Navigating the healthcare system is stressful for anyone, even the best-resourced among us. But for underserved communities, receiving healthcare can be immensely taxing, creating as many hardships as it alleviates.
Because of the many challenges the healthcare system poses, a whole branch of social work exists to help those in need receive quality care while minimizing the burdens that often come with it.
For individuals with health concerns as well as their loved ones, this support can be game-changing, offering a beacon of hope and an invaluable resource during trying times.
Indeed, healthcare social workers provide for the non-medical needs of patients. Anyone who has been through the American healthcare system knows that these struggles can be significant, ranging from financial hardships to lack of procedural literacy to intense psychological stress. By providing an attentive ear and the know-how to help people get the most from their care providers, social workers can provide immeasurable aid to people in critical need.
So what does a healthcare social worker do? Read on to learn everything you need to know to contribute to the medical arena of the social work field.
Social Work in Healthcare: An Overview
One of the largest branches of the social work profession is the healthcare field. There’s no shortage of contexts that make use of social work professionals to help individuals and families navigate the healthcare system, with some of the top employers including the following:
- Hospitals and medical centers
- Private and public clinics
- Community centers
- Long-term care facilities
- Rehabilitation centers
- Hospice and palliative care facilities
- Nonprofits
- In-home care
As you can see, this is a wide range of organizations, offering positions that can vary greatly and an equally wide range of causes that social workers can contribute to.
Your responsibilities as a healthcare social worker will depend on where you work and the communities that organization helps.
This is to say that healthcare social work is far from a homogenous career path, but rather one with an abundance of different opportunities to suit a variety of skill sets and talents. No matter what your strengths are, you’re likely to find a position in the healthcare social work field where you can be of service.
Social Work Practice in Healthcare: Advanced Approaches and Emerging Trends
Social workers have long provided support within the healthcare system, but as our medical system evolves, so too have the expectations for healthcare social workers within it. Those who have been working in the field in recent years are likely to have observed many changes within their field, all of them intended to improve care and stay in step with advances in the medical profession.
Below are a few of the most prominent trends in healthcare social work that any professional is likely to witness in their own work.
The Rise of Telehealth and Advanced Technology
Digital platforms have taken over industries of all types, and the medical sector is no different. This new technology has proven to be a tremendous boon for patients and medical workers alike, as telehealth options greatly improve accessibility for those seeking medical care and allow practitioners a greater volume of patients. Those in administrative roles also benefit from the arrival of virtual platforms, which can perform many of the tasks that previously required a considerable amount of time and effort to complete using analog means to do so. These innovations show no signs of slowing down anytime soon, meaning healthcare social workers should expect to be continuously reorienting their work around new technological advancements.
Cultural Competence
Across the social work field, cultural competence has become a critical part of training and education. This is to ensure that providers are able to meet patient needs across differences, providing care that is free of bias and sensitive to the particular values and perspectives of diverse communities. In the medical profession, this can be highly important, as our growing understanding of identity-based inequality has exposed many injustices of the medical system due to factors like race, gender, sexual orientation, and religious beliefs. By investing in your cultural competence as a social worker, you will be able to offer the deepest support possible to anyone you work with.
Interdisciplinary Collaboration
Healthcare social workers can perform important work as coordinators between different medical providers and related services. As the medical field has evolved, collaboration has become more central to its operations. This increases the responsibilities of healthcare social workers, who continue to act as liaisons between different departments and agencies that provide care. In your training as a healthcare social worker, you will learn the most up-to-date protocols for coordinating care, but you should also expect these methods to continue to develop over the course of your career to make care as holistic and comprehensive as it can be.
These are just a few of the major developments in the healthcare field that social workers should be aware of. Once you’re on the ground at work in your career, you’re likely to see up close how these advances have reshaped the healthcare system for the better.
Responsibilities of Healthcare Social Workers
The guiding concern of healthcare social workers is to provide support for individuals undergoing medical treatment.
What your duties look like as a healthcare social worker can mean many things depending on your position, license level, and where you work.
Below are some of the top responsibilities healthcare social workers take on to uplift their clients.
Case Management
Healthcare social workers can assist patients in finding the best care options for their needs, walking them through issues related to medical costs, insurance coverage, finding specialist care, and more. They can also help coordinate services, using their expertise to ease the burden on patients to arrange simultaneous services themselves.
Care Assessments
Some healthcare social workers are chiefly concerned with patient intake, evaluating their needs so they can be paired with an informed case manager who can help them with their most pressing concerns.
Crisis Intervention
During emergencies, social workers can offer immediate services, using their knowledge and extensive resources to help those with urgent healthcare concerns receive appropriate treatment as quickly as possible.
Education and Prevention
Social workers employed in nonprofits and community centers sometimes spearhead educational initiatives designed to inform the public about pressing healthcare issues and treatment options. This can be invaluable in supporting the overall health of a community as well as getting individuals who are struggling with healthcare concerns the care they need.
Advocacy
Those who have extensive experience as medical social workers can channel their hard-won knowledge into advocacy. As first hand witnesses to the pains of navigating the healthcare system, social workers can provide powerful testimony on behalf of disadvantaged people to make medical resources more accessible and comprehensive for people of all backgrounds.
Counseling
Healthcare social workers who hold Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) certification are authorized to provide therapy for those who might be struggling with mental health or emotional challenges in the face of health struggles. This can also extend to the loved ones of people in the medical system, who may also face emotional and psychological difficulty as a result of these circumstances.
Healthcare Social Worker Jobs
As the list above illustrates, there is not one single healthcare social worker job description but rather a range of duties and responsibilities social workers take on to support people in the healthcare system. The list below features several of the most common job titles in the healthcare sector of the social work field which may be helpful to you as you begin to imagine the specifics of your future career path.
Top jobs for healthcare social workers include:
- Clinical Social Worker
- Hospital Social Worker
- Medical Social Worker
- Pediatric Medical Social Worker
- Home Health Social Worker
- Psychiatric Social Worker
- Hospice Social Worker
- Rehabilitation Social Worker
- Emergency Department Social Worker
- Outpatient Clinic Social Worker
- Primary Care Social Worker
- Community Health Social Worker
- Dialysis Social Worker
- Transplant Social Worker
- Oncology Social Worker
- Neonatal Social Worker
- Chronic Illness Social Worker
- Substance Abuse Social Worker
- Healthcare Navigator
As you can see, some of these positions are defined by a type of service provided, such as counseling or resource navigation. Others are defined by the medical area in which they work with patients, such as oncology, transplants, and neonatal care. (In these roles, you will not be expected to have any medical knowledge of these conditions, but will become an expert in care options for people dealing with these afflictions.)
Whatever your role is, you are likely to cultivate an area of refined expertise within the larger subfield of healthcare social work so that you are able to be as effective as possible in delivering patient care.
Healthcare Social Worker Salary
Texas has one of the top five employment levels of healthcare social workers in the nation, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. On average, social workers in the medical arena in Texas earn a mean annual salary of $62,500, almost exactly in step with the national average for this profession.
Though the BLS does not report 90th percentile earnings for Texas specifically, because the state’s averages are so close to nationwide figures, one can look at the salary data for the USA as a whole for an approximate estimate. The BLS reports that top earners in the healthcare social work field take home a mean annual salary of $87,830. It can be assumed that these professionals have earned highly paid positions through seniority and advanced specializations, giving new healthcare social workers incentive to work hard and see the fruits of their labor.
How to Become a Healthcare Social Worker
The steps to becoming a healthcare worker are the same as for those in any other subfield of social work. Put simply, they are as follows:
- Obtain your MSW from an accredited institution.
- Obtain your social work license at whatever level you wish to practice. For LMSWs, this process begins as soon as you are done with graduate school. For LCSWs, it entails approximately two additional years of supervised field work in a medical organization before you will be eligible for your Texas state licensing exam.
- Apply to the Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council (BHEC) to receive your credential.
For healthcare social workers, the primary distinction between your educational path and those of social workers in other fields is that you will generally be expected to have graduated from your MSW with a concentration in healthcare social work, which many top MSW programs offer. You will also be expected to complete your field work hours in a medical setting, providing you the preliminary training you need to work in the medical field.
FAQs
What is the difference between a healthcare social worker and a clinical social worker?
Though it is easy to confuse a healthcare social worker with a clinical social worker, the two distinctions have entirely different meanings (though it is possible to be both). A healthcare social worker is a social worker who is employed in a healthcare setting, whether it is a public hospital, private clinic, or anything in between. A clinical social worker, meanwhile, refers to a category of license (Licensed Clinical Social Worker) that is eligible to provide direct counseling to clients, and can be employed by any number of organizations, from mental health programs to schools to community centers and more. Some medical social workers are also clinical social workers, meaning they provide therapy to people managing health issues. However, one does not have to be a clinical social worker to work in the healthcare field.
Do I need a background in medicine to become a healthcare social worker?
No. Many of the roles healthcare social workers play are not directly concerned with health needs (you have doctors and nurses to provide for that). Healthcare social workers are chiefly concerned with the practical concerns that come from managing health needs, such as economic hardships, and the psychological stress that comes with health struggles.
What type of degree do I need to become a healthcare social worker?
All social workers in Texas are required to obtain a Master of Social Work degree in order to be eligible for state licensure. Healthcare social workers are no different. There is no specific MSW degree that is intrinsically linked to healthcare social work, but some programs offer concentrations in the healthcare field that can offer an in-depth education to anyone who knows they wish to enter this branch of the social work profession.