också att vara närvarande och bidra till gemenskap. Om ett mindre fungerande ledarskap hade tagit plats visar resultatet att effekterna hade blivit att medarbetarna kan känna en meningslöshet att gå till jobbet och en känsla av att inte bli stöttad. Till sist visar studiens resultat att effekten av ett fungerande ledarskap, där ledaren är närvarande, tydlig och kommunicerar med sina medarbetare, är ett ökat psykiskt välbefinnande. / In one year, 27% of all adults aged 18-65 in the European Union, Iceland, Norway and Schweiz report some form of mental illness. Despite these statistics, there is a knowledge gap around research between leadership and health, as leadership has previously been investigated in relation to efficiency, productivity and results (Wallo & Lundqvist, 2020). This study examines how unit managers in municipal elderly care describes that their leadership can contribute to the mental well-being of their co-workers. To do this, the study is designed as a qualitative study which aims at increasing the knowledge of the unit manager’s experiences within the subject. Semi-constructed interviews have been executed with nine respondents to be able to answer the purpose and the study’s three questions. The collected empirics have been processed through a hermeneutic approach since we are interested in interpreting and understanding the meaningful phenomena which the respondents have shared. After this, the material has been interpreted from our chosen theories KASAM and Salutogenic leadership. The results of this study show that the unit managers perception of how they can work to increase mental well-being is through situation-adapted leadership, but also to be present and supportive. If a less functioning leadership had taken place, the results show that the effects would have been that the employees could feel a meaninglessness to go to work and a feeling of not being supported. Finally, the results of the study show that the effect of a functioning leadership, where the leader is present, clear, and communicates with the co-workers, is an increased mental well-being.

The most usual form of out-of-home care for children in Sweden is foster care. The responsibility lies with the municipalities' social services, while implementation can be handed over to independent foster care agencies, IFA. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the unit managers’ experiences with IFA, with a focus on support towards the foster parents. The thesis was conducted through semi-structured interviews with eight unit managers from various parts of the country and analyzed through qualitative thematic analysis. The results showed that the quality of the service varied between different providers, and that most municipalities wanted to become independent again with the management of foster homes, due to excessive costs and a lack of transparency. The result also showed that support such as high availability of the consultant could be a contributing factor when engaging the service, especially in more difficult cases. The unit managers often experienced a competition for the few available foster homes, while at the same time they believed that the recruitment work of private actors was deficient as they approved unsuitable foster homes. This result creates uncertainty about whether the children's needs are met in a legally secure manner.

This study investigated the leadership challenges encountered by nurse unit managers and factors enhancing leadership in their units. Currently in South Africa’s private hospitals, nurse unit managers face challenges such as financial management, cultural diversity, new roles and technology. The aim of the study was to develop a support strategy for unit managers to achieve success in their leadership role. This study was conducted at a private hospital in Gauteng Province, South Africa. A qualitative research approach was followed. Data were gathered using semi structured individual interviews with a purposive sample of six operational unit managers with one and more years working experience as unit managers. Qualitative open coding for data analysis methods and presentation were employed. Three themes emerged from the findings namely, factors influencing the leadership role of the unit manager, the challenges encountered by unit managers in their leadership role and the needs of unit managers. The factors influencing the leadership and management roles were related to the challenges encountered by nurse unit managers in running their units. The findings indicate that a key need required of the unit manager is support and direction from executive management. From the needs expressed by the nurse unit managers, ideas were formulated by the researcher to support the development of a strategy to support the unit managers in their leadership role. The strategy includes eight key elements and is presented in the section that follows. / Health Studies / M.A. (Nursing Science)

Mental helathcare in Sweden is organized both by the healthcare sector and the municipal sector. Historically, there has been great ideological adaption which has given the municipalities a greater responsibility in mental healthcare. This change was concieved by political reforms and legislation with the aim of conducting more client-focused interventions to promote the users´ indenpendence and influence in their own life and care. This study focuses on how the unit managers of municipal mental healthcare organizations generate possibilities to involve user influence in their organizations. Through eight semi-structured interviews with unit managers, we find that the individual manager, legislation and the lack of political orientations and policies affect the outcome of user influence in the social work of mental health care. Through the result the authors could identify a few distinct key notions which contributed to the mapping of the discourse. Furthermore, the use of these key notions by the unit managers gives them the power to reproduce and construct the discourse which constitutes the practice of user influence in mental healthcare.

A qualitative, exploratory, descriptive and contextual study was conducted to explore health care unit managers’ view of their role as leader-managers, and to determine the challenges they experience and the skills they need to be effective leader-managers in the 21st century, the Quantum Age. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight health care unit managers from a selected public hospital in the Western Cape Province. The findings revealed that health care unit managers experience workforce challenges, with staff shortage being a serious concern; personal challenges, such as an increased workload and role diversity; and organisational challenges with regard to the management of equipment. Desired attributes and skills for leader-managers as indicated by unit managers concur with Shelton’s (1999) Quantum Skills Model. Recommendations were made for nursing practice, education and research, including recommendations on the development of the seven quantum skills. / Health Studies / M.A. (Health Studies)

The purpose of this study was to determine the contribution of unit managers towards the training of student nurses coming to their units for clinical practica. The sample consisted of students training in the four nursing colleges in the Cape Peninsula, and unit managers working in health services accommodating students for clinical practica in the same area. The findings revealed that the majority of unit managers were teaching students whenever they had the opportunity. Generally unit managers were prepared for their teaching function, but many students were not satisfied with some clinical learning opportunities presented to them, for example drawing up patients' care plans, discussing patients' treatment plans when handing over report, giving assistance regarding patient care decisions and lending support when students are confronted with patient care problems. There appears to be a need to educate unit managers regarding these and other aspects of the students' training programme. / Health Studies / M.A. (Nursing Science)

A qualitative, exploratory, descriptive and contextual study was conducted to explore health care unit managers’ view of their role as leader-managers, and to determine the challenges they experience and the skills they need to be effective leader-managers in the 21st century, the Quantum Age. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight health care unit managers from a selected public hospital in the Western Cape Province. The findings revealed that health care unit managers experience workforce challenges, with staff shortage being a serious concern; personal challenges, such as an increased workload and role diversity; and organisational challenges with regard to the management of equipment. Desired attributes and skills for leader-managers as indicated by unit managers concur with Shelton’s (1999) Quantum Skills Model. Recommendations were made for nursing practice, education and research, including recommendations on the development of the seven quantum skills. / Health Studies / M.A. (Health Studies)

The purpose of this study was to determine the contribution of unit managers towards the training of student nurses coming to their units for clinical practica. The sample consisted of students training in the four nursing colleges in the Cape Peninsula, and unit managers working in health services accommodating students for clinical practica in the same area. The findings revealed that the majority of unit managers were teaching students whenever they had the opportunity. Generally unit managers were prepared for their teaching function, but many students were not satisfied with some clinical learning opportunities presented to them, for example drawing up patients' care plans, discussing patients' treatment plans when handing over report, giving assistance regarding patient care decisions and lending support when students are confronted with patient care problems. There appears to be a need to educate unit managers regarding these and other aspects of the students' training programme. / Health Studies / M.A. (Nursing Science)