Social Worker Per Diem - Outpatient Hospice

Essential Functions

• Interviews patients and family members to obtain information about home environment, family relationships, health history, and patient’s personality traits.
• Serves as liaison between medical and nursing staff, patients, relatives, and appropriate outside agencies.
• Interprets and assists in resolving social problems that relate to medical condition and/or hospitalization.
• Plans, organizes, directs, and schedules spiritual programs and services that meet the needs of patients/families, hospital employees, and medical staff.
• Consults with hospital staff regarding hospital ministry; collaborates with members of the hospital care team in identifying and resolving problems.
• Acts as a liaison between patient, family, and hospital staff during periods of crisis, e.g., illness, dying, lengthy or difficult surgery.
• Aids in developing and implementing the patient’s care plan.
• Interprets nature of illness and prescribed course of treatment to patients and families; communicates family issues to other staff members; participates in planning conferences.
• Plans for needed care with nurse practitioner, physician, patient, and family.
• Introduces programs designed to meet the needs of the elderly after discharge and makes appropriate referrals and arrangements for services.
• Acts as liaison between medical/nursing staff, patients, families, and community, arranging for post-discharge care and patient’s transportation.

Minimum Qualifications

• Master’s degree in Social Work or a related field required for all departments.
• For Hospice, Master’s degree in Social Work required, and licensure as LCSW or LMSW is preferred.
• Two (2) years of social work experience in an acute care setting preferred.
• HeartSaver First Aid/CPR or Basic Life Support (BLS) certification required per department.
• Valid AZ fingerprint clearance card may be required per department.

Knowledge, Skills And Abilities

• Knowledge of interviewing techniques used to garner personal and health information to better assist patient.
• Skill in assessing socio-economic factors that might hinder a patient from getting the best care.
• Ability to read and comprehend simple instructions, short correspondence, and memos.
• Ability to write simple correspondence.
• Ability to effectively present information in one-on-one and small group situations to customers, clients, and other employees of the organization.
• Ability to add, subtract, multiply, and divide using whole numbers, common fractions, and decimals.
• Ability to define problems, collect data, establish facts, and draw valid conclusions.
• Ability to interpret an extensive variety of technical instructions in mathematical or diagram form and deal with several abstract and concrete variables.