Healthcare Social Worker
A Healthcare Social Worker is a specialized professional within the social work field who focuses on assisting patients and their families in medical settings. Their role involves helping individuals cope emotionally and psychologically with health challenges, resolving conflicts with medical staff and insurance providers, and facilitating access to necessary treatments. They work in diverse environments, including hospitals, outpatient clinics, nursing homes, and rehabilitation facilities, often adapting to various schedules to meet client needs.
Healthcare Social Workers engage in a wide range of duties, such as coordinating patient admissions and discharges, offering grief counseling, conducting psycho-social assessments, and providing education on legal matters related to healthcare. They also play a crucial part in planning and overseeing patients' medical care and addressing social issues related to illness. Individuals drawn to this profession typically possess strong leadership abilities, empathy, and problem-solving skills, and they enjoy interacting with a diverse population, including those suffering from chronic or terminal conditions. Education paths generally involve obtaining a bachelor's degree in social work, along with relevant internships to gain hands-on experience in medical environments.
Healthcare Social Worker
Snapshot
Career Cluster(s): Health Science, Human Services
Interests: Social work, counseling, crisis intervention, mental health, case management, psychology
Earnings (Yearly Median): $62,760 per year $30.17 per hour
Employment & Outlook:7% (Faster than average)
Entry-Level Education Either a bachelor’s or a master’s degree from a program accredited by the Council on Social Work Education
Related Work Experience None
On-the-job-TrainingLong-term on-the-job training
Overview
Sphere of Work. Medical social work is a specialty of the social work profession. Social workers are generalists committed to improving the social and behavioral lives of individuals, families, and communities. Medical social workers, also called hospital or public health social workers, differ in that they are trained to assist patients and their families in medical settings. Medical social workers help patients and their families develop emotional and psychological coping strategies; resolve problems and conflicts with doctors, medical staff, and insurance providers; and secure treatment opportunities. Medical social workers work with individual clients and their families to lessen the impact of illness and disease.
Work Environment. Medical social workers spend their work days seeing clients in hospitals, out-patient medical clinics, public health agencies, nursing homes, psychiatric facilities, substance abuse clinics, and residential rehabilitation facilities. In addition to regular work hours, medical social workers often work in an on-call capacity. Medical social workers may have a fixed office where they see clients or may be on the road, traveling to meet with clients. Given the diverse demands of the medical social work profession, medical social workers may need to work days, evenings, and weekends to meet client or caseload needs.
Occupation Interest. Individuals drawn to the medical social work profession tend to be intelligent and socially conscious people who have the ability to quickly assess people and situations, find resources, demonstrate caring, and solve problems. Those who succeed in medical social work display traits such as leadership, knowledge of human behavior, comfort around illness, initiative, project management, and concern for individuals and society. Medical social workers should enjoy spending time with a wide range of people, particularly those suffering acute, chronic, or terminal illnesses and conditions.
A Day in the Life—Duties and Responsibilities. The medical social worker’s area of specialization and work environment determine his or her daily occupational duties and responsibilities. There is a wide range of possible duties and responsibilities, so each day can be different depending on client needs. Medical social workers facilitate patient admissions and discharge processes; plan meetings and facilitate relationships between individuals facing the same medical challenges; discuss quality of life issues with patients and their families; and offer grief counseling to patients and their families. At times they provide substance abuse counseling; coordinate health-related transportation and housing needs for patients; conduct psycho-social assessment and evaluation of patients, including mental status exams; and collaborate with the patient’s medical team, including specialists, general practitioners, and other case managers. Other responsibilities may include overseeing patients’ long- and short-term medical care planning; assessing patients’ home or residential facility health care options and future medical needs; providing financial and insurance benefit counseling to patients and their families; and educating clients and families on legal issues such as medical power of attorney or drawing up a living will. In addition, medical social workers may provide end of life psychological support to patients and their families; lead patient support groups for transplant, cancer, or substance abuse patients; offer crisis intervention services; participate in physical or sexual abuse investigations; and plan public health education campaigns for communities and special interest groups.
All medical social workers are responsible for completing patient charts and required documentation, such as patient discharge or insurance paperwork, on a daily basis. Because they help patients find services that enable them to return home sooner, medical social workers play a pivotal role in coordinating hospital discharges, which in turn affects hospital costs and patient quality of life.
Work Environment
Immediate Physical Environment. A medical social worker’s immediate physical environment varies based on caseload and specialization. Medical social workers spend their workdays seeing clients in a wide variety of settings including hospitals, out-patient medical clinics, public health agencies, nursing homes, psychiatric facilities, substance abuse clinics, and residential rehabilitation facilities.
Human Environment. Medical social workers work with a wide variety of people and should be comfortable meeting with colleagues, medical staff, patients’ families, and patients with acute, chronic and terminal illnesses. Medical social workers provide counseling, lead meetings, provide workshops, and collaborate on patient teams. Due to the wide range of human interactions required of medical social workers, they are often called on to use patience, empathy, leadership, tact, mediation, and negotiation.
Technological Environment. Medical social workers use computers, cell phones, and Internet communication tools to perform their work. For instance, medical social workers must be comfortable using computers to access client records and cell phones to ensure availability and accessibility during on-call hours.
Education, Training, and Advancement
High School/Secondary. High school students interested in pursuing a career in medical social work should prepare themselves by developing good study habits. High school coursework in foreign languages, sociology, psychology, biology, and education will provide a strong foundation for college-level work in medical social work. Due to the diversity of medical social work specialties, high school students interested in this career will benefit from seeking internships or part-time work that expose the students to diverse groups of people, medical issues, and social needs.
Postsecondary. Postsecondary students interested in becoming medical social workers should work toward the bachelor’s of social work degree. Coursework in education, psychology, biology, and foreign languages may also prove useful in their medical social work practice. Postsecondary students can gain work experience and potential advantage in their future job searches by securing internships or part-time employment in medical settings or public health agencies.
Related Occupations
− Mental Health Counselors and Marriage and Family Therapists
Bibliography
"21-1022 Healthcare Social Workers." Occupational Employment Statistics. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 25 Apr. 2023,www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes211022.htm. Accessed 19 Sept. 2023.