The role of medical social workers in cancer clinical trial teams: A group case study of multidisciplinary perspectives

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Social workers collaborate with a wide range of healthcare providers in clinical trial teams, yet their roles may not always be understood or supported by team members. It is currently unknown how social workers and multidisciplinary team members perceive social workers’ roles in the clinical trial context.

Methods: Using a group case-study approach, social workers, core medical team members, and allied healthcare workers (n = 19) completed in-depth interviews to discuss the roles of social workers in a cancer clinical trial setting.

Findings: Social workers discussed their role as primarily patient-centered, perceiving themselves to be a counselor, patient advocate, and conduit. They also described areas of perceived limited role contribution. Other members of the multidisciplinary teams viewed the roles of social workers to be focused on being a conduit and coordinator.

Discussion: We found discordance in the way that social workers and their team members view the roles of social workers in clinical trials. Our data suggest that structural and interpersonal barriers may prevent social workers from working to the full extent of their license in a clinical trial context. Implications, future research, and suggestions for interventions to more fully integrate social workers into clinical trial settings are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Clinical trials
• multidisciplinary collaboration
• oncology social work
• qualitative methods

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge Tess Thompson for her helpful suggestions on the manuscript.