In In recent years,with the policy promotion of the Health and Welfare Commission’s Action Plan for Further Improvement of Medical Services,many hospitals have started to introduce the social work system,added a social work department under the party committee of the hospital,and started to recruit social workers.The development of medical social work in China has just started,and there are few experiences to learn from and not enough professional research,and more reference to foreign theories and operational methods in practice.In the existing domestic studies,the discussion on medical social workers mainly focuses on doctorpatient relationship,practice research and dilemma analysis,but many studies are still in the exploration stage due to the immature development of medical social work.As newcomers to the healthcare system,medical social workers are still in the stage of accumulating experience in their practical work in hospitals.Social workers who initially entered the field of medical social work have no professional experience to draw on,so in the process of practice they face problems such as low professional status,multiple roles,and poor service effectiveness,which have been discussed by many scholars.However,most studies lack the subjective perspective of medical social workers and tend to analyze the professional limitations and dilemmas of medical social work as a professional field from the perspective of professional development and policy system.Such an external understanding of medical social workers overlooks the complexity of relationships in the professional field and the subjective dynamics and creativity of medical social workers themselves.This study focuses on the subjective experiences of medical social workers in professional practice,and explores the role dilemmas and coping strategies of medical social workers in work practice.Through in-depth interviews and observations of medical social workers’ professional practice experiences and processes,the study attempts to reveal the work dilemmas and professional challenges of medical social workers nowadays.The study found that medical social workers face the problems of weakened professional role,declining professional identity,and lack of role practice in the process of professional practice,which makes them fall into a double marginal dilemma in the professional field of social work and the medical system.Faced with this dilemma,these medical social workers have developed flexible coping strategies at the levels of self,work,and society in order to reconstruct the meaning of their work roles and professional practices.The focus on the subjective experiences of medical social workers helps to reveal the connection between the professional practice of medical social workers and structural factors such as the professional development of social work,health care system reform,and social change,and further promotes the professional orientation and development of medical social work. |