Palliative Care Social Worker (LCSW) - Dept of Medicine

Hartford HealthCare•Hartford, CT

61d

About The Position

Work where every moment matters. Every day, more than 40,000 Hartford HealthCare colleagues come to work with one thing in common: Pride in what we do, knowing every moment matters here. We invite you to become part of Connecticut's most comprehensive healthcare network. Hartford Hospital is one of the largest and most respected teaching hospitals New England. We are a Level 1 Trauma Center that provides cutting edge treatment to its patients. This is made possible by being home to the largest robotic surgery center in the Northeast and the Center for Education, Simulation and Innovation (CESI), one of the most-advanced medical simulation training centers in the world. When hospitals cannot provide the advanced care, expertise and new treatment options their patients require, they turn to us. Job Summary: As a member of the Hartford Hospital Palliative Care Department, the Palliative Care social worker will provide comprehensive clinical and psychosocial assessment and intervention for patients with serious illness. The social worker must be comfortable working in a fast-paced inpatient and outpatient setting where the structure of the day may change depending on patient, family and staff needs. The Palliative Care social worker provides support around adjustment to illness, decision making, eliciting goals of care and family coping along the illness trajectory. In keeping with the NASW Standards for Social Work Practice in Palliative and End of Life Care (http://www.socialworkers.org) the social worker will play a multidimensional role as clinician, educator, advocate and team consultant.

Requirements

Hold a master's degree from a social work program accredited by the Council on Social Work Education.
Two years post MSW work experience in a healthcare setting.
Work experience in the field of palliative care, hospice care or relevant disease-specific specialty care.
Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) with valid licensure in the State of Connecticut.
Seek Advanced Palliative and Hospice Social Worker - Certified (APHSW-C) certification within 2 years.

Nice To Haves

Completion of Post-MSW Fellowship or Certification Program in Palliative Care preferred.
Bilingual in Spanish and English preferred.

Responsibilities

Performs comprehensive psychosocial assessments of hospitalized patients with serious illness. Assists the health care team to integrate psychosocial factors into treatment plans: Ability to analyze significant psychological, physical, emotional, social and economic issues of patients/families and to effectively communicate the relevance of such to other health care providers. Ability to identify, analyze and suggest interventions for difficult patient/family management situations.
Provides social work intervention including counseling and support to assist patients/families. Demonstrates ability to form empathic relationships with patients/ families who have significant emotional adjustment and coping issues.
Effectively addresses quality of life and end of life issues within a culturally competent framework to support the equitable delivery of excellence in health care to all patients and families.
Assess patient/ family's level of understanding, barriers to learning, and to provide age-specific and culturally competent education as needed. Able to effectively assess and discuss the psychosocial issues of palliative care to patients/families
Arranges, attends and actively participates in patient/family conferences, in person, as well as via available telehealth resources.
Demonstrates commitment to continuous improvement by seeking ways of improving care, effectiveness, and efficiency within the Palliative Care Service through active participation in H3W Huddles and meetings.
Maintains patient records and other documentation in a manner consistent with standards of clinical care, hospital, department, third party and regulating agencies' policies and procedures and standards of risk management.
Attends Palliative Care Team rounds and all required departmental meetings.
Demonstrates awareness of, and adherence to, Hartford Hospital policies and procedures. Maintains confidentiality and complies with professional ethics according to professional departmental and organizational standards and maintains current Connecticut license to practice social work.
Participates in continuing education opportunities to enhance and broaden skills relevant to job performance; maintains documentation of continuing education and in-service activities provided.
Participates in educational programs for Hartford Hospital staff as an expert on psychosocial issues in palliative care.
Works with members of the team to provide bereavement follow up for our palliative care patients.
Helps to ensure that we have appropriately documented Serious Illness Conversations, as well as appropriately scanned- in copies of other advance care planning documentation (such as completed health care representative forms, MOLST forms, Living Wills, Guardianship paperwork) into the Electronic medical record for all patients seen by our service for palliative care consultation.