Socialklinisk sygeplejepraksis: en kvalitativ undersøgelse af hospitalsansatte socialsygeplejerskers praksisformer i mødet med socialt udsatte patienter

Background: In hospitals, socially vulnerable patients have a low status in the health care system. Mutually negative expectations between patients and health care professionals are well documented. However, knowledge about appropriate measures regarding socially vulnerable patients is in demand.
Purpose: To investigate which nursing practices accommodate social vulnerability in a somatic hospital context.
Methods: Ethnographic field work, semi-structured interviews with 12 social nurses in 12 different hospital settings.
Theoretical framework: Elements from Bourdieu’s practice theory (the concept of strategy), Goffmann’s concept of stigma, and Mauss’s logic of the gift.
Result: Six specific socio-clinical nursing practices are identified.
Conclusion: Socio-clinical nursing practices work against the stigmatization of socially vulnerable patients. However, they are not unconditioned. In return for nursing, patients are expected to refrain from discharging themselves and remain on the treatment trajectory. Socio-clinical nursing has traits from case management and bridge-building functions which were meant to overcome strong specialization. Socio-clinical nursing seems to contribute to further specialization.