What does a medical social worker do?
A medical social worker specializes in managing a patient's health care and welfare while communicating with guardians or families, focusing on helping them cope and understand the medical conditions and situations. They are primarily responsible for assessing a patient's condition to identify their needs, conducting interviews to gather background information regarding the patient and family, and referring any social service programs that may provide them with the assistance or help they need. Furthermore, it is crucial to identify any signs of abuse or neglect and conduct intervention procedures right away.
Medical social worker responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real medical social worker resumes:
- Understand manage care, Medicare and Medicaid benefits.
- Humanize the medical setting for elderly patients by using appropriate compassion in explaining complex information.
- Provide crisis intervention, supportive counseling and trauma/grief counseling for patients and their families experiencing acute or chronic traumatic events.
- Provide hands-on assessment and monitoring of suspect child abuse and neglect cases of children needing intensive rehabilitation and specialize care.
- Provide social casework to patients having difficulty in social functioning, primarily as it affects their health and emotional rehabilitation.
- Facilitate family counseling, crisis intervention, and assessments of specials population including geriatrics, homeless and substance abusing veterans.
- Provide task supervision for multiple BSW students.
- Supervise BSW staff through supervisory visits, documentation review and chart audits.
- Work individually with patients utilizing CBT, DBT, and motivational interviewing models.
- Participate in weekly case conference meetings including MSW coordination of patient needs and follow up services.
- Educate patients and families on DNR and DNH while remaining present and available through entire process.
- Participate in IDG team meetings, collaborate with the team, and provide support to co-workers and volunteers.
- Provide supervision to a second-year MSW student
- Maintain compliance with federal and state regulations and Medicare requirements.
- Educate consumers about hospice and bereavement services while engaging consumers with compassion and empathy.
Medical social worker skills and personality traits
We calculated that 24% of Medical Social Workers are proficient in Social Work, Patients, and Home Health. They’re also known for soft skills such as Communication skills, Emotional skills, and Interpersonal skills.
We break down the percentage of Medical Social Workers that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Social Work, 24%
Collaborate and re-establish the presence of social work within a multidisciplinary team for individuals and families to provide case management services.
- Patients, 19%
Provided case management, counseling, and support services to chronically and terminally ill patients living in community-based settings
- Home Health, 11%
Assess Home Health patients to identify social and emotional factors negatively impacting their medical condition treatment plan or rate of recovery.
- MSW, 7%
Provided supervision to a second-year MSW student
- Patient Care, 6%
Attended and actively participate in interdisciplinary team meetings, staff meetings and in-services and positively contributed to the patient care planning.
- Crisis Intervention, 3%
Demonstrated the ability to effectively manage an interview with a patient or their family to provide crisis intervention and/or community resources.
Most medical social workers use their skills in "social work," "patients," and "home health" to do their jobs. You can find more detail on essential medical social worker responsibilities here:
Communication skills. One of the key soft skills for a medical social worker to have is communication skills. You can see how this relates to what medical social workers do because "clients talk to social workers about challenges in their lives." Additionally, a medical social worker resume shows how medical social workers use communication skills: "executed discharge planning completed psychosocial assessments fostered communication between families and medical professionals conducted family meetings"
Interpersonal skills. This is an important skill for medical social workers to perform their duties. For an example of how medical social worker responsibilities depend on this skill, consider that "social workers must be able to work with different groups of people." This excerpt from a resume also shows how vital it is to everyday roles and responsibilities of a medical social worker: "demonstrate excellent interpersonal and counseling skills. ".
Organizational skills. A big part of what medical social workers do relies on "organizational skills." You can see how essential it is to medical social worker responsibilities because "social workers must help and manage multiple clients, often assisting with their paperwork or documenting their treatment." Here's an example of how this skill is used from a resume that represents typical medical social worker tasks: "serve as a member of the palliative care team maintain strong organizational skills needed and able to work independently. "
Problem-solving skills. A commonly-found skill in medical social worker job descriptions, "problem-solving skills" is essential to what medical social workers do. Medical social worker responsibilities rely on this skill because "social workers must analyze their clients’ complex situations and develop practical solutions." You can also see how medical social worker duties rely on problem-solving skills in this resume example: "coordinate with health care providers to identify solutions for better patient care. "
The three companies that hire the most medical social workers are:
- Amedisys82 medical social workers jobs
- Agape Home Healthcare76 medical social workers jobs
- Interim HealthCare73 medical social workers jobs
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Compare different medical social workers
Medical social worker vs. Substance abuse counselor
Substance abuse counselors act as a support system for people with drug and alcohol problems and other behavioral issues. They help the patients control their behavior until they achieve a full recovery. The mental health counselors aid patients to overcome their chemical dependencies and become self-sufficient individuals. Part of their duty includes meeting clients to evaluate their health and substance issues while creating goals and treatment plans. They teach clients coping mechanisms, refer them to support groups, and engage them in group therapy sessions. Once the patient is stable, they help them re-establish their careers and give updates and reports of progress to the courts. Requirements for the job include a master's degree in counseling and social work.
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a medical social worker are more likely to require skills like "home health," "msw," "patient care," and "social services." On the other hand, a job as a substance abuse counselor requires skills like "substance abuse treatment," "intake assessments," "excellent interpersonal," and "mental health issues." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
Substance abuse counselors really shine in the non profits industry with an average salary of $41,273. Comparatively, medical social workers tend to make the most money in the health care industry with an average salary of $62,421.substance abuse counselors tend to reach lower levels of education than medical social workers. In fact, substance abuse counselors are 23.6% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.3% more likely to have a Doctoral Degree.Medical social worker vs. Program counselor
A Program Counselor is an essential part of a school's faculty. It's the counselor's responsibility to ensure that students are benefiting from the school's educational curriculum. This person is also tasked to help students resolve issues and problems that may hinder any educational progress. They are also part of the disciplinary team intended to instill good morals, ethics, and decency in students. The Program Counselor is one of the teacher or professor who has expertise or has a high educational degree in a particular subject or field.
In addition to the difference in salary, there are some other key differences worth noting. For example, medical social worker responsibilities are more likely to require skills like "home health," "msw," "patient care," and "social services." Meanwhile, a program counselor has duties that require skills in areas such as "developmental disabilities," "community integration," "cpr," and "medication administration." These differences highlight just how different the day-to-day in each role looks.
Program counselors earn a lower average salary than medical social workers. But program counselors earn the highest pay in the health care industry, with an average salary of $41,845. Additionally, medical social workers earn the highest salaries in the health care with average pay of $62,421 annually.program counselors earn lower levels of education than medical social workers in general. They're 32.7% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.3% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for medical social workers in the next 3-5 years?
Virginia Schwindt
MSW Field Director/Associate Professor, Union University
Medical social worker vs. Family counselor
A Family Counselor treats married couples or family members in order to help them overcome mental or emotional problems. They provide effective treatment measures to help the family members resolve their issues.
There are many key differences between these two careers, including some of the skills required to perform responsibilities within each role. For example, a medical social worker is likely to be skilled in "patients," "home health," "msw," and "patient care," while a typical family counselor is skilled in "poc," "family support," "family therapy," and "dod."
Family counselors earn the highest salary when working in the professional industry, where they receive an average salary of $40,967. Comparatively, medical social workers have the highest earning potential in the health care industry, with an average salary of $62,421.family counselors typically earn lower educational levels compared to medical social workers. Specifically, they're 15.7% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 1.3% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Medical social worker vs. Counselor
Often, counselors are known to be the go-to person in times we are in need of emotional and psychological support. They help people to manage and overcome the issues which affect their mental health and well-being. Counselors face different kind of situations which may involve trauma, addiction, disabilities, abuse, suicide, anger management, career, and even personal relationships. They provide care, counseling, rehabilitation, and support services. Every counseling requires collaborative effort both from the counselor and client to become effective.
Types of medical social worker
Updated January 8, 2025
