Palliative Care Social Worker; LCSW

Location Detail: St Vincents Medical Center (10427)

Shift Detail: Shift 1

Palliative Care Social Worker (LCSW) – Palliative Care

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St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Bridgeport has more than 3,200 employees. It includes a 473-bed community teaching hospital, a 76-bed inpatient psychiatric facility in Westport, a large multispecialty provider group, and special needs services for adults and children. St. Vincent’s is the first hospital in Fairfield County to be integrated into the Hartford Health Care network and is the system’s second-largest hospital.

Job Summary:

As a member of the Palliative Care Department, the Palliative Care social workers will provide comprehensive clinical and psychosocial assessment and intervention for patients with serious illness. The social worker must be comfortable working in a fast-paced inpatient and outpatient setting where the structure of the day may change depending on patient, family and staff needs. The Palliative Care social worker provides support around adjustment to illness, decision making, eliciting goals of care and family coping along with the illness trajectory.

In keeping with the NASW Standards for Social Work Practice in Palliative and End of Life Care ( the social worker will play a multidimensional role as clinician, educator, advocate and team consultant.

Responsibilities:

1. Performs comprehensive psychosocial assessments of hospitalized patients with serious illness. Assists the health care team to integrate psychosocial factors into treatment plans:
Ability to analyze significant psychological, physical, emotional, social and economic issues of patients/families and to effectively communicate the relevance of such to other health care providers. Ability to identify, analyze and suggest interventions for difficult patient/family management situations.

2. Provides social work intervention including counseling and support to assist patients/families. Demonstrates ability to form empathic relationships with patients/ families who have significant emotional adjustment and coping issues.

3. Effectively addresses quality of life and end of life issues within a culturally competent framework to support the equitable delivery of excellence in health care to all patients and families.

4. Assess patient/ family’s level of understanding, barriers to learning, and to provide age-specific and culturally competent education as needed. Able to effectively assess and discuss the psychosocial issues of palliative care to patients/families.

5. Arranges, attends and actively participates in patient/family conferences, in person, as well as via available telehealth resources.

6. Demonstrates commitment to continuous improvement by seeking ways of improving care, effectiveness, and efficiency within the Palliative Care Service through active participation in Huddles and meetings.

7. Maintains patient records and other documentation in a manner consistent with standards of clinical care, hospital, department, third party and regulating agencies’ policies and procedures and standards of risk management.

8. Attends Palliative Care Team rounds, and all required departmental meetings.

9. Demonstrates awareness of, and adherence to St Vincent’s Medical Center policies and procedures. Maintains confidentiality and comply with professional ethics according to professional departmental and organizational standards and maintains current Connecticut license to practice social work.

10. Participates in continuing education opportunities to enhance and broaden skills relevant to job performance; maintains documentation of continuing education and in-service activities provided.

11. Participates in educational programs for St Vincent’s Medical Center staff as an expert on psychosocial issues in palliative care.

12. Works with members of the team to provide bereavement follow up for our palliative care patients.

13. Helps to…