Abstract
Medical social work is gradually developing in China, and children’s hospitals greatly need medical social workers. However, different groups have different perceptions of medical social workers’ roles. The role of nascent Chinese medical social workers in children’s hospitals is unclear, which hinders the growth of this profession. Therefore, this study aimed to resolve role ambiguity by comprehensively exploring the specific roles of Chinese medical social workers in a children’s hospital. A descriptive qualitative research design was adopted. Twenty-six participants, including medical social workers (n = 8), primary caregivers of children (n = 6), and medical staff (n = 12, including 6 doctors and 6 nurses), were recruited by purposive sampling at a tertiary-level children’s hospital in China between October and November 2022. Face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect data. Three major themes with eleven roles were extracted through Colaizzi’s 7-step method of phenomenological data analysis: (1) the role identified by all three groups: psychological supporter, resource linker, and consultant; (2) the role identified by healthcare professionals: coordinator, planner, assessor, advocate, organizer, promoter, and educator; and (3) the role identified by medical social workers themselves: manager. This qualitative study was the first to comprehensively describe the eleven roles assumed by Chinese pediatric medical social workers in the hospital and role ambiguity among different groups. The lack of medical background and practitioners, as well as lower social status, led to medical social workers’ role ambiguity problems. Recommendations to strengthen policy support, cultivate a new medical social work culture, and increase the social understanding and recognition of medical social work to resolve role ambiguity are provided.
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Data Availability
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to all the medical social workers, primary caregivers of children, doctors and nurses who participated in the interviews and shared their opinions with us.
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YS: Conceptualization; Resources; Formal analysis; Investigation; Methodology; Data curation; Writing-Original draft; Writing-Review & editing. YH: Conceptualization; Resources; Formal analysis; Investigation; Methodology; Data curation; Writing-Original draft; Writing-Review & editing. JD: Formal analysis; Data curation; Writing-Review & editing. JL: Formal analysis; Data curation; Writing-Review & editing. LH: Formal analysis; Data curation; Writing-Review & editing. ZL: Formal analysis; Data curation; Writing-Review & editing. JB: Formal analysis; Resources; Writing-Review & editing; Supervision. YL: Formal analysis; Resources; Project administration; Writing-Review & editing; Supervision; Validation. CX: Formal analysis; Resources; Data curation; Writing-Review & editing; Supervision; Validation.
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Sun, Y., Huang, Y., Dai, J. et al. The Role of Chinese Medical Social Workers in a Children’s Hospital: A Qualitative Study. Clin Soc Work J 51, 389–400 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10615-023-00895-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10615-023-00895-x