Social Work Characteristics
by Jenna Richardson
A great social worker can have many valuable qualities that can aid in being successful in the field. For example, a school social worker may be better able to relate to children than a social worker who occupies a position in a drug rehabilitation center for adults. Despite the importance of each social worker’s unique abilities within a chosen field, there are a few basic qualities that I believe every social worker should be able to understand and demonstrate in practice. These qualities are tenacity, flexibility, and cooperation.
In the field of social work, it is significant to portray a tenacious spirit. The job of a social worker can often be arduous. Persistence is often key to getting the job done. Imagine an instance in which a social worker works in a hospital setting and finds that a child has been rushed into the emergency room by paramedics, but the child has no form of identification and no way to contact the child's parents. It is up to the social worker to contact this child’s parents to inform them of their child’s whereabouts. The social worker must use every avenue available to attempt to contact the family members, and that may not be an easy task. A social worker must be determined in order to reunite this child with the parents.
Another quality that is vital to social work is flexibility, especially in terms of political and social attitudes. The job of a social worker is to look after the welfare of communities, families, groups, and individuals. There are many types of people within a community, and a social worker with a narrow mind will not be effective. They must be respectful, accepting, and understanding of all religions, ethnicities, political views, genders, sexualities, and so on.
The ability to cooperate is the last quality that I believe all social workers should possess. Social workers are present throughout the working world. Social workers must be able to work with others within different departments to get the information they may need. Going back to the example of hospital social workers, they must be able to work together with doctors, patients, insurance agents, government officials, people of the courts, and others. Social workers have to be able to collaborate with many different people to do their jobs correctly and efficiently.
Social work is present in many professional environments from the finance world all the way to social justice causes. No matter which field a social worker has interest in or currently works in, these three qualities are imperative to success. Tenacity, flexibility, and cooperation are not the only abilities a social worker should possess, but they do provide a good foundation for these individuals to do their job effectively.
Jenna Richardson is a social work major and psychology minor at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks. She is originally from Milaca, Minnesota.