Trauma, villkor och praktik : Kuratorns roll inom akut- och intensivsjukvård

Sammanfattning

This master-thesis explores how hospital social workers in emergency and intensive care settings understand and relate to trauma, how they support patients and relatives in acute situations, and how the healthcare organization influences their profession. Through the analysis of nine qualitative interview transcripts, a practice grounded in linguistic sensitivity, relational presence, and ethical attentiveness emerges. These described practices enable hospital social workers to create stability and meaning in moments marked by shock and uncertainty. The findings show that hospital social workers actively renegotiate the concept of trauma to avoid pathologizing normal reactions and protect individual subjectivity. While they simultaneously operate within a system where medical logics dominate interpretive authority. This master-thesis also demonstrates that emotional impact is a significant part of their work and that collegial support serves as a strategy for managing the often underorganized conditions of psychosocial care. When contextualizing the results in relation to trauma‑informed practice, care ethics, and neo‑institutional theory, this master thesis highlights how hospital social workers both adapt to and resist organizational structures. The overall contribution of this thesis is new insights into the ethical and organizational aspects of the hospital social worker’s role which demonstrates the psychosocial dimensions of healthcare. This describes how they not only work with trauma but also actively shape what trauma as a concept may mean in healthcare. The hospital social workers´ treats patients and relatives and carries in this the emotional dimension of care.