“Man vill kunna vara nära, visa att man är där, att man förstår” - En kvalitativ studie i sjukhuskuratorers upplevelse av förändringar i psykosociala samtal under coronapandemin.

Sammanfattning: The aim of this study was to examine the experiences of change in hospital social counselors counseling with patients during the Covid-19 pandemic, based on the topics “use of digital tools” and “the use of infection control equipment and infection control in general”. Furthermore, the study seeks to understand how the change in work methods caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has affected the perceived effectiveness and functionality of social counseling in health care, from the point of view of the social counselor. The method of use was a qualitative approach where semi-structured interviews were conducted with six hospital social counselors working in Skåne, Sweden, in order to acquire data. The data was processed through thematic analysis to sort the data into themes that were possible to analyse. We analysed the data from the theoretical viewpoints of Erving Goffmans dramaturgical perspective, as well as Randall Collins theory of interaction ritual chains. The primary results we found were that our respondents preferred the use of physical meetings, even though the pandemic has brought change to their work routines, resulting in digital meetings being the primary recommendation from the hospital’s leading organs. The technology used in the digital meetings have been troublesome to use efficiently, resulting in disturbance during the counseling meetings as well as loss of non verbal communication. However, the study also found positive outcomes of this change. The study also found that infection control equipment affects the quality of the counseling. Finally, the study brought up new research questions of interest that might be explored in future research.