Kuratorn - från allas springflicka till terapeut på remiss?

The purpose of this qualitative research was to examine how medical social workers define their professional commission and expertise. It also examines whether the idea of their professional role is established among other professions within the healthcare system, enabling them to gain access to and carry out their professional social work. The empirical research, consisting of interviews with 3 medical social workers, 2 physicians and 2 nurses, was analyzed from a professional theoretical perspective trough coding. The results showed that the medical social workers divide their duties into categories which are given various value. The profession requires psychosocial assessments; different types of counseling are described as the interesting and desirable aspect of the work while practical issues are preferred to be peripheral. As doctors, nurses and psychologists also take part in the “counseling territory”, the implications of boundary work were most obvious here. The medical social workers made an effort in positioning themselves in this area through further education. The development toward counseling emphasized work was supported by the physicians who predicted they would have less time for this in the future. The medical social workers described their expertise in abstract terms such as ”psychosocial competency” and ”a broad set of qualifications” that other professions were lacking. The responses by physicians and nurses were not unequivocal describing the work of the medical social workers but rather stressed their relieving role and function as well as their applicable/useful further expertise within certain areas. In addition to this, it became apparent that there is a general knowledge deficiency throughout the healthcare system about the competence of medical social workers. This means the medical social workers have been given a unilateral responsibility among health workers to become a part of a mutual field of work