“We’re kind of on the back burner”: Psychological distress and coping among medical social workers during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

Medical social workers are essential members of healthcare teams, especially during a pandemic. Their scope of practice includes conducting psychological assessments, coordinating social services, connecting patients to resources that address social determinants of health, discharge planning, and patient advocacy. Social workers’ experiences of psychological distress were unique even before the COVID-19 pandemic; their work demands a high amount of emotional investment as they frequently witness others’ pain and suffering and navigate various daily challenges and crises. This study explores psychological distress experienced by medical social workers and the coping strategies used by these professionals during the pandemic prior to the COVID-19 vaccine rollout. Faced with conflicting information from state and federal agencies, social workers dealt with resource shortages, took on additional roles and responsibilities, and contended with regular value conflicts and ethical dilemmas. Our findings indicate that medical social workers are not sufficiently protected or prioritized in their workplaces and that infrastructure to support social workers’ emotional wellbeing is lacking. Distinct themes that emerged from the data under the umbrella of psychological distress include feeling unprotected, overburdened, and undervalued. We discuss a need for targeted policy and sustainability-oriented solutions to improve coping and resilience, mitigate psychological distress, and prevent burnout among medical social workers.

KEYWORDS:

• Coping
• COVID-19
• medical social work
• psychological distress
• resilience

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the @medicalsocialworker social media Instagram account and the medical social workers who participated in this study.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no financial interest in or affiliation with the@medicalsocialworker social media Instagram account. Views and opinions expressed on the account do not necessarily reflect those of the authors.

Data availability statement

Data for this study was taken from the Healthcare Social Workers’ Scope of Practice during COVID-19 qualitative dataset.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by University of Georgia School of Social Work and Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth College.