Competence acquired: the learning process of professionals within social care

Abstract

This article presents data collected in focus group interviews with 26 professional social workers and carers, such as nurses’ assistants, assistant nurses or nurses, orderlies or staff in charge of coordinating aid, within Stockholm County, Sweden, after participation in a specific education and skills-enhancement programme, the Secure Encounters programme. The purpose was to study the learning process related to the competence needed while working with older people with mental health problems answering the following question: How do the learners perceive their competence after completing training? The talks in the groups were recorded and transcribed verbatim, and resulted in rich descriptions, since the participants shared personal stories illustrating their experiences. For this study, a thematic analysis was chosen, inspired by the idea of how the participants communicated about their newly acquired competence. The perception of their skills could be understood based on the dimensions of conscious and unconscious competence or conscious and unconscious incompetence, i.e. Lundby’s skills-development stairway was used to interpret the participants’ reasoning. The training course gave the learners an understanding that one doesn’t necessarily have to be action-oriented. One also needs to know how to ask critical questions during every encounter, not just assuming that mental health problems explain every intention of the clients. They also talked about specific qualifications, in order to work with older persons suffering from mental health problems, such as taking a specific attitude. In other words, the staff members formulated during the talks a consciousness about their competence acquired.

Keywords:

• competence
• mental health problems
• older persons
• learning process
• social work