Social Work Practice Identities: An Agency Study of a Hospice

Abstract

Practice identities emerge from negotiation among people working in organisational settings in practice communities and accumulate through interprofessional and professional relations to contribute to the negotiation of professional identities. An organizational study comparing social work, clinical nurse specialist, day care as an example of social care and chaplaincy roles in a hospice, uses distinctions in practice to identify the role of social work as problem-focused on family and psycho-social problems and as a broker in relations with external agencies. Social care roles were more concerned with developing personal fulfilment, well-being and support through group activities, chaplaincy with religious services and psychologically focused problems of personal meaning, and nurses as focused on health care issues. Insider studies of detailed distinctions in practice are a useful method to contribute to wider studies of professional and practice identity.

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