Social Work Practice in Medical Setting: The Case of Two Selected Public Hospitals in Jimma City, Southwest Ethiopia.

Abstract

This study was explored medical social work practice in health settings. The overall aim of the study was exploring the role of medical social workers in health setting to the particular reference of Jimma Medical center and Shenen Gibe hospital, South West Ethiopia. The study was helped to have deeper insights about the role of medical social workers in health setting, challenges of medical social workers in health setting, prospects of Medical social workers in health setting and the values and ethical principles of medical social workers in health setting. A qualitative approach, particularly qualitative case study research design with exploratory purpose was used. Purposive sampling technique was used to select the hospitals the study conducted in. Participants of the study were particularly social work practitioners and key informants. In-depth interview and observation were used to collect data. And the data were analyzed qualitatively. In order to enhance the trustworthiness of the research result, data triangulation was employed. The finding revealed that medical social workers played the role of psychosocial support to the clients and involved in multidisciplinary teams of the hospitals to address the needs of clients. And they are challenged with lees attention of administrators, shortage of budget and unsupportive environments. The hospitals should work on the development of the medical social workers to improve the prospects of medical social workers. Medical social works are applying the core values and ethical principles of social work profession during practice time. It‟s a promising endeavors so far that medical social workers involvement in the hospital settings though it needs further work from concerned bodies for improvement.