Role of Social Worker in the Care of Hospitalized Child

Social work in health care is a field in which health care blends with social care and represents inseparable part of curing and nursing process. There is not given enough attention and importance to this field, which it should deserve. The role of a social worker in the care of a hospitalized child is not sufficiently surveyed and defined, and therefore it became the theme of this dissertation. The main objective of this research was to look into the role of a social worker in the care of a hospitalized child. These partial goals were set for the survey: 1. To find out the subjective perception of the role of a social worker in the care of a hospitalized child from the point of the social workers themselves. 2. To find out what goal the operation of social work in the care of a hospitalized child is to achieve. 3. To look into what position in the medical team the social worker has in the framework of the care of a hospitalized child. 4. To find out what methods of social work are the most frequently used by social workers in the care of a hospitalized child. The theoretical part of the dissertation deals with social work in hospital. Following chapters describe social workers in hospital including their approaches to clients and theoretical definition of their role. Chapters dealing with children in hospital, social work with them and the whole family also represent a significant part of the theory. A qualitative survey using the method of making inquires was chosen for the purposes of the dissertation. The survey was carried out in a semi-conducted interview, which was divided into several fields enabling deeper insight into this specific profession and more concrete characteristics of the role held by the social worker in the care of a hospitalized child. A surveyed specimen consisted of female social workers in hospitals working within the framework of their field work with hospitalized children and their families. The selection of the surveyed specimen was intentional. For the sake of the survey ten interviews with social workers were carried out. Thanks to the opinions of the social workers the role of the social worker in the care of the hospitalized child can be, expressed with the aid of several graphs, which serve for clear and lucid orientation in results brought by this survey. Based on the survey results following hypotheses were defined: H 1: Social workers in the care of the hospitalized child most frequently hold the role of an advisor. H 2: The position of the social worker in the medical team is not equal. H 3: Dialogue is the most frequently used techniques in the social work with the child and their family. The survey reveals the importance of the role of the social worker in the care of the hospitalized child. The dissertation should mainly serve for opening the discussion about the role of the social worker in the hospital, in this case in the care of a hospitalized child