October 11th, 2022
What Does a Hospital Social Worker Do?
When you imagine a social worker, you might picture someone helping children and families navigate the foster care system. Or maybe you think of someone who directs addicts to resources for recovery. But as a hospital social worker, you help patients adjust to their diagnoses or plan for care once they leave a healthcare facility. And you’re needed in just about every wing of the hospital, from pediatrics to geriatrics, from intake to post-op. Your job is to identify physical, psychological, and financial needs of patients and help them find solutions that can provide relief and hope.
Hospital Social Workers Help Patients Cope with Their Diagnoses
A medical diagnosis can be life altering and difficult to cope with. As a healthcare social worker, you help patients come to terms with the psychological and emotional aspects of their health problems as well as their physical needs. You might find and recommend support groups for them to attend, or arrange for counseling for anxiety, depression, or body image issues. You also provide them with materials that explain their diagnosis or help explain it to their family and friends. You determine the kind of support network they have and do your best to find services that will fill in the gaps. And you listen and comfort them as they try to deal with the challenges that lie ahead.
Hospital Social Workers Coordinate Post-Hospital Care
Although a patient may be told they’re ready to be discharged, they may not feel ready to leave the hospital. That’s where you come in. You help make sure that they have all they need to recover. That might mean arranging for their physical therapy or rehabilitation. If they’re able to go home, you may need to do an onsite visit to make sure they will be able to maneuver in their old home with their new condition. For more in-depth, continuous care, you may connect them to an assisted living facility or nursing home. Throughout the process, you work with the patient’s insurance company to receive the proper authorizations prior to their hospital discharge. If the patient doesn’t have insurance, you can refer them to patient assistance programs that can help. You might even arrange for their transportation from their hospital to their home or care facility.
Hospital Social Workers Arrange for Medication and Medical Equipment
As part of their treatment plan, patients may require specific medication or medical equipment to aid in their recovery. But medication can be expensive, and equipment can be hard to find. As a healthcare social worker, you can help patients find generic or less expensive medications. You can also locate equipment such as wheelchairs, walkers, or hospital beds and work with the patient’s insurance company to order and pay for them.
Hospital Social Workers Follow Up on Recovery
Your job doesn’t end when the patient leaves the hospital. You can follow up with them during recovery to ensure their needs are still being met. You might make sure they are adopting healthy habits and following their doctor’s prescription for success. Are they taking medication according to instructions? Are they doing the physical therapy they were told to? You ask lots of questions to find out how your patient is recovering and what might be standing in their way. You might also help them schedule a follow-up appointment with a physician or arrange for additional homecare. The goal is to help your patients stay as healthy as possible and to help them along the road to recovery.
Social work is a rewarding career if you’re passionate about helping others. Are you? As a hospital social worker, it would be your full-time job! Limestone University offers a Bachelor of Social Work that can help you prepare for a career in the field as well as a Master’s degree in Social Work. Click the button to learn more.
Bachelor of Social Work (B.S.W.)
Social workers help people cope with everyday problems. They may provide services such as advocacy, crisis response, and connecting clients with resources. Social Workers address societal ills by understanding and addressing problems in functioning that can occur with people, systems, as well as with the interactions between systems and people.
Master of Social Work (M.S.W.)
The MSW provides the opportunity to serve others beyond the BSW level. All social workers are passionate with regard to social justice. With the MSW degree, social workers can carry that passion to the classroom through teaching, as well as, positions in school social work, the mental health community, and positions with the criminal justice field.
