On the thesis for the degree of "Doctor of Philosophy" in the specialty
"6D090500" - "Social Work"
Tursynbekova Zhazira Dzhumabekovna
"Formation of professional competencies of social worker in provision of
social services in the healthcare of the Republic of Kazakhstan"
Due to the improvement of social policy in the field of health, the objective need to
solve interrelated problems of medical and social nature at a qualitatively new
level is increasing in the Republic of Kazakhstan.
In the conditions of reformed society, where a lot of citizens and families are in
need of various types of assistance, the importance of social work increases.
Perfection of social work is connected not only with giving it a system character,
but also with providing professionalism, both in the activity of the service and in
each individual social worker. All of that requires improvement of social policy in
health care, taking into account socio-psychological protection of the population as
a whole, and improving the system of training and retraining of personnel, in
particular.
Social work is a fairly new and actively developing branch of professional activity,
and with the adoption of a number of laws of the Republic of Kazakhstan (2008,
2014) has been defined as a practical profession and academic discipline that
promotes social change and development, social cohesion, as well as reinforcement
and expansion of human rights. The principles of social justice, human rights,
collective responsibility and respect for differences are central to social work
(International Association of Social Workers, http://www.iassw-aiets.org/ ). As an
important element of the social policy of the state, social work performs the
function of ensuring its vitality and efficiency, which can be considered as a
national aid system (Guslyakova T.G., 2000).
Institutionalization of social work as a professional activity causes a new paradigm
of a social worker, which defines him as the main subject of professional activity
in the social sphere, puts forward a system of requirements for qualifications and
moral-ethical behavior of the specialist (Nurkatova L.T., 2010). Today, it is not
enough for a social worker to have a humane attitude to people, it is necessary to
have both professional and personal competencies that assume the influence of the
external and internal environment (Tursynbekova Zh. D., Kumarova G.H.,
Abikenova A.M., etc., 2016).
Therefore, the relevance of studying this topic is due to the following
circumstances:
1) growth of diseases associated with professional activities in big cities -
unemployment, the status of the profession, role conflict, level of responsibility,
emotional stress, psychosomatic diseases;
2) growing role of social factors, both in development and progress of diseases,
and in subsequent recovery of people;
3) doctors and nurses of medical organizations usually perform a large number of
duties that are not relevant to their professional activity, which reduce motivation
to work and quality of patient care. A social worker plays the role of coordinator:
relieves medical personnel, determining the volume of complex medical and social
services to a particular person or group and promotes its implementation;
4) the practice of a social worker in health care institutions relies not only on
diagnoses of doctors, testimony of laboratory examinations, but also on
psychological and sociological research, examination of the social status and
psychological state of the patient and his relatives, situations in their families.
Complex of possibilities of a particular medical institution, its professional
qualification, technical and technological equipment are taken into account;
5) increasing labor market requirements for professionalism of the specialist,
which are reflected in the recruitment, attestation, selection and reassignment of
personnel;
6) comprehensive medical and social work contributes to positive changes in
society, solving problems in human relationships, increasing responsibility of a
person for himself and his health, realizing his right to a decent life;
7) based on the theory of human behavior and social systems, social work is
included in the process at the stage when a person interacts with the environment,
influencing through social health to individual, and through him, to public health.
8) difficulty in understanding of social work as a profession in the health care
system, its professional competence has not been studied.
Focusing only on the treatment of diseases with the absence of attention to the
prevention of diseases and the promotion of a healthy lifestyle, the enhancement of
the cultural and educational potential of society adversely affects the behavior of
the majority of the population. Achievement of high levels of health in the modern
understanding is promoted not much by medical, as by developing humanitarian
practice, which may even be designed in appropriate information technologies.
The rapid pace of development of modern society as a whole, its separate spheres,
on the one hand, lead to increasing demands for professional mobility and adaptive
abilities of a person, and on the other, cause an escalation of many social problems,
a decrease in the level and quality of life of the population, especially for socially
vulnerable segments. In this situation, a social worker in the field of healthcare
must have in-depth knowledge and hone the skills that are necessary to fulfill his
duties. At a minimum, this demanding process entails years of study, training,
consultation and control (Frederic G. Reamer, 2010).
Therefore, an integrated approach to solve human health problems is needed, and
shifting the emphasis from the treatment of the disease to its prevention and
promotion of healthy lifestyle involves changing the social worker's approaches to
patients in the health care system. Hence, the urgency of the problem of forming
professional competencies of a social worker in the provision of social services in
the healthcare sphere is not in doubt.
The degree of scientific elaboration of the problem. Theoretical analysis of the
works of scientists of the far and near abroad, dealing with the problems of
professional competence (Antsiferova L.I., Sh. Pandey, Vardanyan Y.V., Veil P.,
Klimkovich I.G., Kuzmina N.V., Markova A.K., Mern F., Meskom M.Kh., Mitina
L.M., Ogarev V.I., Hedouri F., Choshanov M.A., Eno L.D., etc.), showed that
