The proportion of elderly in the population grows all over the world which means a great challenge providing qualified health care, care in nursing homes and community care for the elderly. Staff in the elder care is predominantly female workforce with auxiliary part time positions and short training. Care work is often, not recognized as heavy work in the same way as male-dominated working-class occupations. From the stand point of management, the employers, home care workers are situated outermost in the organization. From the care workers perspective, however, they are on the frontline. In Sweden, for a long period, quite a lot of pilot projects to provide full time work in home care and nursing homes have been carried out. The purpose of this study is to examine how home care workers consider opportunities to work full time. What benefits could be anticipated, what are the obstacles, how should working conditions and environmental be changed for the care workers to accept and cope with full time employments? Further what training would be needed and how should education be accomplished?

The study has been conducted with round table workshops with two groups of women, employed as assistant nurses or as unskilled auxiliary nurses. They express a strong engagement for care work. They also express a perceived competence from their experience on the front line, both for the hands on work and for higher level skills, for example of assessment and advanced commitments. Further they are voicing a disappointment in the employer regarding organization, equipment and support.

The conclusions are, there is need for dialogue and cogenerative learning between care workers, the employer and education providers, both as a way to meet the challenge the increasing proportion of elderly imposes, increasing the quality in care work and as a way to provide care workers with better working conditions.