Experiences of China’s Social Workers in Interprofessional Practice during the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency

ABSTRACT

Purpose

Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in China, social workers have participated in fighting the virus in interprofessional teams. This exploratory study examined social workers’ experiences in interprofessional practice during the early stage of combating COVID-19.

Method

We used a purposive sampling strategy to recruit social workers. Ten semi-structured, in-depth interviews and thematic analyses were conducted.

Results

Results indicate that social workers experienced ambiguous professional identities and role confusion in interprofessional teams; found communication to be key to interprofessional practice; and identified facilitators and barriers at the organizational level.

Conclusion

The interprofessional practice in fighting COVID-19 has less mature or formal forms in China. Recommendations for promoting social workers’ roles in interprofessional practice in China are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Interprofessional practice
• COVID-19
• social work
• China
• qualitative study

Acknowledgments

We thank graduate students Jiahao Huang, Qianru Xu, and Xiaodan Chen at the Guangdong University of Foreign Studies for their assistance in data collection. We also thank social workers who participated in this study.

Data Sharing Statement

Data is available on request due to privacy/ethical restrictions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.