Patients' with Multimorbidity and Psychosocial Difficulties and Their Views on Important Professional Competence for Rehabilitation Coordinators in the Return-to-Work Process.

Azadé Azad,Veronica Svärd

doi:10.3390/ijerph181910280

Abstract

Coordinators may play a key role during the return-to-work (RTW) process for people on sickness absence. There are still few studies on the newly implemented rehabilitation coordinators (RECO) within Swedish healthcare, and none focus on their competence. The aim of this study was to explore how persons with multimorbidity and psychosocial difficulties describe the professional competence of the RECO they encountered during their RTW process. The study takes a relational and practical approach in defining professional competence, including both what professionals do and what they possess. Interviews with 12 people with multimorbidity and psychosocial difficulties who had encountered a RECO during their RTW process were analysed using thematic analysis. Six different themes were found: communicative and coordinating skills; advisory and guidance skills; engagement and advocacy skills; being persistent and flexible; being empathic and therapeutic; being professional and trustworthy. Most of these are found in research on RTW coordinators, but being persistent, and having advisory, guidance, advocacy and therapeutic skills have not been recognised as important competences previously. This study adds patients’ views on important professional competence that support the RTW process, which should be regarded in further developments of RECOs’ functions and their competence descriptions.

Highlights

Published: 29 September 2021The role of coordinators as professionals who play a key role during the return-to-work (RTW) process after sickness absence (SA) has been the focus of increasing research in recent years
RTW coordinators often work within the workplace or at insurance companies, but in Sweden they are mostly placed within the healthcare system, where they are called rehabilitation coordinators (RECO)
There were no specific interview questions addressing professional competence; instead, we explored how the participants during the interviews described the professional competence of the RECO they encountered

Summary

Introduction

Published: 29 September 2021The role of coordinators as professionals who play a key role during the return-to-work (RTW) process after sickness absence (SA) has been the focus of increasing research in recent years. RTW coordinators often work within the workplace or at insurance companies, but in Sweden they are mostly placed within the healthcare system, where they are called rehabilitation coordinators (RECO). RTW coordinating services are still in their early stages in Sweden, they are rapidly increasing, due to the ongoing and widespread implementation of RECOs. Since 2020, healthcare services in Sweden are obliged to offer patients on SA rehabilitation coordination if needed [1]. The function of the RECO is to give individualised support to the patient in the rehabilitation and RTW process, as well as to initiate and manage both internal coordination with other healthcare professionals and external coordination with, for example, the employer, the Social Insurance Agency (SIA), and the social services [2]

Objectives

Results

Discussion

Conclusion