Social Worker

About the role

We are VITAS Healthcare, the nation’s leading end-of-life care provider since 1978. Our hospice organization kickstarts careers in caring, promotes from within, and provides a nationally recognized best-in-class employee experience. Supported by industry-leading experts and a growing network of programs in 15+ states, VITAS empowers team members to grow toward their goals while transforming patients’ lives. Our priority is to care: For our patients, for each other, and for the future.

Responsibilities

• Provide emotional and logistical support to patients and their loved ones during an important and vulnerable time.
• Ensure VITAS patients reach the end of life with their affairs in order, honoring their wishes for finances, funeral arrangements, and more.
• Help loved ones navigate the grieving process.
• Grant end-of-life wishes or listen to patients’ stories at their bedside.
• Spend most of your time caring for hospice patients wherever they call home (private residence or assisted living/skilled nursing facility).
• Come to the office about once a week to meet with the interdisciplinary team (RNs, physicians, chaplains, fellow nurses).

Skills

• Commitment
• Compassion
• Can-do Attitude
• Keep patient welfare at the center of everything you do
• Give your best each day in service of extending comfort and dignity to all people at the end of their life’s journey

Requirements

• Ability to travel per job requirements.
• Thorough knowledge of community resources or the desire/ability to obtain this knowledge.
• Knowledge of key psychosocial issues prevalent with terminally ill patients and their family/caregivers, including knowledge of effective psychosocial interventions to address those issues.
• Capacity to relate and work well with others as a member of an interdisciplinary team.
• Excellent listening and communication skills.
• Ability to be an effective patient and family advocate—both within the patient/family unit, within the core IDG, and within community agencies and the like.
• Provide emotional and psychological support to patients and families.
• Offer counseling and crisis intervention services.
• Provide bereavement support and grief counseling.
• Educate patients and families on the emotional and psychological response to the illness progression.

Qualifications

• Masters of Social Work required from a school accredited by the Council on Social Work Education, unless grandfathered in per the 2008 Medicare Hospice Condition of Participation
• At least one year social work experience in a health care setting.
• Experience as a social worker with the terminally ill and their families, preferred
• Experience in providing counseling and support to patients and families.
• Empathy and compassion in dealing with seriously ill patients and their families.
• Equivalent experience of licensure may be considered where allowable by State Regulations (i.e. a BSW in FL or WI)
• License and/or Certification if required by State Minimum State Requirements For The Following States:
  • AL: Licensed Bachelors of Social Work (LBSW)
  • CA: BSW cannot be used as the core SW.
  • CT: Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW)
  • DC: Licensed Graduate Social Worker (LGSW)
  • DE: Licensed Baccalaureate Social Worker (LBSW)
  • FL: BSW
  • GA: Licensed Master Social Worker
  • IL: Licensed Social Worker (LSW)
  • MO: Baccalaureate Social Worker (BSW)