The new government wants to introduce a language requirement for staff working in elderly care. What a requirement for knowledge in Swedish should look like is now to be investigated.
But the language requirement risks making it more difficult to cope with staffing, both managers and staff fear. Assistant nurse Nathalia Chavez works at Solbacken nursing home in Luleå. She is originally from Colombia and is hesitant about a language requirement in elderly care.
– If there are no staff now, imagine what it will be like then. There are many from other countries who really want to work, but if they should have that requirement, I don’t know…
The unit manager at Solbacken, on the other hand, sees advantages in a language requirement.
– We must have some requirements, we work with people and must understand each other, says Rose-Marie Stålnacke, unit manager at Solbacken. At the same time, she admits that a language requirement can make it harder to get hold of staff.
In the clip above: This is what 83-year-old Irma at Solbacken says about language requirements among the staff