Frivillige og velfærdsprofessionelle på plejecentre – samfundsmæssige ændringers og frivilligt arbejdes indflydelse på de velfærdsprofessionelles arbejde

摘要

The purpose of this thesis is to examine how care homes involve volunteers in their work and how it affects the relationship between the employees and the volunteers. In order to examine this I have interviewed six people from care homes: two volunteers, three employees, and one leader, about their work and experience with volunteer work at the care homes. Besides this, I have used two quantitative surveys, one about Danish volunteer work in general and the other about the use of volunteer work in care homes. I have analyzed the data by using theories about voluntariness, the competition state, the development of professions, and recognition. By the use of this empirical knowledge and the chosen theories, I have found that volunteers work directly for the care homes and gets especially involved in the everyday life assignments, such as relational work that call for time, calm and presence. This affects the employees' work in a positive way by liberating time when the volunteer work functions as intended, but when it does not function properly it affects the employees' work by taking time away from them. The changes in the Danish society, from a Nordic welfare state towards a competition state, have led to changes in both paid and volunteer work at care homes. These changes have resulted in the welfare professionals experiencing that the amount of recognition they can get through their jobs have been reduced, compared to earlier, and that they have less meaning and job satisfaction in their work than before.