Professional Conflicts of Social Workers in Hospitals. Results from a German Participatory Research Project post Covid-19

OBJECTIVES: Aim of this article is to highlight results of the German postCOVID@owl project and answer the questions: how professionals acting in and post pandemic were perceived by social workers and to what extent participatory approaches contribute to their professionalization. THEORETICAL BASE: Social work in hospitals characterize an overall responsibility for complex problems and representing their ‘diffuse’ role and tasks in interdisciplinarity. Covid-19 offers a blueprint to generate knowledge about social work and its profession in hospitals, and identify practices and framework conditions in “crisis learning”. METHODS: Data collection and analysis by participatory and qualitative mixed methods, based on transformative research. This article presents results from the ongoing process: interviews and participatory developed recommendations for action in a vision workshop. OUTCOMES: Hospital social workers perceive themselves as conflicted actors between case complexity, pandemic consequences, and the hospital. They are confronted with balancing economics, casework in time pressure and own ethical values. Professionalization runs the risk of taking a backseat. Recommendations address policy, hospital management, social service leaders, and hospital social workers. SOCIAL WORK IMPLICATIONS: Hospital social work is an important profession in overcoming challenges in healthcare. A clear framework is needed. Otherwise, hospital social workers run the risk to be ground between management and ethical values.