TTLA: Social work activities with inpatient adolescents at the National Children's Hospital

1. Full name of PhD student: Nguyen Thu Ha 2. Gender: Female

3. Date of birth: March 18, 1982 4. Place of birth: Phu Tho town

5. Decision on recognition of PhD students No. 1745/2017/QD-XHNV dated July 13, 2017.

6. Changes in training process: no changes.

7. Thesis topic name:Social work activities with inpatient adolescents at the National Children's Hospital.

8. Major: Social Work 9. Code: Pilot Training

10. Scientific advisor: Prof. Dr. Dang Canh Khanh

11. Summary of new results of the thesis:

• The thesis contributes to enriching the content of need theory, cognitive-behavioral theory and advocacy and empowerment theory in the study of social work activities in the medical environment; contributes to in-depth explanation of the concepts of: social work, group social work, social workers, inpatient adolescents and social work activities with inpatient adolescents; at the same time, provides a comprehensive overview of social work activities in hospitals.
• The thesis clearly shows that inpatients have a high need to access social work activities; it also clearly reflects that social work activities at the National Children's Hospital have a low focus on supporting children with administrative procedures, medical examination/treatment consultation, and connecting medical examination/treatment with doctors, but a high focus on nutritional support and gift giving. This reality makes many adolescents think that social work activities are unnecessary and do not create satisfaction for them. The evaluation results from doctors also show that social work activities have almost no positive impact on medical examination/treatment.
• The thesis also clearly states the process of experimental group social work with inpatient adolescents; analyzes the meaning and method of establishing groups, how to prepare group intervention through "ice-breaking" activities to create and strengthen relationships between members, identify and select priority issues, and plan to implement tasks.
• The thesis also analyzes the positive and negative roles of group social work experiments in helping inpatients reduce anxiety about illness and treatment, in connecting children with doctors and nurses, and in supporting children to reduce anxiety about studying so that they can feel secure in their treatment.
• The results of the thesis reflect that inpatients assessed the necessity of group social work activities at a high score, and had high satisfaction with these activities. Medical staff and caregivers also acknowledged that group social work experiments had created positive impacts on medical examination/treatment.
• The thesis also proposes a system of solutions suitable for current practice at the National Children's Hospital to improve the effectiveness of medical examination/treatment for patients from a social work perspective.

12. Practical applicability: can be applied at the National Children's Hospital and hospitals implementing social work activities; can be used as research and teaching materials on social work in hospitals.

13. Further research directions:

• Research on solutions to raise awareness for doctors and medical staff about the meaning and value of social work activities
• Research on solutions to raise awareness for inpatients about the meaning and value of social work activities
• Research on solutions to enhance capacity for social workers in hospitals
• Research on the application of individual social work intervention model in hospitals.
• Research on solutions to develop professional social work activities in hospitals

14. Published works related to the thesis:

1. Nguyen Thu Ha (2018), “The functional models of social works in hospitals”,International Worksop on Promoting therapeutic services in social work in Vietnam, Ed Lao dong – Xa hoi, pp. 247 - 251.
2. Nguyen Thu Ha (2018), “Social works at the hospital in Vietnam: Achievement and Issues”,International Worksop on Promoting therapeutic services in social work in Vietnam, Ed Lao dong – Xa hoi, pp. 314 - 320.
3. Nguyen Thu Ha (2018), "Identifying the origins of psychological and social crises in adolescents receiving inpatient treatment in hospital environments",Proceedings of the international conference Orientation for the development of social work profession in Vietnam: The role of law - training - practice, Hue University Publishing House, pp. 274 – 282.

INFORMATION ON DOCTORAL THESIS