reasons to go into nursing over social work?

[Nursetobe25]

it seems as if social work is a dying field these day and that many of the medical social work jobs are being taken over by nurses now-a-days.

Is that an accurate observation or is it just me.

[RNsRWe, ASN, RN]

No, it is inaccurate. Nursing requires a fair amount of psycho-social education and skills, but we are not social workers. It's not that we're "taking over" social work; it's ALWAYS been part of what we do (and to some extent, social work has "taken over" a piece of it.

You asked something similar yesterday on another thread; what did you think of the responses?

[SierraBravo]

I don't mean this to be derogatory, but I've never seen our social worker actually "work". To this day I have no idea what she does to earn a paycheck. Every time I email her about something she tells me that it's part of my job description to handle that. So, yeah...

[applewhitern, BSN, RN]

We no longer have any "social workers" at my hospital. Registered nurses were basically given those positions, and our last social worker quit a few months ago. We do have one who serves our mental health floor, but that is considered a separate entity from the hospital, and has different rules and regulations.

[jadelpn, LPN, EMT-B]

If it is something, OP, that you are thinking about, you could have a BSN and a LICSW as your masters. Most social workers are in the discharge planning, case management line of things. Which is an interesting gig.

Other social worker who are RN's also get involved in detox, mental health services, at schools, and homecare ....

There are nurses who want to get a DNP specific to mental health. Others choose to go the social worker route.

[firstinfamily, RN]

At the last facility I worked, sub-acute unit in LTC facility, the social worker for the sub-acute unit was replaced by an LPN. I think the hospitals, medical field needs both nurses and social workers in the field. I know when I was working home health there were not enough social workers in the county to meet the needs of the referrals, so a major shortage. Depends on what you want to do and how to get there, where you are located etc.

[Alicat1451]

At our facility, we have a social worker specifically for the floor (they also go to other floors) but they see the patients that need a consult and make recommendations. They work with care coordination to prep for discharge, make referrals that kind of thing. I love working with them, they bring a bit of a different perspective and can actually spend more time with the patient and provide support.

[firstinfamily, RN]

I want to add that the social worker who I worked with in the sub-acute environment had another job at least 2 months before I did. There is a good demand for social workers still, the needs for nurses are there but the jobs are getting harder to get!!

[Racer15, BSN, RN]

As the daughter of an LCSW, they provide an important role in the hospital setting and are very much so needed. If you think otherwise, just ask your social workers in the hospital just what it is they do. You might be surprised

[SierraBravo]

As the daughter of an LCSW, they provide an important role in the hospital setting and are very much so needed. If you think otherwise, just ask your social workers in the hospital just what it is they do. You might be surprised

I would ask her if I could find her.

[Birdbr]

I absolutely love these comments. As a social work student, I often come across such negative comments when talking to people in other professions, especially my nursing friends and colleagues. It's definitely disheartening.

We must remember that there is value in almost every profession in healthcare. Our scopes of training are different, but when working together the patient outcomes are much better.

:)