TITLE:
The Transfer of Knowledge between Younger and Older Employees in the Health and Medical Care: An Intervention Study
AUTHORS:
Emma Nilsson, Kerstin Nilsson
KEYWORDS:
Elderly, Work Environment, Intervention, Knowledge, Experience, Health and Medical Care, Occupational Health, Older Worker, Management, Public Health
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.5 No.7,
July
12,
2017
ABSTRACT: In the ageing society more old employees need to stay in working life for longer. However, the society also needs to take care of the increased amount of elderly in a more effective and respectful way. To take care of older employees experience knowledge to make the elderly care and the care employees work situation better and self-crediting to go on in an extended working life, new methods and measures are needed to be developed and evaluated. The overall purpose of this article was to evaluate how the participant in the intervention project experienced the project and its methodology. The intervention project followed three different methods: i) through interviews of the participants and the supervisor; ii) through participant observation; and iii) through an evaluation questionnaire to participants after the project was completed. The intervention project did transfer knowledge between different fields, that are, between generations, between different departments and between the municipality and county. The participation was described as not only a place for reflection and knowledge, but also a protected zone where participants could talk about the kind of problems they would ponder over. Several participants felt that it was important to develop and continue the work that the intervention project set in motion. The participants’ experience was made to be visible and their professional competence has been strengthened. They indicated that there had been an exchange of knowledge and between not only the generations but also the different kinds of work. The organisations also seem to have gained from the project by allowing the participants to unload, become more positive, develop more knowledge of experience, increase their propensity for reflection and get a better consensus between the municipality and county. The intervention project seems to have fulfilled the stated purpose and also the expectations of the participants.