Disability and spirituality in social work practice

In working with social work clients, issues of religion and spirituality are sure to arise. Religious views on disability can have both positive and negative effects on the individual. In our increasingly pluralistic society, these issues must be approached with sensitivity and patience since it is common to work with adherents of minority or nontraditional religious groups or groups whose values conflict with the social work profession. The purpose of this article is to enhance and develop sensitivity to diverse religious views in order to respect the values and life beliefs of the client while enhancing the development of adaptive religious and spiritual views.     

Understanding Nurse Perceptions of a Newly Implemented Electronic Medical Record System

Nurses are the frontline of healthcare; however, there has been little theoretically-driven research on their acceptance of information technology use in care delivery. This research utilized the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model to understand how hospital nurses perceived the implementation of a new electronic medical record (EMR) system. This study used mix methods. The survey responses indicated that social influence and performance expectancy were significant factors in system adoption. Effort expectancy did not have a significant influence on the intention to use the EMR. The interviews were utilized to better understand these results. The UTAUT model highlighted factors that are important to nurses during an EMR deployment and can help in future implementations of technology in healthcare.     

Beyond Words: Comics in the Social Work Classroom

ABSTRACT

Equipping future social workers to interrogate social justice, human rights, and cultural issues requires a revision of social work education. Culturally relevant teaching is increasingly important in today’s globalized world. In this article, we explore the role of comics as a form of social work pedagogy to tackle complex social issues. The article argues that comics offer specific benefits to educators seeking to develop critical thinking and self-reflexivity in their students. We present findings from focus group discussions with social work students to examine the relevance of comics in social work education. Ultimately, the use of comics as a teaching tool contributes to the effective preparation of future social workers through the mutual transformation it engenders in students and educators.     

Institutional processes of organizational culture

Queries into the creation of collective meaning through social processes arise in both organization culture and institutional theory. This paper applies DiMaggio and Powell’s (1983 DiMaggio, P.J. and Powell, W.W. 1983. The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields. American Sociological Review, 48: 147–60. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) three isomorphic processes (mimetic, normative and coercive) from institutional theory to re‐think how structural and dynamic aspects of culture become nested, taken‐for‐granted and transmitted. We consider both acquiescence and resistance to isomorphic pressures in an effort to understand cultural persistence and transmission, forms of resistance to culture, change, the role of sub‐cultures and power usage through Oliver’s (1992 Oliver, C. 1992. The antecedents of de‐institutionalization. Organization Studies, 13: 563–88. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) de‐institutionalization thesis. Our purpose in applying isomorphic processes to organizational culture is to offer another layer of understanding enhanced by the growing body of research in institutional theory, bridge one division between micro and macro theory and provide some suggestions for future research.     

Mapping social work education in the West Africa region: Movements toward indigenization in 12 countries’ training programs

This article presents the results of a systematic mapping of social work training programs in countries throughout West Africa, a region historically under‐represented in global discussions of the social welfare workforce. The research illuminates how social workers and related professionals are trained to engage in social work practice in a number of West African countries. The research was conducted in two phases. In the initial phase, the research team collected documents from 12 West African countries and conducted phone interviews with relevant individuals. The second phase included field research in five West African countries ? Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, and Senegal ? where the research team conducted semi‐structured interviews and group discussions with 253 individuals. Framed by indigenization theory, this study describes social service training institutes in West Africa and highlights the varying degrees to which programs have been adapted to indigenous and endogenous realities in the postcolonial era.