What Actually Is the Role of a Clinical and Medical Social Worker?
Medical and Public Health Social Workers’ Ultimate Guide to Medical Social Services
Medical social work is one of the most popular specialties for social workers. Just behind the combined category of child, family, and school social workers, medical and hospital social services is the second largest category of social work, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
The purpose of this guide is to provide you with a thorough understanding of medical social services, including the differences in the job descriptions of clinical and non-clinical medical social workers.
In addition, we’ll address issues about medical and hospice social worker assessments, clinical social work and mental health, and how to locate a licensed clinical social worker or medical social worker in your area.
Photo by Pavel Danilyuk
What does a clinical social worker do?
In a medical context, such as a hospital, hospice, drug rehab center, psychiatric hospital, or outpatient care facility, a medical and health social worker provides assistance to individuals. At-home care and house visits can also be a part of medical and psychiatric social work.
The duties of a case worker in a hospital or medical facility may include coordinating outpatient services, providing family support and advice, and conducting initial mental health exams. In a hospital, a medical social worker is particularly valuable in assisting patients and their families with post-discharge planning.
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A Medical Social Worker: What Is It?
Supporting people and their families through an acute, chronic, or terminal medical problem is the focus of medical social work.A medical and health social worker can offer a very wide range of services.
A hospice social worker might, for instance, assess a patient to determine what kind of emotional care they require. It is common for patients to rely on a hospital social worker to help them find financial and after-care options once they are discharged. In the psychiatric sector, a licensed independent clinical social worker can diagnose mental diseases and make treatment recommendations.
If you were searching for “medical social worker near me,” you would find several sub-types in the medical and public health social worker field. These can include:
- Home health care social worker
- Clinical social worker
- Licensed clinical social worker
- Hospice social worker
- Medical psychiatric social work
- Hospital social worker
- Hospital case worker
- Social worker Medicare specialist
What Are the Duties of a Hospital Social Worker?
Hospitals are one of the primary settings for medical and psychiatric social workers. Given that social workers are neither physicians nor nurses, you might be wondering what they do in a hospital.
Patients and their families can expect a great deal of assistance and support from a medical social worker in a hospital setting. They are the patient’s advocate since they are knowledgeable with the insurance and medical systems and can help patients navigate these convoluted frameworks in an emergency.
What do social workers do in hospitals?
- Act as a Liaison: A medical social worker in a hospital coordinates patient care between the medical personnel (doctors, nurses, physical therapists, physicians’ assistants). They advocate in the best interests of the patient.
- Provide Supportive Counseling: Being in a hospital is typically a stressful and confusing time for patients and their families. The hospital social services worker acts as a supportive anchor and helps everyone better cope with the situation.
- Refer People to Support Agencies: From references for low-cost funerals and cremations to support groups for newly disabled patients, a medical social worker provides important referrals to help patients and their families with financial and other support resources.
- Hospital Case Worker: A medical social worker will often act as a hospital case worker, coordinating post-discharge follow-up, referrals for therapy or palliative care, and more.
- Clinical Hospital Social Services: An LCSW licensed clinical social worker can perform medical psychiatric social work, such as assessing a patient for anxiety or depression or making recommendations as to ongoing care.
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What Distinguishes Psychiatric, Medical, and Clinical Social Workers from One Another?
A medical social worker can be employed in a variety of hospital and non-hospital settings, as we have already covered. The broadest classification for this kind of social work is that of medical and health social worker.
Social workers can advance into various roles within the field of medical social work as they accumulate more training, education, and licensure. For instance, they might practice clinical social work and mental health. They may also practice medical social work and psychiatry.
What Does a Medical Social Worker Do?
Some of the main things that medical and health care social workers do are:
- Reviewing new admissions and identifying any special needs
- Assisting with patient discharge and transfers to another care facility
- Helping families and patients understand medical insurance coverage
- Counseling and providing support to patients and their families
- Providing information on financial and emotional support resources that are available
- Make diagnoses of mental health and emotional issues, and develop and carry out care plans (LCSW licensed clinical social worker)
What Is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker?
A licensed clinical social worker has completed a master’s degree in social work and has obtained a state license as a social worker. This license is called LCSW (Licensed Clinical Social Worker).
This license allows a medical or hospital social worker to diagnose and conduct therapy for individuals with mental or emotional issues.
What Does a Clinical Social Worker Do?
The clinical social worker job description includes a higher level of care responsibility than the medical social worker. For example, a licensed independent clinical social worker might provide psychotherapy and counseling for people.
What is a clinical social worker? They may also be called in to assess patients for things like depression, anxiety, PTSD, and other mental issues that require professional help.
Licensed mental health and clinical social work professionals will be well-versed in many types of clinical assessment for social workers to use, such as the GAD-7 for anxiety and the PHQ-9 for depression.
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What Is Medical Psychiatric Social Work?
Now that we’ve answered, “what is a clinical social worker” and “what does a clinical social worker do,” we’ll take a look at another specialty of medical social work, the psychiatric social worker.
A medical psychiatric social work professional works with those patients that are severely mentally ill and either require hospitalization or other intensive medical care to help them.
A medical and psychiatric social work practitioner will also typically hold an LCSW degree.
What Does a Psychiatric Social Worker Do?
When reviewing the clinical social worker job description, you’ll also find in large part what a psychiatric social worker does. The main difference is that a licensed independent clinical social worker may work with people who only have mild mental or emotional issues.
On the other hand, the psychiatric medical and public health social worker will do the same types of activities – assess issues, create care plans, conduct therapy, offer support and family assistance – but for patients that have much more severe mental problems.
A hospital social work assessment example that a licensed clinical social worker might use will typically look different than those used by a psychiatric social worker, who will be diagnosing more extreme mental conditions.
A medical and psychiatric social work professional doing patient assessments will generally be very familiar with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) used by U.S. health care professionals for the diagnosis of mental disorders.
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What Is a Hospice Social Worker? What Do They Really do?
One more answer to “what is a medical social worker” is the hospice social worker. This is another sub-type of medical social work and one that specializes in palliative care.
A hospice social worker will work in the area of support and guidance for those patients that are terminally ill. This includes assisting with emotional support and doing what they can to improve the quality of life of terminal patients facing death from serious conditions, such as cancer.
When reviewing “what does a medical social worker do that works in a hospice,” it’s important to know how their hospital social work assessment example questions will differ from those for non-terminal patients.
Some of the questions included will include end-of-life wishes, any do-not-resuscitate orders, and funeral, burial, and/or cremation pre-arrangements.
For a hospice social worker Medicare specialist, their assessment may also be subject to the Hospice Comprehensive Assessment Quality Measure from Medicare.
Hospital Social Work Assessment Example Questions & Categories
One of the answers to the question, “what do social workers do in hospitals,” relates to helping a patient with a terminal diagnosis transition to a hospice care center or at-home end-of-life care.
If you’re in medical social work as a hospice social worker, there will be several categories of questions that will help you to assess the support the patient might need as they’re nearing the end of their life.
These hospice social work assessment questions categories include:
- Physical and functional status
- Emotional and mental health
- Awareness of illness and prognosis
- Preferences for end-of-life planning
- Family coping and bereavement risk
- Family/caregiver functional status
- Family relationship issues
- Culture, spiritual needs, religion
- Communication and decision-making capabilities
- Resource needs and safety assessment
You can learn more about these categories and responsibilities for hospice medical social work from ScienceDirect, Journal of Pain and Symptom Management.
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What does a medical social worker do?
Hospice Social Worker Assessment Questions
Here are some examples of the questions a hospice medical social work professional may ask an incoming patient:
- How are you and your family handling the diagnosis?
- What immediate needs do you have?
- What are you most worried about?
- Are there tasks that need to be completed before you pass?
- What would bring you the most comfort in the time you have left?
- Do you feel you are being heard when it comes to major decisions about your care?
- Which family members do you feel need the most support?
- What cultural beliefs sustain you?
In summary, what is the difference between a clinical and hospital social worker?
We hope that this overview of the many facets of medical social work has helped you better comprehend the range of roles that these professionals can play in the medical community.
As you can see, social workers work in hospitals, hospices, inpatient homes, and other healthcare settings, supporting patients and their families.
A medical and hospital social worker serves as an essential patient advocate, providing a stable and supportive presence at a typically turbulent period for the patient and their family. The medical social worker and medical social work are therefore essential components of the healthcare system.
FAQs
What is the purpose of maintaining a case book in clinical practice or medical education?
Maintaining a case book serves multiple purposes, including enhancing clinical skills and decision-making, facilitating reflection and self-assessment, documenting professional development and competencies, contributing to research and scholarly activities, and promoting interdisciplinary communication and collaboration.
What information should be included in a clinical case book entry?
A comprehensive clinical case book entry may include details such as patient demographics, chief complaint, medical history, medications, allergies, physical examination findings, laboratory and diagnostic test results, differential diagnoses, treatment plan, follow-up care, and reflections on the case.
How do clinicians and medical students use case books to enhance their learning and practice?
Clinicians and medical students use case books as a tool for active learning and continuous professional development. They may review and analyze cases to identify patterns and trends, enhance clinical reasoning and problem-solving skills, learn from diagnostic and therapeutic successes and challenges, and integrate evidence-based practices into their care.
What are some common methods for documenting clinical cases in a case book?
Common methods for documenting clinical cases include written case summaries, electronic health record (EHR) entries, standardized case report forms, multimedia presentations, and reflective journals or narratives. The choice of method may depend on factors such as institutional requirements, personal preferences, and the intended audience.
How can case books contribute to quality improvement and patient safety initiatives?
Case books can serve as valuable sources of data for quality improvement and patient safety initiatives by identifying opportunities for practice improvement, highlighting adverse events or near misses, tracking outcomes and trends over time, and promoting a culture of learning and accountability within healthcare organizations.