Psycho-Social Roles of Medical Social Workers in Managing Stressed Patients in Government Hospitals in Rivers State, Nigeria

Abstract

The focus of this study is to investigate the psycho-social roles of medical social workers in managing stressed patients in government hospitals in Rivers State, Nigeria. Two research questions are generated to guide the study. Descriptive design is adopted for the study. The population covers all medical social workers in Rivers State Government hospitals. A sample of 300 respondents is randomly selected for the study. The selection is done through the use of simple random sampling and purposive sampling techniques. Questionnaire is the main instrument used for data collection. The instrument is face-validated by professionals in the Department of Educational Sociology, University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt. Furthermore, the reliability value of 0.72 Correlation Co-efficient is established for the study. Percentage and frequency table are used to analyze all respondents’ data for the study. The results of the analysis revealed that psycho-social roles of medical social workers in managing stressed patients in government hospitals help the ill with such illness recuperate faster. Based on the findings, the study recommends, among others that State Government should fund the hospitals adequately, in order to train medical social workers on cutting edge counselling techniques for the treatment of stressed patients. Again, the state government should employ qualified medical social workers, who are proficient in psycho-social roles of managing stressed patients in government hospitals.

Keywords: Psycho-social roles, medical social workers, managing stressed patients, government’s hospitals, Rivers State, Nigeria