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Showing posts from 2017

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Tips for New Social Work Graduate (MSW) Students

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  Happy start of the school year! Perusing social media, I came across a NASW blog article called “Guide for the First Year Social Work Student”. This post provided lots of great information tailored for new undergraduate students interested in studying social work. I wanted to take that NASW post a bit farther and compile a list of tips specific to graduate students pursuing a masters in social work (MSW). In my opinion, graduate school is a completely different experience from undergraduate, so my hope is that these tips will serve to be beneficial. Tips for New Social Work Graduate (MSW) Students -Don’t worry about grades so much When I was in graduate school, one of my professors told a story about a straight A student who committed suicide several years after graduation. His point was that given the people we need to work with, we social workers need to focus less on being perfectionists (as demonstrated by obsessing over grades and test scores) and work on being empathetic and co
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Hospice: 10 Things Patients and Families Need to Know

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Hospice is a care philosophy that focuses on maximizing the quality of life as opposed to the quantity of life. Hospice may include services such as medication/pain management, medical care, spiritual care, and social services.  As a medical social worker, my job is to handle all aspects of hospice discharge planning. This includes connecting patients to a hospice agency, ordering equipment, providing resources on care facilities (i.e. board and cares, assisted livings, non-medical custodial nursing homes), and arranging transportation for hospital discharge. Additionally, I provide support to patients and family members during an stressful and emotionally draining process. What's not publicly discussed about the hospice process is the immense pressure put on hospital employees to discharge patients quickly and efficiently. Insurance companies only pay if hospitals can medically justify a patient's stay. Once a patient goes on hospice, there is no reason fo
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Pinterest Group Board for Social Work Bloggers

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Recently, I learned of Pinterest Group Boards and how they allow for communities of like-minded people to share pins with one another. Given the lack of places where social workers can gather to share their blog posts, I've decided to go ahead and start a Pinterest Group Board specifically for social work bloggers:  Social Work Bloggers To be added to this group, you'll need a Pinterest account and I'll need to know your pinterest name. You can either post it here, DM it to me on twitter ( @CheapMSW ), or email me at cheapsocialworker@gmail.com. There are so many talented people in our profession. My hope is for this group to grow and become a centralized place where social workers and anyone interested in social work can share and learn from each another.
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Racial Profiling of Patients By Healthcare Providers

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I hate having to write yet another post on discrimination against patient by healthcare providers, but I think it's important. Recently, I was called to investigate an abuse incident. The only evidence based on chart review and talking to the staff was "the nurse heard the family member yelling at the patient". As a result, this family member was essentially banned from seeing the patient, who was confused at the time. To avoid violating HIPAA, here is a super abridged version of what happened next: -The family member returned to the hospital asking for the patient's location and an explanation for the ban. I received a phone call from the nurses station, claiming that the family member was on the verge of aggression. -I was with the family member in minutes, and the person was completely appropriate with me. The family member acknowledged speaking loudly due to the patient's confused behavior and seemed apologetic. The explanation was sound, and added detai
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A Day in the Life of a Medical Social Worker

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One of the problems of being a medical social worker in a hospital is that my work is so varied that people get confused as to what I actually do! To give you a better idea of my job functions, here's a rundown of a typical day at work. At some point, I may write different versions based on what unit I'm working on and what model of social work the hospital uses. For a comprehensive overview of the medical social work profession, please go here: About Social Services at a Hospital A Typical Day in the Life of a (not so) Cheap Medical Social Worker  6:20am: Alarm clock goes off. I hit the snooze button. 6:30am: I drag myself out of bed, wash up, throw some clothes on, and slap my makeup on my face. 7:00am: I run out the door and proceed to sit in traffic for the next hour. 8:00am: I arrive at work, clock in, and head to my desk to print out the hospital census. After figuring out who all the new patients are, I go through each one to determine if they ne
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Discrimination Against Patients by Healthcare Providers

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Recently, I was speaking to a nurse (whose identity will remain anonymous for her sake) regarding President Donald Trump's travel ban on seven Muslim majority countries . This nurse is an immigrant from another country and has been working in the United States for roughly 30 years. This nurse expressed her support for the travel ban against Muslims, saying that it's "for the better". Her support was not based on any fear of terrorists. She stated that having been a nurse for 30 years, she's encountered a number of people who come to America and "mooch" off the system. With regards to the seven banned countries, she stated that she's had a number of "birth tourist" patients whose purpose is to give birth to American citizen babies and take advantage of the system. She described the patients as "demanding", "knowledgeable of the system", and not knowing how to speak English. In her opinion, banning Muslims would prevent
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How to Plan a Wedding and Stay Sane

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In my previous post , I discussed the various cost saving measures my husband and I used during our wedding planning process. This was by far the easiest part of planning our wedding! Today, reflect on our wedding again and provide tips on how you can survive with your sanity intact! My husband and I made it, so you can too! Tip #1: While wedding planning, insignificant details suddenly become significant. In the end, they really don't matter. When we started planning this wedding, I was well aware that it would be lots of work. What I failed to realize was the amount of detail involved. Right from the start I was told that I "needed" things from floor length tablecloths, wooden dance floor, uplighting, Chiavari chairs, knee length or floor length bridesmaids dresses (depending on who I was talking to), matching bridesmaid accessories, Catholic Ceremony, etc. Such advice was often accompanied with warnings if I didn't listen (i.e. "Your pictures will look
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