Please note...

Published

...that (at least in my state) 'social worker" is a protected title just like "nurse" is. For whatever reason the nurses at the hospital I intern at have taken to calling everyone from the financial services reps to the case managers (who are LPNs) "the social worker." Not only is it disrespectful, it confuses the heck out of patients. I had one elderly gentleman get exasperated after I introduced myself as the social work intern because in his words I was "the third social worker that had been in today!

So just a friendly request to try and use the correct title when you tell a patient that "so and so" will be stopping by. :) (And I promise I won't call the NAs, housekeepers or dietary "nurses" ;) )

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Specializes in Emergency Dept.

Is this really a common problem or is it one person doing it? I have never heard of this - of course you all work hard for your title and no one else should be referred to as a social worker unless they have the background to back it up.

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Specializes in Med-Surg/Tele, ER.

We have an MD who will always write "Social Work consult - discharge planning" no matter how many times we tell him Discharge Planners are nurses. DC planning and SW work closely with one another, for obvious reasons, but it is actually done by the DC planners, not the SW.

Also, thanks for the reminder! :)

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Is this really a common problem or is it one person doing it?

Its definitely more than one person since we are hearing this on multiple floors and in areas that would not have nurses floating from floor to floor.

I'm not sure where it started or why, but it sure did spread like wildfire!

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