Noviser inom socialtjänsten : En kvalitativ intervjustudie om nyutexaminerade socionomers första tid inom socialtjänsten

Sammanfattning: The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of newly educated social workers having spent their first time working in the Swedish social services. The method chosen for this study was qualitative. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with five professional social workers, who had spent three to nine months working with social assistance in Malmö Stad. When analysing the results, Michael Lipsky’s theory of street-level bureaucracy was applied in order to illustrate the strong connection between social worker and organization. The results suggest that newly educated social workers, who enter the field of Social work through employment in communal social services, tend to face several challenges when the introduction period is completed. Some of the main challenges experienced were high caseloads, reprioritizations, morally charged decisions as well as the work´s close connection to laws. The results show that the perceived challenges are linked to the way in which the work of the social services is structured. Furthermore, the social workers abilities to develop functioning coping strategies such as planning, making priorities and a willingness to seek help from colleagues, during the early stages of work have shown to increase the newly educated social workers likelihood of experiencing work satisfaction, thus making them more likely to remain in the profession.