Social work in healthcare is a topic that is important from several perspectives. In the theoretical part, I presented the development of social work in healthcare, defined interprofessional collaboration and the concept of professional identity. In the following, I present interviews conducted with healthcare workers and colleagues. In the interviews, I was interested in how the collaboration between healthcare workers and colleagues takes place, whether social workers are recognized and taken into account in the team, what their professional identity is, how well healthcare workers know the work of social workers, and what suggestions both groups have for improving the role of social work in healthcare.
In a qualitative study based on a sample of healthcare workers and colleagues, I found that social workers employed in healthcare have a well-developed professional identity, that the role of social work in healthcare from the perspective of social workers is very broad and important, and that they are well acquainted with the work of colleagues in the same institution, but somewhat less so with the work of social workers employed in other healthcare institutions. Both groups of my interviewees mention that cooperation is good, there are no major challenges, cooperation is of key importance for the user, communication is clear and open, the language is professional, and the goals of cooperation are focused on the user's well-being. I found that the professionalism of social workers in the team is recognized by healthcare workers.
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