Medical Social Work Service Delivery as a tool for Post-COVID-19Crisis and Disaster Management in South-West Nigeria

Abstract

The study investigated the medical social work service delivery as a tool for post-COVID-19 crisis and disaster management in South-West Nigeria. The function of social workers in the hospital as helping professionals is yet to be fully understood by Nigerian urban settlers. A descriptive survey research design was adopted and a multi-stage sampling technique was also adopted for the study. One hundred and fifty medical social workers that were purposively selected served as respondents. Descriptive statistics of frequency count, simple percentages, Pearson Product Moment Correlation, and Regression Analysis were used as statistical tools. The result showed that medical service delivery predicts crisis management in south-west Nigeria. The result further showed that medical service delivery also predicts effective disaster management. Also, the independent variable had a significant joint effect on the dependent variables. It was concluded that medical social work service delivery predicts the management of both crises and disasters presented at the healthcare facilities. The study thus recommends that crisis and disaster management should be part of the social work curriculum at all levels of social work studies. Staff welfare packages should be commensurate with the enormous workload carried out by medical social workers during crises and disasters.