What makes a ‘good’ care worker? How care coordinators and care workers negotiate professional and personal boundaries.
Jane Mears
Social Justice and Social Change Research Centre, UWS
Contact Email:   J.Mearsuws.edu.au

This paper draws off some of the findings from a research project where in-depth interviews were conducted with 12 care coordinators/managers and 22 paid care workers, exploring specifically what care workers and care coordinators/managers spoke of as central to being a ‘good’ care worker. Basically there was a general consensus in regard to the qualities, skills and knowledge required, for example, both groups agreed that care workers needed the skills to develop and maintain ‘professional’ working relationships with those they were caring for. However, what constituted a ‘professional’ working relationship exposed points of tension between care workers and their care coordinators/managers. There were recurring discussions about where boundaries might need to be drawn. Was the care relationship too close and how was one to assess that? In analysing the accounts of the care workers and the care coordinators/managers contradictory messages become clear. It is these contradictions that are explored in this paper.

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