Avoiding the Waterfall: Health Care Advocacy for Vulnerable Populations in an Urban Community

Within Abbott's System of Professions Theory, the essence of a profession is its work, not its organization. In addition, there are many factors that control the content of that work. As such, advocacy is a general task area that is conceptualized and operationalized by workers. The primary focus of this study is not only the conceptualization and practice of advocacy as a critical professional task, but how the relationships of providers both to clients and colleagues are shaped by the setting in which they practice. I argue that the setting is an important factor in how professionals both define their tasks and function as trainers for the next generation of health and social service professions students. Case management is a vehicle that bridges the professions of nursing and social work. The study focuses on nurse and social work case managers and how they organize their tasks, specifically related to advocacy, and how the community setting is a critical component that shapes this task, ultimately affecting worker and client.