The relationship between clinical profession and experience and recommendation for hospitalization.

Abstract

This study examined the relationships between clinician profession and experience and recommendation for hospitalization in crisis intervention. The clinicians involved here were social workers and clinical psychologists employed at a midwestern mental health center. The clinicians were further categorized as experienced and inexperienced. Experienced was defined as two or more years of employment in the mental health field. Inexperienced was defined as less than two years of employment in the mental health field. It was predicted that experienced clinicians would recommend hospitalization of emergency patients less often than would inexperienced clinicians. Furthermore. it was expected that experienced social workers would recommend hospitalization for fewer emergency patients than would experienced and inexperienced clinical psychologists or inexperienced social workers. However, the results of this study indicated that as a group social workers recommended hospitalization significantly more often than did clinical psychologists. It was also determined that experienced social workers recommended hospitalization significantly more often than did experienced and inexperienced clinical psychologists or inexperienced social workers. Several explanations were offered to account for these findings. It may be that the social workers in this study had become reliant upon hospitalization, especially for the treatment of certain disorders. Secondly, the sample utilized here was drawn from an intact group rather than a random selection. Moreover, the mental health center itself was located in an area with limited community resources. Also, the clinicians employed at this center appeared to function more as a team instead of two distinct professions. Patient diagnosis was found to influence final case disposition. The accessibility of a local psychiatric inpatient unit was considered as a final factor in hospitalization recommendation.