Concepts Unifying Social Work and Nursing Collaboration in Practice with Vulnerable Populations

Abstract

The authors focus on how social work and nursing can collaborate in addressing vulnerability as a result of people’s exposure to serious social issues and the challenges they can experience when they are embedded in situations in which deprivation is prevalent. The observations the authors make about interprofessional collaboration emerged from a social work–nursing collaboration the authors developed over a 14-year period in which they worked to conceptualise, test, and refine interventions useful in helping older African American women cope with and emerge out of homelessness. The authors provide background on a community-based project and the issues that it addressed. They also identify and elaborate six concepts useful in unifying social work and nursing in helping members of vulnerable populations, particularly when they experience health issues as a consequence of their exposure to a serious social problem.