Research On Role Distance Of Medical Social Worker

In recent years, Shanghai medical social work is developing rapidly, but it is still in an early stage regarding the whole developmental stages. There are plenty of opportunities for improvement. In this study, qualitative research methods were used to analyze the gap between medical social workers' role expectation and role practice.Through the in-depth interview for 7 medical social workers in 6 hospitals in Shanghai to learn their objective experiences and subjective feelings during their work. Through the interview, we collected the firsthand information on the medical social workers' expectation and the facts about the work content, role, job attributes, salary, job promotion, and social evaluation. Based on preliminary analysis with the textual description for each dimension, the gap were identified between the medical social workers' specific performance and the role expectation and role practice. The results show that there exist different degrees of disparity in 6 aspects in regarding to the role expectation and practice in career development, job content on the distance, role, social evaluation, salaries and job attributes. According to the analysis, the main reasons on the gap were high expectation on social work professionalism and lower level of social work developmental stage both in education and work. Lower-level support from the hospital system, a variety of social worker's working performance also contributed to the gap. From the study, ways to meet the gap were suggested in a multi-facted efforts from the policy, college education, hospital support, social workers professional development.