MSW6103 v4: Advanced Social Work in Medical Practice
Week 1 Assignment
Analyze Practice Standards in the Health Care Field
Instructions
For this week’s assignment, utilize the NASW Practice Standards for health care settings that were included in this week’s resources. Social workers understand the value base of the profession and its ethical standards, as well as relevant laws and regulations that may impact practice at the micro, mezzo, and macro levels. Review and analyze this document, and then prepare a critical analysis of the following:
Considering what you have read in your other assigned readings this week, explore the relevancy of the Practice Standards in today’s ever-changing field of health care. Also, explain if the Standards reflect the variety of roles that social work has in health care. Provide evidence to support your answer.
If you were a newly graduated MSW who was entering the profession as a hospital social worker on an intensive care unit, allocate standards that would be your strengths, and then explain why. Which standards would you need to strengthen? Think of how social workers enact interventions to help clients resolve issues when formulating your response.
Additional resources are not required, but you may include resources in addition to the NASW document.
Length: 3-5 pages, not including title and reference pages
Your assignment should demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the ideas and concepts presented in the course by providing new thoughts and insights relating directly to this topic. Your response should reflect scholarly writing and current APA standards. Be sure to adhere to Northcentral University’s Academic Integrity Policy.
MSW6103 v4: Advanced Social Work in Medical Practice
Week 2 Assignment 1
Analyze State Regulations and Legislation
Instructions
Social workers understand the value base of the profession and its ethical standards, as well as relevant laws and regulations that may impact practice at the micro, mezzo, and macro levels. Social Workers also understand the role of other professions when engaged in inter-professional teams. Social workers recognize the importance of life-long learning and are committed to continually updating their skills to ensure they are relevant and effective. For your assignment this week, assume you have already graduated and are working in the field of social work at the MSW level. You are employed at a skilled nursing facility as the social services director. You have been asked to prepare a PowerPoint presentation regarding your state’s (or providence’s) social work and mental health practice laws and regulations as they pertain to reporting of abuse and neglect of elder and dependent adults. This presentation will be shown to all newly-hired social workers as part of their new hire training.
In your presentation, include the following (based on the state in which you in live or intend to practice):
Explain how vulnerable adult and/or elder and dependent adult is defined according to your state’s laws or regulations.
Examine and explain the mandatory reporting laws in your state.
Provide contact information for making a report of suspected abuse/neglect.
Include information regarding consequences for failure to report.
Review the social work licensure regulations in your state. Explain any requirements regarding working with older adults.
Incorporate appropriate animations, transitions, and graphics as well as speaker notes for each slide. The speaker notes may be comprised of brief paragraphs or bulleted lists and should cite material appropriately. Add audio to each slide using the Media section of the Insert tab in the top menu bar for each slide.
Support your presentation with at least three scholarly resources. In addition to these specified resources, other appropriate resources may be included such as a reference to state regulations and legislation.
Length: 12-15 slides (with a separate reference slide)
Notes Length: 100-150 words for each slide
Your response should demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the ideas and concepts presented in the course by providing new thoughts and insights relating directly to this topic. Your response should reflect scholarly writing and current APA standards.
MSW6103 v4: Advanced Social Work in Medical Practice
Week 2 Assignment 2
Examine Your Personal Reaction
Instructions
For the second assignment this week, schedule a meeting with your professor via Skype or telephone. During the meeting, explain your personal reaction to this week’s readings along with additional research you may have conducted. How do your personal ethical values compare and contrast with the NASW Code of Ethics that you are required to follow as a professional? Be sure during this meeting you demonstrate the following practice competencies:
make ethical decisions by applying the standards of the NASW Code of Ethics, relevant laws and regulations, models for ethical decision-making, ethical conduct of research, and additional codes of ethics as appropriate to context;
use reflection and self-regulation to manage personal values and maintain professionalism in practice situations;
demonstrate professional demeanor in behavior; appearance; and oral, written, and electronic communication;
There is nothing additional to submit for this assignment, but for attendance purposes, submit an NCU assignment cover sheet indicating this assignment has been completed. You will receive points based on attending this meeting and addressing the above criteria during the discussion.
MSW6103 v4: Advanced Social Work in Medical Practice
Week 3 Assignment
Document a Strategy to Improve a Health Behavior
Instructions
This week, you learned about theories of health behavior and the use of social media to influence these behaviors. Social workers also understand emerging forms of technology and the ethical use of technology in social work practice. For this week’s assignment, prepare a proposal that addresses the health behaviors of college students. Choose a health behavior that impacts college students, and then create a written strategy that utilizes social media to reach and motivate students to improve their behavior regarding your chosen topic.
Justify why you choose your particular health behavior and how it is relevant to college students (undergraduate or graduate).
Document how you will include health behavior theory into your plan.
Provide your strategy for using social media to reach students.
Explain your expected outcome and its benefits.
Length: 5-7 pages, not including title and reference pages.
Support your assignment with at least three scholarly resources. In addition to these specified resources, other appropriate scholarly resources may be included.
Your proposal should demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the ideas and concepts presented in the course and provide new thoughts and insights relating directly to this topic. Your response should reflect scholarly writing and current APA standards. Be sure to adhere to Northcentral University’s Academic Integrity Policy.
MSW6103 v4: Advanced Social Work in Medical Practice
Week 4 Assignment
Engage and Assess a Patient in a Medical Setting
Instructions
Review the fictitious case study below. You are the hospital social worker at the emergency room, and you are asked to complete a quick assessment of the patient and to report your findings to the staff physician by demonstrating your skills related to collecting and organizing data, and applying critical thinking to interpret information from clients and constituencies. Social workers also understand and apply methods of assessment with diverse clients and constituencies to advance practice effectiveness. Based on this scenario, complete the following:
Write a biopsychosocial-spiritual assessment of the client that includes:
A brief description of the patient’s chief complaint.
Description of engagement strategies which use empathy, reflection, and interpersonal skills to effectively engage diverse clients and constituencies including consideration of how diversity and difference characterize and shape the human experience and are critical to the formation of identity.
Assessment of the patient’s safety needs.
Assessment of the patient’s presenting mental status.
A review of the patient’s tangible resources (insurance, financial, housing, basic needs).
A review of the patient’s social and emotional supports.
Necessary standardized measures that you utilized with the patient.
Explanation of your observations and assessment of the patient, including any appropriate notes on transition and discharge planning specifically related to methods of identifying, analyzing and implementing evidence-informed interventions to achieve client and constituency goals.
Case Study
At 9:35 p.m. on a Friday night, Juan, age 66, walks into the emergency room of a large metropolitan hospital. He is disheveled and speaking broken English, mixed with Spanish. He is grabbing his stomach in pain and stating “It hurts. Why?” He reeks of body odor and possible alcohol. The nurse, who brings him back to an empty ER room, is met with hostility by Juan. He pushes her away and states, “Don’t hurt me, too.” The nurse turns to you and asks you to try to obtain information from the patient as she rushes to another room to assist with a car accident victim who was just brought in by paramedics. You ask for the hospital interpreter but are told she is unavailable at this time as she is with another patient. Reluctantly, you attempt to question Juan using what little Spanish you know, along with using hand gestures. Juan continues to talk in a confused state as he holds his stomach and moans. He eventually hands you his wallet and inside you find a state ID, no insurance card, three dollars, and a business card of a case manager who works at a local homeless shelter. You point to the card and ask, “Do you live here?” He nods yes. You call the number but reach a voicemail as it is after hours. You ask, “Family?” and Juan shakes his head no and states “Mexico.” He then turns and starts speaking rapidly in Spanish as if he is talking to someone he sees in the room. You turn in the direction he is speaking, but you see no one.
Support your assignment with at least three scholarly resources. In addition to these specified resources, other appropriate scholarly resources, including seminal articles, may be included.
Length: 4-6 pages, not including title and reference pages.
Your assignment should demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the ideas and concepts presented in the course and provide new thoughts and insights relating directly to this topic. Your response should reflect scholarly writing and current APA standards. Be sure to adhere to Northcentral University’s Academic Integrity Policy.
MSW6103 v4: Advanced Social Work in Medical Practice
Week 5 Assignment
Determine a Treatment Plan
Instructions
Refer to the case study from Week 4’s assignment. You have been asked to determine a treatment plan to address his psychosocial needs while he is in the hospital and provide ideas to his unit’s discharge planner regarding possible aftercare. Be sure to recommend community resources that can help other clients who face similar issues as Juan. In preparing this treatment plan, remember that social workers recognize personal values and the distinction between personal and professional values; you should demonstrate the following knowledge and skills:
apply methods of assessment with diverse clients and constituencies to advance practice effectiveness.
apply knowledge of human behavior and the social environment, person-in-environment, and other multidisciplinary theoretical frameworks in the analysis of assessment data from clients and constituencies;
develop mutually agreed-on intervention goals and objectives based on the critical assessment of strengths, needs, and challenges within clients and constituencies; and
select appropriate intervention strategies based on the assessment, research knowledge, and values and preferences of clients and constituencies
select and use appropriate methods for evaluation of outcomes;
The following Monday when you returned to work, you notice that Juan was admitted to the hospital for acute pancreatitis and alcohol withdrawal. He is still admitted, but is not medically stable, as his physical health has been neglected for years due to a lack of health insurance because Juan is an undocumented worker at the local packing plant. He was also recently evicted from his apartment due to his landlord fearing he would get into trouble for housing an undocumented worker. Therefore, Juan has been staying at a local homeless shelter for men. Juan informed staff over the weekend that he has been working in the U.S. to send money home to his family who still resides in Mexico. Juan misses his family and has been self-medicating his depression with alcohol. You have been asked to provide a treatment plan to address his psychosocial needs while he is in the hospital and provide ideas to his unit’s discharge planner regarding possible aftercare. Be sure to recommend community resources that can help other clients who face similar issues as Juan.
Support your assignment with at least three scholarly resources. In addition to these specified resources, other appropriate scholarly resources, including seminal articles, may be included.
Length: 3-5 pages, not including title and reference pages.
Your assignment should demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the ideas and concepts presented in the course and provide new thoughts and insights relating directly to this topic. Your response should reflect scholarly writing and current APA standards. Be sure to adhere to Northcentral University’s Academic Integrity Policy.
MSW6103 v4: Advanced Social Work in Medical Practice
Week 6 Assignment
Capture “A Day in the Life”
Instructions
Your assignment for this week requires you to locate and interview a social worker who works with older adults. While older adults do not have to be the only type of client/patient they work with, focus your interview and paper on their experiences working with this population. Be sure to include the following in your written summary of the interview:
Describe the social worker’s work setting and job title, along with their primary job responsibilities including how how their personal experiences and affective reactions may affect their assessment and decision-making.
Explain their work with older adults, including the rewards and challenges when working with client strengths and limitations inclusive of the dimensions of diversity as understood as the intersectionality of multiple factors.
Examine the strategies they use to effectively work in a collaborative manner with other professions when engaged in inter-professional teams.
Discuss and interpret their encounters with older or dependent adult abuse/neglect situations including how social workers understand frameworks of ethical decision-making and how to apply principles of critical thinking to those frameworks in practice, research, and policy arenas.
Inquire about the process for mandated reporting of suspected dependent adult abuse/neglect and if there is special training associated with this process.
Conclude with their advice for successfully working with older adult clients/patients. Do they recommend additional community resources that might be lacking for this population?
Length: 3-5 pages, not including title and reference pages.
This assignment does not require the inclusion of academic, scholarly resources. But, you still must write it in APA format.
Your assignment should demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the ideas and concepts presented in the course and provide new thoughts and insights relating directly to this topic. Your response should reflect scholarly writing and current APA standards. Be sure to adhere to Northcentral University’s Academic Integrity Policy.
MSW6103 v4: Advanced Social Work in Medical Practice
Week 7 Assignment
Create a Discharge Plan Template to Assist VA Patients & Their Families
Instructions
A key role a social work role in a medical setting is to critically analyze, monitor, and evaluate intervention and program processes and outcomes. Social workers are knowledgeable about evidence-informed interventions to achieve the goals of clients and constituencies, including individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities. Upon graduation, you have obtained a job with a local VA hospital. You will work in the surgical unit as a hospital social worker who assesses patients’ needs and creates their discharge plans. After the first few weeks, you notice that most of your patients tend to discharge home with home health care services. The patients, and their families, often ask the same questions about additional community resources and financial assistance. To increase efficiency, you decide to create a discharge plan template that can be used for patients who discharge home with home health services. You have also decided to include local resources that may benefit patients and their families recognizing the implications of the larger practice context in the assessment process and value the importance of inter-professional collaboration in this process.
For this assignment, include a brief statement that explains the purpose of the discharge plan. Demonstrate how you would utilize the discharge plan to negotiate, mediate, and advocate with and on behalf of diverse clients and constituencies and facilitate effective transitions and endings that advance mutually agreed-on goals. Utilize resources that are local to where you live. Include at least five general health-related resources and five financial resources. Provide a brief description of each resource and how it may be of benefit to patients. Include any additional information that you believe is warranted, based on this week’s readings and your research .
Support your assignment with at least three scholarly resources. In addition to these specified resources, other appropriate scholarly resources, including seminal articles, may be included.
Length: 3-5 pages, not including title and reference pages.
Your assignment should demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the ideas and concepts presented in the course and provide new thoughts and insights relating directly to this topic. Your response should reflect scholarly writing and current APA standards. Be sure to adhere to Northcentral University’s Academic Integrity Policy.
MSW6103 v4: Advanced Social Work in Medical Practice
Week 8 Signature Assignment
Evaluate the Social Worker’s Role in a Medical Setting to Improve Practice Effectiveness
Instructions
Evaluate the Social Worker’s Role in a Medical Setting to Improve Practice Effectiveness at the Micro, Mezzo and Macro Levels
Throughout your MSW program, you have been asked to select a topic and/or population of focus. This week, you will incorporate this focus into your Signature Assignment. For the Signature Assignment, you will evaluate the role of social work, in a medical setting, as it relates to your topic or population of focus. For example, if your focus is addiction, you may choose to examine the role of social work on inpatient psychiatric units and its involvement in addressing addiction.
Social workers understand that evaluation is an ongoing component of the dynamic and interactive process of social work practice with, and on behalf of, diverse individuals, families, groups, organizations and communities. Social workers recognize the importance of evaluating processes and outcomes to advance practice, policy, and service delivery effectiveness. Social workers understand theories of human behavior and the social environment, and critically evaluate and apply this knowledge in evaluating outcomes. Regardless of the practice setting, social workers make ethical decisions by applying the standards of the NASW Code of Ethics, relevant laws and regulations, models for ethical decision-making, ethical conduct of research, and additional codes of ethics as appropriate to context. Clearly identify your topic and/or population of focus and the specific medical setting in which social work would address this issue. Create a table of contents for your paper. Be sure to include the following:
Describe the key duties of the social worker in this setting and the assessment and intervention strategies most often utilized demonstrating that assessment is an ongoing component of the dynamic and interactive process of social work practice with, and on behalf of, diverse individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities.
Explain the impact of the medical model and the insurance industry on social work’s role in this setting.
Interpret the application of the appropriate NASW’s Standards of Practice (or any other standards).
Identify the key standards in the NASW Code of Ethics that would apply to this role and the value base of the profession and its ethical standards, as well as relevant laws and regulations that may impact practice at the micro, mezzo, and macro levels.
Discuss any state social work regulations or legislation that may apply.
Provide key resources that would be valuable to a social worker in this setting including their role in policy development and implementation within their practice settings at the micro, mezzo, and macro level and actively engaging in policy practice to effect change within those settings.
Because social workers value the importance of interprofessional teamwork and communication in interventions, recognizing that beneficial outcomes may require interdisciplinary, interprofessional, and inter-organizational collaboration, you must recommend strategies for effective collaboration with professionals from other disciplines.
Conclude with a brief review of prevention interventions and/or health behavior theory that is relevant for this setting to demonstrate how you might use and translate research evidence to inform and improve practice, policy, and service delivery.
Support your assignment with at least five scholarly resources. In addition to these specified resources, other appropriate scholarly resources, including seminal articles, may be included.
Length: 10-12 pages, not including title and reference pages
Your assignment should demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the ideas and concepts presented in the course and provide new thoughts and insights relating directly to this topic. Your response should reflect scholarly writing and current APA standards. Be sure to adhere to Northcentral University’s Academic Integrity Policy
