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Showing posts from 2018

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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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My Social Work Values

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I originally wrote this short post regarding my social work values several years ago but never published it. I'm publishing it now to remind myself that despite how burned out I feel, I am and will fundamentally always be a social worker at heart. Sometimes, I feel so burned out by my job that I can't help but feel apathy about my patients and the social issues affecting society. During these times, I wonder if I still have the social worker mindset and belong in the social worker profession. Then, I interact with the people around me and am starkly reminded that deep down, I'm still a social worker. If you feel infuriated by any of the following, then you probably are too! Retelling a story about a patient and having the first response be, "That person was black, right?"   Being told that mental illness is "just in someone's head" and that they simply need to "snap out of it".  Being told that people who attempt/commit suicide
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Inpatient vs. Outpatient Status: How It Can Bankrupt You

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This post is about hospital Inpatient versus Outpatient Status , the difference between the two, and how being categorized as one over the other can result in costly medical expenses. While this content pertains mostly to individuals on Medicare, I feel everyone should know this information in the event they or a loved one are hospitalized. Inpatient vs. Outpatient Status: How it Can Bankrupt You One of my least favorite parts of being a hospital social worker is being the bearer of bad news. On a typical day, I'll have numerous conversations with patients telling them that their equipment, transportation, and/or post-hospital care is not covered by their insurance. Telling patients that they're liable for up to thousands of dollars in medical expenses is not exactly what I had in mind when I became a social worker. When it comes to talking to patients about what's not covered, the most infuriating and confusing expenses often stem from whether a patient was admitt
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