Tips for New Social Work Graduate (MSW) Students
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 an...
A lot of people think social work us easy. Unfortunately, we are some of the hardest working, underpaid people with advanced degrees.
ReplyDeleteI am a medical social worker too, and find this similar dilemma. I sometimes feel as though they have no clue as to what my role is or should be. I think they view me more as a go to girl, or secretary who makes phone calls, gather info to coordinate discharge planning all day. I have my MSW and have worked outside the hospital as a social worker before. I do not mean to devalue the field of nursing or the hard work that they do, but I likely have had more education and more work experience than them when they began their careers, and have to deal with stress on various levels as well in the workplace, along with added responsibilities that go along with meeting the psychosocial needs of patients in addition to ensuring safe discharge planning for patients. We need to find a way to educate them as to what our role is and the service that we can and do provide.
ReplyDelete@Vikie: Indeed. I feel that people who call our profession "fluffy" should try to fill in for us one day and see how it really is!
ReplyDelete@Ambrosia: Another dilemma I have at work is the assumption that I have as much medical knowledge as a nurse. Many times, I've had to explain to staff that I deal primarily with psychosocial issues, and that when it comes to medical diagnoses, lab results, and therapy evaluations. Furthermore, I am still getting the hang of the insurance system, and learning (typically by asking the case managers questions) what the different insurances will cover based on diagnoses with which I am unfamiliar. Hence, the staff will typically go to the nurses case managers instead of me when it comes to most discharge planning issues. At times, I do feel my job would be so much easier if I had a nursing background.
The times I do get to shine are when the issues are primary psychosocial. Typically, I'm able to do my own thing without needing the advise of the nursing staff. Fortunately, I do work somewhere with a staff that supports and respects social workers.
Whether it be at the university or hospital level, I do think that social workers, nurses, and the hospital system need to be more educated on the role of the social worker. That way, there isn't so much overlap in the workplace.
Thanks for reading my blog!