Evidence-based Hospice Social Work Practice Model

This qualitative research focused on exploring the principle and process of decision-making in hospice social work practice to form a guiding model for the hospice social workers by using grounded theory.Totally,14 social work students who participated in “ ‘Ningyang' Demonstration Program for Hospice Social Work” took part in this research as interviewees.Each of them participated in a semi-structured interview that has been recorded and transcribed by the researcher.The transcripts and documentary evidence were coded and analyzed by opening code,axial coding and selective coding,and a three-circle model of hospice social work was developed to describe “most available evidence” “client's status and preferences” “social worker's status and traits” and “decision-making principles”.Subcategories of each component of the three-circle model were identified and illustrated by narrative data.Then the stakeholders of hospice social work practice and the environment they live in were added to this model to form an evidence-based hospice social work practice model.Finally defined the evidence-based hospice social work practice as a sustainable and interactive process of decision-making.During this process,social workers do assessments and work out interventions by interacting with patients and their relatives in family system,supervisors and schoolmates in school system,doctors and nurses in hospice system to share information about “most available evidence” “client's status and preferences” “social worker's status and preferences”,and integrating them with decision-making principles.