Date of Conferral

2021

Degree

Doctor of Social Work (DSW)

School

Social Work

Advisor

Lindy Lewis

Abstract

While social workers respond to human and natural disasters daily, they also respond to other crises equally important. The 2019-2020 global health pandemic has required social workers to prepare for the unknown. Social workers must prepare for those events by planning, training, and knowing agency policies, and procedures (formal rules). This capstone study's objective was explored through a qualitative action research methodology discovering ways social workers use ethics for decision-making during crisis mitigation in a nonurban community. A biomedical ethical decision-making model, along with the National Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics was utilized to understand what guides social worker practice when choosing options during a crisis. Enck identified a six-step framework for ethical decision-making: information gathering, identification, clarification, assessment, recommending, and documenting. The central research question examined how social workers make an ethical decision when mitigating a crisis in a nonurban community. The purpose of the study was to explore how social workers use ethics to decision-make during crisis mitigation in a nonurban community. Data collection was during the COVID-19 shelter in place mandate which consisted of five individual face-to-face Zoom interviews. Participants collectively experienced unintended consequences from their agency by following professional ethics such as professional livelihood. The findings of this study may be used for positive change by understanding how social workers contribute to frontline work during a crisis.

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