A Study on the Typologies of Embedded Development of Medical Social Work in the Context of Government Purchasing Services: Views of Medical Social Workers in 15 Public Hospitals in Shenzhen

Abstract

Background As the medical service model in China transitions from unidirectional treatment to holistic health, medical social work, aimed at helping individuals help themselves, has gained more opportunities to integrate into the hospital setting. Objective This paper aims to explore the embedding paths, strategies, and outcomes of medical social work in the hospital setting, to categorize the types of integrative development in medical social work, and to provide significant insights for the robust development of medical social work within the healthcare system. Methods Based on Granovetter's embeddedness theory, purposive sampling was employed to conduct in-depth interviews with 33 medical social workers from 15 public hospitals in Shenzhen, where services were purchased by the government. Data analysis was performed using thematic analysis with the aid of Nvivo12.0 software. Results In the context of government-purchased services, the embedding paths of medical social work include structural embedding and relational embedding. The main embedding strategies are "indirect compliance" and "passive compromise" under structural embedding, and "mutual benefit" and "self-empowerment" under relational embedding. The embedding outcomes also led to two different impacts: "administrative" and "professional". Conclusion The study suggests that the integrative development of medical social work can be categorized into four types: "superficial embedding" "administration-led" "mutual development" and "professional inter-construction".

Keywords

• social work|medical social work|embedded development|structural embedment|relational embedment|shenzhen