The research in the article Interprofessional collaboration and integration as experienced by social workers in health care was aimed at studying social workers who work in the healthcare sector and are involved in interprofessional collaboration. The study, which took place in the form of surveys and observation, showed that many of them do not understand, in principle, the restrictions and responsibilities of their own roles, or they say that other employees working next to them do not understand delineation regarding their job responsibilities.
Among other things, social workers mentioned that some of them receive uneven workload and, in some cases, do not have time to do what they think they should be doing, which is to solve the patient’s problems, but not offer completely superficial solutions in order to finish the work with one patient at a time and move on to the next. Many employees are dissatisfied with the way their work is evaluated by society and colleagues, as well as with professional interaction. What is easy to agree with, is that this affects their level of job satisfaction and, in principle, the perception of the situation, since social workers often consider their work to be underestimated and their potential unrealized. Many social workers are prevented from doing their full job duties, and are viewed by the professional community as being mediocre (Glaser & Suter, 2016).
Professionals in this case and the working environment should help each other, have a clear division of roles and assist if necessary, which does not happen in the correct environment of social workers who participated in the study. Authors of the article highlight that social workers are exactly those people who participate in professional interactions in medical teams and it is not planned that their role in medicine will go away in the near future. Because of this, they are an important integral part of such teams, which requires respect for the ideology and the practice of social work itself and the treatment of those who are professionals at the same level as other medical employees (Glaser & Suter, 2016).
The conclusions are made in such a way that social workers do not always feel their importance to society, for the professional environment and for medicine in general, since their work is underestimated by colleagues. For this, it is important to create the individual roles that they perform and designate them, both for the employees themselves and for society and others and colleagues for a sense of their own uniqueness and importance (Glaser & Suter, 2016).
Thus, due to the lack of internal communication between teams, social workers have difficulties integrating into health care teams, as they cannot effectively cooperate with them. The study, however, did not know any demographic details of the participants. This is due to the fact that complete anonymity was observed and no data was disclosed in relation to all respondents. Additionally, recommendations were provided for follow-up research, such as confirming the results of this study through interviews with social workers in a wider range of clinics, hospitals and other health care facilities (Glaser & Suter, 2016).
In conclusion, the first of the main factors that affect the satisfaction of social work employees is related to the fact that such workers do not always fully reveal their potential, since they cannot apply all their skills and knowledge in practice. The second factor is that their work is often underestimated by other employees in the field, and is considered not so important or serious. Thus, underestimation and lack of attention to the work of social workers negatively affect interprofessional communication.
Reference
Glaser, B., & Suter, E. (2016). Interprofessional collaboration and integration as experienced by social workers in health care. Social work in health care, 55(5), 395-408. Web.