Slasktratt - En kvalitativ studie om kuratorns roll i en medicinsk kontext

Sammanfattning: The aim of this study was to examine how counselors in hospital settings perceive their own part in an interprofessional team. Additionally, this study aims to shed light on how the counselor's work with the psychosocial perspective is affected by being a part of an interprofessional team. The empirical data has a geographical spread as it is based on qualitative individual interviews with eight counselors, who are situated at different hospitals across Sweden. The empirical data has been analyzed through Lipsky's theory about street-level bureaucrats' role expectations and Goffman's dramaturgical theory. The results of this study show that counselors experience that coworkers of different professions do not have an adequate or clear understanding of their professional role. This results in them having to perform unwanted tasks that are often not related to their professional duties. Furthermore, the results show that the counselors experience themselves to be the sole profession that represents the psychosocial perspective in the hospital setting. Counselors perceive their role to be a solitary profession. Being a solitary professional result in having an impaired bond with other professionals as well as with other counselors. The results also show that counselors experience a hierarchy in the hospital setting that sometimes affects their role in the interprofessional team. Our conclusion is that there are both pros and cons to having a professional role that is not strictly limited to a specific definition. In our opinion, it would be a challenge to make the counselor's role easier to define without limiting their room for action.