Overview
Social workers practice a profession which, in a hospital context, falls under "care", an ambiguous labeling (IN-TEXT CITATION). In a hospital setting, social workers perform daily jobs according to a "medical model" based on an assumption of detached service to all. In contrast, social workers are educated and practice social work based on empathy and personalized care. An organizational conflict arises, accordingly, between social workers and medical care providers, in bureaucratic organization based on hierarchy and control.
More broadly, social work is marginalized as a practice performed by female workers offering care services for patients, largely ill, poor or addicted. The social workers, from a medical organization's perspective, are offering "marginal" services given a room in a medical care context only to achieve an organization's ultimate end: profit.
Applying What You Have Learned
The first assumption about stress management in a medical care context is to assume stress is a natural given of social work profession and should be managed as is, in a chaotic form as workers interact and perform daily work (IN-TEXT CITATION). The second assumption is based on an acceptance of organizational hierarchy but offering "healthy cynicism" by emphasizing collective empathy against organizational stress and preset rules (IN-TEXT CITATION). Third, stress can be viewed as either a personal or organizational matter. On a personal level, stress is viewed as a condition organizations should not care about and individual care providers should care for stress conditions in order to be professional (IN-TEXT CITATION). On an organizational level, stress can be viewed as a normal and healthy condition in response to work conditions and hence should be handled by organizations by offering vacation or retreats (IN-TEXT CITATION).
If anything, social workers are walking a fine line in medical care organizations. To make sense of organizational situations, social workers adopt a medial model or socio-psychological model. In applying a medial model, social workers accept preset rules in what is decidedly a detached medical practice and hence cope with stress as a personal issue and an individual weakness each and every social worker should handle on her own. In contrast, a socio-psychological model interprets stress as an organizational issue organizations should handle by offering different solutions including, as noted above, vacation or retreats.
Reflection
The case for social work stress in healthcare industry, as presented in current case, cannot be overemphasized. Given to rules and regulations imposed by different stakeholders, social workers cannot but adapt to existing organizational design. Interestingly, stress for social workers is viewed as a marginal issues when, in fact, stress for "co-workers", mainly physicians, could, one assumes, be viewed differently given how physician-oriented healthcare organizations are. The position of social worker within a healthcare organization defines, if anything, basic assumptions about not only stress management but, arguably, almost about every aspect of organizational communication and behavior.
In coping to stress, social workers in a medical care organization, appear to have no written code for handling personnel issues. As shown in current case at hand, stress management is subject to different interpretations as if left out, among other things, for "lower-ranking" workers to decide. Instead of offering a policy defining specific, frequent organizational issues, workers are left to manage, each according to her own interpretation, her own "problems". This approach is, on long range, detrimental to organizational health. If anything, creating an impression, correctly or not, of differential approach to different staff groups is apt to cause organizational disequilibrium manifest in lack of workgroup harmony (particularly between physicians and "lower-ranking" staff) and increased turnover rates.
Works Cited
