Date of Award
2015
Document Type
Thesis
Publisher
Edith Cowan University
Degree Name
Master of Social Science
School
School of Psychology and Social Science
Faculty
Faculty of Health, Engineering and Science
First Supervisor
Dr Vicki Banham
Second Supervisor
Dr Marilyn Palmer
Abstract
Hospital social work in Australia appears to be undergoing a crisis of identity. The current socioeconomic context of economic rationalism and managerialism is not always compatible with social work values and social workers working in hospitals talk about feeling threatened, despite evidence of numerical growth comparable to other professions. In this study I interviewed five social workers who were practising in hospitals. The method used was the Long Interview which allows the responders freedom to express their thoughts while providing a common framework for all the interviews. Using grounded theory methodology I distilled their common understandings about what it meant to be a social worker and to do social work in a hospital. Using a theoretical framework of critical theory I also examined how the hospital setting influenced these social workers perception themselves and their work.
Overall the results were positive. The social workers were insightful and articulate and demonstrated good understanding of their context and how it influenced their practice. They all felt the hospital environment was not supportive of social work but believed they made a positive contribution both to the outcomes for individual patients and for the hospital as an organisation. They all drew strongly on their social work values to confirm their identity so there was a strong common understanding of what being a social worker meant.
The ‘doing’ of social work was illustrated by the social workers by the use of bridge metaphors. They identified that they built bridges between patients in the hospital and their lives outside the hospital. As patient advocates they also built bridges between the patient and other staff to help the other staff understand the patient’s perspective. A third bridge between discourses, the dominant discourse of economic rationalism and the quieter discourses about upholding rights was described but not named. The only problematic area for all the social workers was their difficulty in naming the skills and knowledge used in their practice. This is noted as an area for development.
Despite acknowledging the contextual difficulties confronting hospital social work, the results of this study showed the social workers interviewed to be confident in all their roles and optimistic about their future.
Recommended Citation
Perriam, C. (2015). Social work is what social workers do: A study of hospital social workers’ understanding of their work and their professional identity. Edith Cowan University. Retrieved from https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1674