Good morning - I need some advice but I'll give you the scenario first.
I opened a new patient two days ago. The social worker always goes with the nurse so we get everything done on the first visit. We are also a small rural hospice with 3 nurses and at the most 12 patients. We only have 3 right now.
This patient is over 400 pounds, with weeping edema to his legs, groin, abd. After the social worker did her thing, I began my physical assessment. Part of the assessment was to take the blanket off (he was naked due to the fluid running off his body). I asked him first, was it ok if the social worker stayed during the assessment. He said ok. As I moved in front of him I was between the sw and the patient and said with a smile, "I'll be blocking most of the view".
Today, the social worker and the manager talked to me about the sw being a team member and it was ok if she helped with patient care. My response was that was fine but I was going to ask the patient's permission first. I'm the patient advocate and my role is to protect his privacy. The sw continued the conversation saying I shouldn't have said I would be blocking the view as that hurt her feelings, since the patient had ok'd her being there.
Now, I've never had a person have their feelings get hurt because my goal was to protect the privacy of the patient.
Do your social workers help with patient care? (I'm actually ok with that as long as the patient is ok).
