Carolyn Noble and Jude Irwin (2009). Social Work Supervision: An Exploration of the Current Challenges in a Rapidly Changing Social, Economic and Political Environment. This article recognizes the vital challenges facing social vocation and supervision due to the economic, political, and social changes that have distinguished the last twenty years in nearly all Western countries. Consequently, this phenomenon has prompted many authors to suggest the re-positioning of the important custom in the practice and scholarship of social work so as to address and counteract the more pessimistic disputes facing social occupation that originate from these transformations. Thus, this journal tries to show how this vital re-positioning phenomenon can as well be useful to examine problems facing social work practice supervision. With this initiative, the medical social work body will be managed properly to enhance service delivery.
Neil Thompson and Sue Thompson (2001). Empowering Older People beyond the Care Model, pg. 61-76. This commentary investigates strategies and models for building up and empowering structures of social vocation practice with elder populace. Social work involving older populace has tough roots in a principally medical form, in which the chief purpose is to guarantee that care is given. Whereas social work among other patient groups has gained main steps onward in developing fewer medical advances, the occupation done with elder populace has witnessed remotely less improvement. Therefore, this article scrutinizes the differences involving an empowerment and a care model; it also notes several barriers preventing progress from one model to the other and ultimately reflects on ways of reacting to such barriers. Eventually with this form of strategies in place, social work would be much empowered.
W. Patrick Sullivana & Destinee F. Floyda (2012). There’s more Than Meets the Eye: The Nuances of Case Management, pg. 184-196. This investigative study involved 50 psychological healthcare case managers taken from 2 Midwestern states who commented on the patients they served, the features of the work they disliked and liked, as well as their attitude to the perception, possibility, and process of recuperation from their psychological sickness. The personality with the proficient knowledge of medical social work is distinguished from the perception of these experts. This topic is complex as it is argued that successful medical social work needs nuanced and complex professional expertise that may go unappreciated and unrecognized in community psychological health.
Francis K. O. Yuen and John T. Pardeck (1999). FAMILY HEALTH: A Holistic Approach to Social Work Practice. Family health is an up-and-coming practice course in the vocation of social job. Although the occupation has constantly stressed the significance of the family organization in policy and practice growth, the model of family wellbeing is fresh to this line of work. Thus, this book tries to enlighten, teach, and give approaches to how family health should be viewed and dealt with by the medical social fraternity. The book is extensively elaborated and though large in volume, one cannot fail to notice how informational the content is in giving a thoughtful piece of information extremely relevant to social work.
Since I was young I have admired the work done by nurses in hospitals, and so I took up interest in a hospice career. This made me start working towards my dream career of becoming a medical social worker. I enrolled in medical and sociology studies, as these fields would sharpen my skills in medical social field.
Medical social vocation is part of the social work discipline, acknowledged as hospital/clinical social work. Medical social workers normally work in a healthcare facility like a hospice, experienced nursing facility, or hospital, and they hold a graduate degree in that social field. Their work involves interacting with patients, together with their families, who are requiring psychosocial help. Medical social workers evaluate the psychosocial performance of patients and their families and get involved if needed. These intercessions might consist of linking the sick and families to essential support and resources in the society; giving out psychotherapy, compassionate psychoanalysis, or sorrow therapy; or aiding the patient to increase and reinforce their system of societal support (Sarah-Jane & Bruce, 1998).
Extensive research has been done on the importance of social work in the community, and these studies also show critics how social work is carried out in the country. Medical social work, as explained earlier, mainly involves the social work performed in healthcare facilities. The work of medical heath workers is well defined and there are set rules which show to what extent a social worker can assist a patient. However, some medical social workers cross their boundaries and take up the work of clinicians. Medical social workers are given preparation and medical skills to assist and treat the patients who have psychosocial problems. In contrast, medical social workers in healthcare settings are not supposed to operate as clinicians, except as functionaries who carry out a diversity of responsibilities that have no relation to clinical care. Therefore, these studies have shown that the clinical function of a medical social worker is worn down, which leads to expert stagnation (John & Francis, 1999).
The target population which is served by a medical social worker is diverse, which generally touches on all the patients in a healthcare facility. This population, or rather patients, include those who require patient counseling, like providing support to the sick people with chronic or serious illnesses and assisting them to decide on the suitable healthcare and other important health services. They also guide support group discussions and offer personal counseling (Medical Social Worker Care, 2012).
The target population in medical social healthcare usually presents issues and problems which, to some extent, hinder the maximum performance of these social workers. Un-cooperating families pose a great problem when it comes to advising them concerning their sick member. Also, elderly patients pose lots of problems commonly because of their fragile state; therefore, they need to be handled with lots of care.
The surrounding suburb is mostly composed of the low-class people, who have many problems with healthcare payments. Also, many people in the neighborhood lack health insurance, which brings about a great challenge due to financial constraints.
Everyone has his or her own cultural background and this adversely affects how services are delivered by medical social workers. Some cultures allow them to perform traditional procedures on their patients and this could hinder the social worker from working properly.
The age range of a medical social worker spans from early childhood up to 60. The gender served by medical social workers is both male and female.
Socioeconomic status is generally conceptualized or rather seen as the social class or rank of a person or group. It is frequently measured as a grouping of place of residence, occupation, income and education. According to the population that is being served by the medical social workers, close to 90% of them have poor status emanating from the low level of education which leads to low earnings (Medical Social Worker Care, 2012).
Many medical social workers undertake several initiatives to ensure that they assist the society with quality services. They work with patients extensively in conjunction with their respective families while in hospital and, if needed, they even attend to these patients in their homes by making follow-up visits. They also cooperate with community health agencies so as to promote social work all around the society. In addition, medical social workers team up with larger social work organizations to educate the community on the importance of social work and how many volunteers should come up to give help to the society (John & Francis, 1999).
Every now and then, the media publishes advertisements that such and such healthcare facility is in need for medical social workers, but this percentage of job vacancies is less compared to the number of social workers who graduate annually in this field. The average annual income of a medical social worker is about $56,229. There are other benefits these social workers get, like enjoying interdisciplinary job settings or getting the individual contentment of being an associate of a healthcare group.
Every job it has its ups and downs and this does not exclude social work. Social work has several benefits, like personal leave, retirement plans, paid vacations, and health insurance, amongst others. The field also has educational opportunities, as social workers need to carry on with their education to boost their certification. Then, employers usually reimburse or pay for these professional improvement programs. However, medical social workers in the field face social exclusion from other medical professionals, as many see them as minor employees (Sarah-Jane & Bruce, 1998).
I personally consider working as a medical social worker since it has been my passion since I was young. I have grown professionally and this will help much once in the field. Also, I need to assist my parents when they will reach old age, and so my vocation will be of significant help to them. Moreover, the benefits and professional opportunities in this field attract me a lot and make me study harder to achieve them.