ABSTRACT
Medical social welfare is a field of professional social welfare practice carried out within the health care system, and medical social workers are required to have complex problem-solving skills and multidimensional professional competenc...
ABSTRACT
Medical social welfare is a field of professional social welfare practice carried out within the health care system, and medical social workers are required to have complex problem-solving skills and multidimensional professional competencies in a rapidly changing medical environment. In this context, the self-efficacy of a medical social worker refers to an inner belief in his or her ability to effectively perform various tasks and tasks, which functions as a psychological basis for enabling professional exercise and job competency strengthening.
The purpose of this study is to develop a measure that secures reliability and validity to systematically measure the self-efficacy of medical social workers in their professionalism and job competency in the field of health care practice. Therefore, through literature review and in-depth interviews with medical social workers, the concept, constituent factors, and contents of self-efficacy were explored, and questions for the self-efficacy scale of medical social workers were derived through verification through content validity, and the scale was developed through exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), reliability, and validity verification.
First, through prior research and literature review, the concept of self-efficacy of medical social workers was defined as 'a belief in one's competence to effectively perform a variety of professional and diverse jobs and tasks required in a rapidly changing health care environment'. In addition, it refers to the individual's subjective confidence that expertise, skills, attitudes, and values can be successfully demonstrated in the practice of medical social welfare in medical setting as the competencies required for job performance. A total of 60 preliminary questions derived through literature review and in-depth interviews were composed, and content validity was secured through a review by an expert group.
Second, as a result of conducting an exploratory factor analysis based on the results of a survey conducted on 432 medical social workers, a total of 31 questions were derived as three sub-factors. The derived sub-factors consisted of 'medical field expertise' (12 questions), 'professional attitude and value' (11 questions), and 'job performance skills' (8 questions). Afterwards, confirmatory factor analysis was conducted on the same sample (423 people), and the structural validity of the three factors was verified by showing good fit.
Third, as a result of the reliability analysis, Cronbach's α of the entire scale was .94, showing very high internal consistency, and the reliability of each sub-factor was also excellent with .92, attitude and value .90, and job performance skill .89. The correlation between the questions and the correlation between the questions and the total score also met the recommended criteria. In the validity test, the analysis was focused on the incremental validity. The self-efficacy of medical social workers showed a significant positive correlation with general self-efficacy (r=.658, p<.01) and job satisfaction (r=.451, p<.01), and a significant negative correlation with social desirability (r=-.225, p<.01). As a result of hierarchical regression analysis, even after controlling the general self-efficacy, it was confirmed that the self-efficacy of medical social workers had additional explanatory power for job satisfaction (△R²=.011, p<.05) and the incremental validity of this scale was secured. In addition, as a result of analyzing differences according to demographic characteristics, there were significant differences in the level of self-efficacy according to age, educational background, marital status, income, practice and training experience, position, contract type, and working period. In particular, the self-efficacy of those in their 50s or older, doctoral degree holders, high-ranking officials, regular workers, and practitioners was relatively high.
Finally, in this study, the standard score was presented to increase the possibility of practical use of the self-efficacy scale for medical social workers. If it is less than 66 points based on a total score of 155 points, it can be interpreted as a level that requires systematic support and intervention such as education and training, supervision, and counseling.
The main implications of this study are as follows. First, there was no tool to measure self-efficacy reflecting the specificity of medical social welfare in Korea, but this study laid an academic foundation for systematically measuring the self-efficacy of medical social workers by developing a scale with verified reliability and validity. Second, by using the developed scale, medical social workers can specifically diagnose the level of self-efficacy in the areas of 'professional knowledge in the medical field', 'job performance technology', and 'attitude and value', and based on this, practical strategies for self-development and professional improvement can be established. Third, this study empirically identified the psychological and practical structure of self-efficacy by empirically confirming the cyclical reinforcement system in which medical social workers' self-efficacy interacts with success experience, emotional support, challenging task experience, job satisfaction, and performance.
On the other hand, continuous evaluation and follow-up verification are required to improve the utilization of the medical social worker self-efficacy scale. In future research, it is necessary to further expand the validity and applicability of the scale by developing items that more precisely reflect the practical characteristics of medical social workers, reviewing the factor structure, and repeated measurement and supplementation of the standard score presented in this study.
Keywords: medical social worker; self-efficacy; scale development; professional knowledge in medical settings; job performance skills; attitudes and values