Medical social workers in Hong Kong hospitals - Expectation, authority structure and role ambiguity

Physicians and nurses were included in the study in order to see whether role ambiguity for medical social workers is related to the differences in role expectations. It was found that medical social workers had different expectations of their roles from those of physicians and nurses. A clear difference was also identified between the lines of authority in terms of medical social workers' role relations with physicians and nurses. Role ambiguity of medical social workers did not merely arise out of misunderstanding or misperception, it was also affected by authority structure.