“You Hear About These Healthcare Workers,You Never Hear About the Social Workers”: Hospital Social Workers and Collective Care in the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Throughout the COVID-19 global pandemic, hospital social workers simultaneously experienced trauma along with the rest of the world impacted by the pandemic, as well as treating others for trauma in their professional capacities. This qualitative study of hospital social workers (n = 27) documents their experiences. Using a reflexive thematic analysis method, four themes were created from our interview data: organizational scarcity, organizational failures, care responsibilities, and the challenges of virtual care. We discuss how these themes relate to a model of collective care seeking to relocate responsibility for employee well-being from the individual to the organization, promoting institutional accountability and an embedding of care as a shared priority.