Anna Lena Rademaker
Professional Conflicts of Social Workers in Hospitals. Results from a German Participatory Research Project post Covid-19
Číslo: 4/2024
Periodikum: Sociální práce
Klíčová slova: hospital social work, professionalization, participatory research, mixed methods, transdisciplinary
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Anotace:
OBJECTIVES: Aim of this article is to highlight results of the German postCOVID@owl
project and answer the questions: how professionals acting in and post pandemic were perceived by
social workers and to what extent participatory approaches contribute to their professionalization.
THEORETICAL BASE: Social work in hospitals characterize an overall responsibility for
complex problems and representing their ‘diffuse’ role and tasks in interdisciplinarity. Covid-19
offers a blueprint to generate knowledge about social work and its profession in hospitals, and
identify practices and framework conditions in “crisis learning”. METHODS: Data collection
and analysis by participatory and qualitative mixed methods, based on transformative research.
This article presents results from the ongoing process: interviews and participatory developed
recommendations for action in a vision workshop. OUTCOMES: Hospital social workers
perceive themselves as conflicted actors between case complexity, pandemic consequences, and
the hospital. They are confronted with balancing economics, casework in time pressure and own
ethical values. Professionalization runs the risk of taking a backseat. Recommendations address
policy, hospital management, social service leaders, and hospital social workers. SOCIAL WORK
IMPLICATIONS: Hospital social work is an important profession in overcoming challenges
in healthcare. A clear framework is needed. Otherwise, hospital social workers run the risk to be
ground between management and ethical values.
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project and answer the questions: how professionals acting in and post pandemic were perceived by
social workers and to what extent participatory approaches contribute to their professionalization.
THEORETICAL BASE: Social work in hospitals characterize an overall responsibility for
complex problems and representing their ‘diffuse’ role and tasks in interdisciplinarity. Covid-19
offers a blueprint to generate knowledge about social work and its profession in hospitals, and
identify practices and framework conditions in “crisis learning”. METHODS: Data collection
and analysis by participatory and qualitative mixed methods, based on transformative research.
This article presents results from the ongoing process: interviews and participatory developed
recommendations for action in a vision workshop. OUTCOMES: Hospital social workers
perceive themselves as conflicted actors between case complexity, pandemic consequences, and
the hospital. They are confronted with balancing economics, casework in time pressure and own
ethical values. Professionalization runs the risk of taking a backseat. Recommendations address
policy, hospital management, social service leaders, and hospital social workers. SOCIAL WORK
IMPLICATIONS: Hospital social work is an important profession in overcoming challenges
in healthcare. A clear framework is needed. Otherwise, hospital social workers run the risk to be
ground between management and ethical values.