Health Care Social Work Research Articles

Data analytics-driven innovation: UTAUT model perspectives for advancing healthcare social work

In today’s dynamic and increasingly complex healthcare landscape, leveraging data analytics in decision-making processes has become indispensable for fostering innovation and enabling more effective, data-driven approaches to healthcare delivery. This study explores the factors influencing the adoption of data analytics techniques in healthcare social work practice. It is guided by the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model and is aligned with key principles of open innovation dynamics. The analysis, conducted through binary logistic regression, revealed that facilitating conditions, effort expectancy, and self-efficacy are the most influential predictors of healthcare social workers’ intention to adopt data analytics. This underscores the critical role of organizational support, perceived ease of use, and individual confidence in fostering the adoption of innovative data-driven practices within healthcare social work. The results also indicate that social influence has a limited impact on shaping adoption decisions. The study’s findings have significant practical implications for healthcare decision-makers, social workers, and other stakeholders aiming to advance service delivery and improve patient outcomes through innovative data-driven solutions.

Innovations in efficient, effective and quality oriented practices and procedures in healthcare social work

Innovations in efficient, effective and quality oriented practices and procedures in healthcare social work

Healthcare Social Workers' Scope of Practice during COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic pushed the U.S. healthcare system to its limits, resulting in the need for flexibility in care delivery. This study aimed to describe healthcare social workers' scope of practice since the start of the pandemic. Semi-structured interviews for this qualitative study were conducted using the Zoom platform between July and August 2020. This study used a basic qualitative content analysis with integrated deductive and inductive coding to explore participant perspectives. Their scope was assessed based on healthcare social work practice standards. Four practice standards and eight themes that emerged from the data were knowledge and skills (care planning and intervention and social worker-patient relationship), workload sustainability (workload expansion and workload facilitators), interdisciplinary collaboration (collaborating beyond the scope of responsibilities and collaboration challenges), and cultural competency (institutional and societal). The findings add a deeper understanding of the roles social workers perform, how they think about these roles, how they want to be understood, and how they are best utilized in ways consistent with their training and expertise. Moving forward, healthcare systems may consider well-delineated roles and responsibilities for everyday practice and during pandemics.

Who cares for carers? Responsibilization and the discourse of self-care in health and social care literature during the COVID-19 pandemic. A critical review

COVID-19 outbreak produced an unprecedented crisis in care sectors. Nursing home workers, healthcare, social care, and clinical social workers (HSCW) often took the burden of managing the crisis in their facilities, risking increased stress, trauma, and burnout. As a response to this issue, increased interest in self-care in health and social work literature could be observed. Yet, the concept of self-care is problematic, as it focuses attention on the individual responsibility to care for oneself, regardless of organisational and structural factors and obstacles. The article provides a critical literature review, focused on risk factors and psychological consequences of the pandemic in health and social care and clinical social work, and on the proposed response, namely, self-care. The aim of the article is to systematise knowledge about approaches to self-care in these sectors and to critically review those approaches. Critiques of self-care are considered, including those informed by Foucauldian perspective of governmentality and responsibilization. The concept of community care is introduced as an implication and an answer to these critiques.

Implementing a hospital-based violence intervention program for assault-injured youth: implications for social work practice

ABSTRACT Youth in the U.S. experience a high rate of assault-related injuries resulting in physical, psychological and social sequelae that require a wide range of services after discharge from the hospital. Hospital-based violence intervention programs (HVIP’s) have been developed to engage youth in services designed to reduce the incidence of violent injury in young people. HVIP’s combine the efforts of medical staff with community-based partners to provide trauma-informed care to violently-injured people and have been found to be a cost-effective means to reduce re-injury rates and improve social and behavioral health outcomes. Few studies have explored the organizational and community level factors that impact implementation of these important and complex interventions. The objective of this study was to develop an in-depth understanding of the factors that impact HVIP implementation from the perspectives of 41 stakeholders through qualitative interviews. Thematic analysis generated three themes that included the importance of integrated, collaborative care, the need for providers who can perform multiple service roles and deploy a range of skills, and the importance of engaging clients through extended contact. In this article we explore these themes and their implications for healthcare social work.

Organisational contextual aspects among medical social workers.

Since the recognition of social work in health care, the number of social workers has dramatically increased. The proved association between psychosocial conditions and biophysical features encouraged in social work drove its professionalism and made social workers an essential part of the health care team in hospitals. Today, social workers are involved in medicine as specialised practitioners who share their knowledge and care along with other professionals to provide multi-disciplinary interventions and services to people in need. Using a self-administered questionnaires, this study aims to examine the relationship between two organisational-contextual aspects (i.e., organisational structural, and organisational resources) among social workers in health care in Saudi Arabia.

The analysis of problems of supporting long-term nursing of individuals who lost their ability to self-care in Russia

The article considers the issues of social assistance of long-term care of individuals who lost ability to self-care. The comparative analysis of established practices of social assistance of long-term care, of legal and financial support of family members implementing such a care in Russia and European countries is presented. The study was carried out using comparative jurisprudence methodology. The analysis of legislative acts of the European countries revealed possibility of including particular legal provisions concerning financing of long-term care and implementing contractual forms of regulation of employment of family members providing such care, in the Russian social welfare system. The study demonstrated inadequate efficiency of the Russian systems of legal protection and social assistance both individuals seeking long-term care and individuals implementing it, as compared with similar systems in the European countries. To improve these systems, it is necessary to recognize legislatively the care of relative who lost the ability of self-serve as labor function liable to payment based on minimum wage rate. To fix legislatively retention of workplace for caregiver for entire period of caring and/or grant him unpaid vacation for long period. It is necessary to adjust both amount of benefits for care of family member who lost ability to self-care and procedure of calculation of amount of pension benefit of caregiver. The study results can contribute to widening scientific and practical professional discussion in the field of public health, health care organization and social work concerning problems of optimization of means and modes of supporting long-term care of persons who lost ability to self-care. The study results can serve as ground for making amendments to national legislation to harmonize legal support of social welfare system and to improve protection of rights of family members caring relative who lost ability to self-care in conditions of forced loss of income.

Health disparities in orthopedic trauma: a qualitative study examining providers’ perspectives on barriers to care and recovery outcomes

ABSTRACT Social workers involved in interdisciplinary orthopedic trauma care can benefit from the knowledge of providers’ perspectives on healthcare disparities in this field. Using qualitative data from focus groups conducted on 79 orthopedic care providers at three Level 1 trauma centers, we assessed their perspectives on orthopedic trauma healthcare disparities and discussed potential solutions. Focus groups originally aimed to detect barriers and facilitators of the implementation of a trial of a live video mind-body intervention to aid in recovery in orthopedic trauma care settings (Toolkit for Optimal Recovery-TOR). We used the Socio-Ecological Model to analyze an emerging code of “health disparities” during data analysis to determine at which levels of care these disparities occurred. We identified factors related to health disparities in orthopedic trauma care and outcomes at the Individual (Education- comprehension, health-literacy; Language Barriers; Psychological Health- emotional distress, alcohol/drug use, learned helplessness; Physical Health- obesity, smoking; and Access to Technology), Relationship (Social Support Network), Community (Transportation and Employment Security), and Societal level (Access- safe/clean housing, insurance, mental health resources; Culture). We discuss the implications of the findings and provide recommendations to address these issues, with a specific focus on their relevance to the field of social work in health care.

Equipoise: Ethical Considerations for Pregnancy Options Counseling

Pregnancy options counseling is an intervention that supports individuals who are struggling with making decisions related to an unintended pregnancy and typically occurs within medical and social service agencies across the United States. This intervention is important, as nearly 50% of pregnancies in the United States are unplanned or unintended. While little information is presently available on how pregnancy options counseling is practiced across settings, there are likely many opportunities where ethical dilemmas arise for the counselor. This paper will introduce pregnancy options counseling within medical and social service settings and identify ethical considerations for social workers and other helping professionals. The paper ends with a focus specifically on equipoise as a state of being. Keywords: Pregnancy options counseling; unplanned pregnancy; social work ethics; social work in health care; clinical social work; reproductive decision making

Examining the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on social work in health care.

This qualitative study examined the COVID-19 pandemic as experienced by healthcare-based social workers in relation to practice, and personal and professional impacts of providing care in this context, with recommendations for pandemic preparedness and response. A total of 12 focus groups were convened between June 2020 and March 2021, comprising 67 hospital social workers across multiple hospitals and other care facilities in western Canada. Based on an Interpretive Description approach, themes emerged reflecting practice shifts; increased work and changing roles; imposed restrictions; problems in communication and decision-making; distress, fear, and demoralization; and co-existing silver linings amid challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic has substantially impacted social workers and their delivery of service. Addressing concerns through proactive responsiveness, both during and beyond the pandemic, are important in nurturing patient-centered care and a supported workforce. Along with that of interdisciplinary colleagues in health care, social workers' practice has been profoundly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. This article explores the experiences of social workers in healthcare settings during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A social and pedagogical work in the field of health: the Canadian experience

The article deals with the issue of social work in the field of health care. An attempt was made to comprehensively analyze the peculiarities of social work concerning health care in Canada. The purpose of the work is to identify the basics of social work related to health care in Canada and to outline ways of implanting experience in Ukraine. It is noted that the United Nations identifies Canada as "the best country in the world to live in", where the health of citizens is considered a social indicator. It was found that now in Canada social work has become an integral component of the field of health care. The results of the analysis of the current state of social work in health care in Canada indicate that the system of social work in the field of health care in the studied country meets the requirements of the time and follows global trends in the development of the industry. It is positioned as a unique type of professional activity to create social conditions for the health of an individual and increase the well-being of the population in general. It has been studied that the basis of social work in the field of health care in Canada is the system of social protection of the population, education, health care, social services for young people, specialized institutions, and institutions. It was revealed that one of the most important trends in the state of social work regarding health care in Canada is an emphasis on the concept of a new vision of health, which involves the creation of appropriate conditions in society, the promotion of the development of necessary life skills, the participation of communities, the development of the system of providing services in the field of health care health, etc. It was found that there are professional organizations of social work in the studied country, which determine the standards of the industry and the main vectors of training and development of relevant specialists in the field of health care. It has been established that the prevailing idea in Canada is that health is a broader concept than is traditionally believed. It was determined that the greatest focus should be on lifestyle, given that the greatest potential for improving health lies in engaging Canadians in healthy lifestyles. As a result, it was established that the experience of the functioning of the Canadian social work system regarding health care is very useful for Ukraine and can be applied after its appropriate adaptation to Ukrainian realities.

Role conflict and role ambiguity：the case of Social Workers in healthcare teams

Background: Is there any ongoing role ambiguity in healthcare teams? What is the evolving role of social workers in heathcare? In recent years there has been great international interest in understanding how to improve the integration of different professions in healthcare teams. Objectives: The article aims at contributing to the international debate on clarifying the role of social workers in healthcare teams and produce recommendations for policy making and healthcare teams management and the ongoing challenge of role ambiguity and role conflict in health systems. Methods: The study undertook in-depth semi-structured interviews with 12 social workers working at hospitals. The participants were recruited using purposive sampling. The data collection methods were semi-structured interviews, content analysis and direct observation. Results: The study identified an ongoing ambiguity concerning the role of healthcare teams in China as identified in other countries around the World. Their role has been evolving around social case intervention practiced on an individual basis without clear integration in the healthcare team plan or relation with the patient/client. Main Contribution to Evidence-Based Practice: The article contributes to the international understanding of role conflict and role ambiguity of social work in healthcare identifying key recommendations for olicy-making and health systems development .

Searching for the ‘Aha Moments’: Healthcare Social Workers’ Experiences of Hope and Meaning-Making during COVID-19

While serving as the leading mental health providers in healthcare systems during COVID-19, social workers have faced numerous career-defining moments, both negative and positive; however, limited research highlights how healthcare social workers process these pivotal professional and personal encounters to find hope and meaning. The purpose of this study was to gather a deeper understanding of how healthcare social workers navigated oppressive healthcare systems, social injustice, and their personal and professional caregiving roles to sustain hope, meaning, and purpose during COVID-19. Participants were recruited through healthcare social work professional organizations from October to December 2020. Participants (N = 54) completed an individual interview over Zoom or telephone. The study incorporated feminist phenomenology to understand how the predominantly female (96%) sample sustained hope amidst institutional, societal, and personal despair. Five themes emerged from social workers’ responses: withstanding existential dread; reclaiming family time and community; embracing “aha moments”; answering the call to action; and yearning for normalcy while balancing personal risk. Findings from this study highlight how social workers confronted oppressive systems and gendered social roles to find hope and meaning in the care that they provided for their clients, families, and communities.

COVID-19 and social work in health care in Canada: What are the impacts?

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly affected the world. In Canada, the impact has been worrisome. Canada is a large, sparsely populated country with a system of universal health care that is decided nationally and enacted by each province and territory. There are variations in health care, as well as in the provision of social work, throughout the country. The aim of this survey is to examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on social workers employed in health care. Participants were recruited for an online survey via social media, professional associations, and social work education programs. Three hundred and seventy-six social workers participated. Analyses were performed to: (1) investigate the changes in workplace conditions indicated by social workers as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic; (2) examine reported levels of distress, social support, quality of professional life, resilience, and posttraumatic growth among respondents during this time; and (3) contextualize these findings by exploring similarities and differences across geographic locations. Many respondents were deemed essential workers. Significant differences across regions were not found. The knowledge generated has important implications for all sectors of the social work profession in Canada.

The Courage to Continue: Healthcare Social Worker’s Resilience During COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated disparities in access to healthcare and mental health, often forcing healthcare social workers into ethical and moral dilemmas as they endeavor to provide equitable, humanistic care to their patients and caregivers. The purpose of this mixed method study was to explore how COVID-19-related personal and professional grief and losses impacted healthcare social worker’s distress and resilience. Participants were recruited through healthcare social work professional organizations from September-November 2020. Participants (N = 246) completed an online survey capturing sociodemographic variables, as well as mental distress, pandemic-related meaning-making, and resilience. Data analysis included correlations and regressions pertaining to meaning-making, emotional distress, and resilience, as well as thematic analysis of participants’ open-ended survey responses. Approximately one-third of participants reported emotional distress and difficulty in finding meaning from their pandemic-related losses. Participants reported a lower level of resilience when compared with the United States general population. Three themes emerged from social workers’ qualitative responses: the hardest year of my career; the collective loss of our normal; and we were built for this. Pandemic-related grief permeates social workers’ daily lives; yet their training and resilience foster hope to positively impact their clients, communities, and families.

Navigating the clinician-researcher role in health social work: Reflections from practice

This Voices from Practice article shares reflections of two social workers on our dual-role experiences when conducting qualitative health research as trained clinicians. Reflections and considerations are shared for health care social work research trainees to prepare for and navigate the integration of the clinician-researcher role in social work.

THE SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT APPROACH TO SOCIAL WORK IN HEALTH CARE

Social work in health care delivers essential services to South Africa’s vulnerable populations. The social development approach attempts to address inequalities and uplift vulnerable people. An explanatory-sequential mixed methodological study explored the application of the social development approach to social work in health care in the Gauteng Department of Health. The findings indicated that social workers in health care deliver a diverse service in attending to patients’ needs and are ideally situated to address and implement the social development approach. However, challenges are experienced in the absence of strategic policies regarding the implementation of the social development approach in health care. Keywords: Gauteng Department of Health, health care reform, health care settings, social development approach, social work in health care, transformation

Social work in health care in Canada

The article examines social work from the standpoint of the activities of a social worker in health care in Canada. It is mentioned how social work was formed in this sphere. The role of professional organizations in Canada in the formation of this area of activity was noted. Some of the challenges faced by social workers in health care in Canada at different times are considered. The current state of social work in Canada is analyzed.

Two sides of the same coin – Oncology social workers’ experiences of their working life and its pros and cons

ABSTRACT From the literature we learn that social workers in health care are exposed to different stressors connected to the risk for the development of burnout or traumatization. However, there is a lack of studies that focuses on the social workers’ own narratives on the burdensome, but also the rewarding aspects, of social work in health care. This study focuses on social work in oncology. Thematically structured qualitative interviews were conducted in a narrative form with 20 oncology social workers, half of whom were less experienced and half of whom were more experienced and with additional training in psychotherapy. The interviews focused on ‘pros and cons of practicing social work’ and the results were categorized by means of the similarities-differences technique. The burdensome cons concerned ‘Organizational and professional barriers’ and ‘Demanding cases’, with the latter divided into ‘Impasse because of hopelessness’ and ‘Impasse because of helplessness’. The rewarding pros categories all concerned meaningfulness including ‘Organizational meaningfulness’, ‘Meaningfulness from giving’, ‘Meaningfulness from receiving’, and ‘Meaningfulness from personal development’. Our findings indicate that the burdensome and rewarding aspects are two sides of the same coin. They are interconnected in the sense that the strain and challenge of being in situations of psychological despair also imply emotional satisfaction due to an experience of meaningfulness.

Employing telehealth strategies for opioid addiction during COVID-19: implications for social work health care

ABSTRACT As the COVID-19 global pandemic continues, more than 40 states have reported increases in opioid-related mortality. The issue of service access and delivery poses a major concern for those struggling with mental illness and substance use disorders in the United States. To ensure the continuity of health care during the pandemic and the co-occurring opioid crisis, the United States continues to adapt its healthcare delivery strategies, which include the introduction of telehealth. Telehealth is a relatively new concept and requires rapid systems changes as well as adjustments from both service providers and recipients. The proper adaptation to the new service delivery method could result in process optimization and improved outcomes for those struggling with opioid dependency. This study aims to bring attention to the opioid crisis that may be overlooked in light of the global pandemic and encourage social workers and other mental health professionals to utilize modern technological advancements to improve service delivery to their clients. This paper offers a literature review with four themes: (1) a retrospect on pain and opioids, (2) current telehealth models and practical strategies, (3) social work roles and functions in telehealth care, and (4) next steps and implications of telehealth for social work as a much-needed health-care delivery tool at the clinical and community social work practice level.