Social work involvement on student interprofessional teams: a qualitative investigation

ABSTRACT

Social workers on interprofessional teams help highlight the mental health aspects of wellness and alert teams to potential social barriers to care. Social work students have been valued in new interprofessional education (IPE) initiatives across the United States; however, researchers have shown that social work practitioners often feel outside of and not valued by interprofessional teams. Social work student reflections were analyzed as research data to explore experiences on student IPE teams. This was an inductive, qualitative study informed by literary analysis methods, reading for power dynamics and implicit bias. This analysis uncovered social work students holding on to stereotypes of other professions as well as detrimental stereotypes of their own profession. Displays of respect for social work and early opportunities for successful advocacy allowed social work students to feel confident in their role and encouraged participation. This study considers how social work participation can be encouraged on interprofessional student teams.

KEYWORDS:

• Empathy
• humility
• implicit bias
• interprofessional cultural competence
• interprofessional education
• social work

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported that there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Notes on contributors

Heather M. Sloane Cleary

Heather M Sloane Cleary is a faculty member at the University of Toledo in the social work program. She is also on the interprofessional education faculty and on the board of the Health Equity Research Center. She investigates implicit bias and empathy.

Cara Swain

Cara Swain is a recent graduate of the MSW program at the University of Toledo and is currently a therapist and case manager for a community mental health agency.