The Unbalanced Role:A Study On The Role Structure Of Medical Social Workers

With the deepening reform of the medical and health system,the medical and health field has become one of the important areas of social work services,and the importance of the role of medical social workers has gradually emerged.At present,Beijing,Shanghai,Changsha,Wuhan and other cities have begun to explore the medical social work model.In this process,the role of medical social workers has become an important issue in the development of medical social work.Taking Z hospital in Hubei Province as an example,this paper analyzes and discusses the imbalance of the role structure of medical social workers by using the participation observation method and interview method.Firstly,this paper reviews the differences between the Cabot model and the Cannon model on the role of medical social workers in the initial stage of medical social work development,and discusses whether medical social workers are auxiliary roles or comprehensive roles.Through literature review,this paper summarizes the role of national policy,social work professional field and medical social workers’ own role in medical social workers,all these are called inevitability roles.Subsequently,this paper summarizes the actual role structure of medical social workers in combination with the medical social work of Z Hospital of Hubei Province.Through the comparison between the inevitability roles and actual roles,the author finds the dilemma of the imbalanced role structure of medical social workers.This dilemma exists between the professional role and the non-professional role structure,and this dilemma also arises when medical social workers serve different subjects.Specifically,it manifests itself in the passive nature of medical social worker services,the lack of macro roles,and the limited functions of roles.Inconsistent role expectations and insufficient role resources are the main reasons for the imbalanced role structure of medical social workers.The role expectation between different subjects and medical social workers are inconsistent,which lead to the failure of some roles in the service process.And the lack of policy support,professional education and the inhabitation of resource channels also cause imbalances in the role structure of medical social workers.Finally,combined with the actual background of China’s medical system reform,this author proposes that the medical social workers,hospitals,universities and governments should improve the role of medical social workers from the micro,meso and macro level.