How Social Welfare and Health Professionals Understand "Race," Racism, and Whiteness: A Social Justice Approach to Grounded Theory

Social welfare and health professionals continually practice within communities, either directly as practitioners or indirectly by supervising students and co-workers. The current study investigated how social welfare and health professionals conceptualized race, racism, and whiteness in health disparities discourse. Employing constructivist grounded theory, through a social justice lens, the researchers developed a theoretical model based upon the collective experiences of social workers, nurses, and physicians. The analysis revealed four theoretical categories that characterized facets of how social welfare and health professionals' understand race, racism, and whiteness: (1) self-defined skin color; (2) (pre)judgments and discrimination; (3) privilege and power; and (4) conceptual conflation and unfamiliarity. The findings suggest more emphasis during training and in workplace settings on concepts such as power, inequities, and structural racism may significantly improve the efficacy and scope of REHD interventions by expanding social welfare and health professionals' understanding of race, racism, and whiteness beyond interpersonal level interactions.

Interprofessional leadership training in MCH social work

The need to train health social workers to practice interprofessionally is an essential goal of social work education. Although most health social workers have exposure to multidisciplinary practice within their field work, few social work education programs incorporate interprofessional learning as an integrated component of both course work and field experiences (McPherson, Headrick, & Moss, 2001; Reeves, Lewin, Espin, & Zwaranstein, 2010; Weinstein, Whittington, & Leiba, 2003). In addition, little is written about the kinds of curricula that would effectively promote interdisciplinary training for social work students. These findings are particularly puzzling since there is increasing and compelling evidence that interdisciplinary training improves health outcomes (IOM, 2001). This article describes a social work education program that incorporates an Interprofessional education and leadership curriculum for Maternal and Child Health Social Work (MCHSW) at the University of Maryland's School of Social Work. The University of Maryland's Interprofesisonal Training Model is described along with the components needed to formulate an interdisciplinary learning experience. Various outcomes and lessons learned are discussed.