How Do Social Workers Working in Long-term Care Understand Their Roles? Using British Columbia, Canada as an Example

ABSTRACT

A common problem faced by social workers working in long-term care is that they are not given the opportunity to tell how they understand their roles and thus their roles are neither understood nor recognized by other professionals. There is a need for social workers to tell how they understand their roles so that their roles can be better understood and recognized. A research study was conducted in the province of British Columbia in Canada to explore how social workers working in long-term care understand their roles. Fourteen semi-structured interviews were conducted. Five themes were identified, including advocating for the most vulnerable, humanizing long-term care, balancing between self-determination and safety, dancing with the systems, and facilitating collaboration. The results reiterated but also supplemented the existing literature. This research study also proposes future research studies on the roles of social workers working in long-term care.

KEYWORDS:

• long-term care
• Canada
• qualitative analysis
• professional workforce issues

Acknowledgments

The author would like to send appreciation to all participants sharing their knowledge, skills, experience, and insights, as well as Dr. Vaughan Marshall for her support to the author on conducting the research and writing the paper.

Declaration of interest statement

There is no financial interest or benefit that has arisen from the direct applications of this research.

Correction Statement

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