Job Summary:

In accordance with the Mission, Vision and Values, and strategic directions of Provincial Health Services Authority patient safety is a priority and a responsibility shared by everyone at PHSA. As such, the requirement to continuously improve quality and safety is inherent in all aspects of this position.

The Social Worker I (BSW) reports operationally to the Program Manager/Director or Social Worker III and is under the general supervision of the Social Work III/Professional Practice Leader for Social Work. The roe is responsible for providing clinical and consultative social work services of a general nature to patients and families relevant to the specific area of care. Duties include conducting social assessments, providing counselling services, maintaining records, attending interdisciplinary clinical/case conferences, identifying applicable community resources for patients and facilitating care throughout the continuum.

Duties/Accountabilities:

1. Conducts foundational social work assessments of patients and families by interviewing the patient and/or family, obtaining relevant information, gathering social data regarding the patient and/or family, and interpreting the data using a variety of assessment tools, in accordance with professional standards, clinical policies and practices relevant to the specific area of care.

2. Provides foundational social work and therapeutic clinical counseling services to patients and families in the assigned area of care by exploring the emotional response to identify problems, personal concerns, treatment objectives and facilitates change in coping style, behavior, attitude and feelings and adaptive responses to life events.

3. Receives referrals from the interdisciplinary team to participate in the patient, families, community supports and interdisciplinary team meetings to coordinate services, support case management and facilitate meetings, as appropriate relevant to the specific area of care.

4. Refers to community services as necessary relevant to the specific area of care area.

5. Attends clinical/case conferences as a member of an interdisciplinary team for patient reviews, admissions, and discharges by methods such as providing input from a social work perspective on a variety of care issues related to the patient, and ensuring proper and effective treatment of the patient relevant to the specific care area.

6. Provides consultative and direct services to patients, families, team members and community health professionals relevant to the specific care area.

7. Prepares and maintains patient records by methods such as documenting client assessments, interventions, evaluations, modifications and patient goals, charting patient information, preparing progress notes and reports in accordance with established standards, policies and procedures, to meet regulatory requirements, and provide evidence and rationale that support findings and intervention plan relevant to the specific care area.

8. Maintains a variety of records such as workload statistics by methods such as recording information into approved formats, collating data, analyzing trends, accounting for variances, and recommending an action plan as directed relevant to the specific care area.

9. Attends and/or leads meetings, in-services, and corporate initiatives by methods such as presenting relevant materials/topics to remain informed of departmental/practice activities and to contribute to hospital initiatives, as directed relevant to the specific care area.

10. Participates in program evaluation/quality improvement by identifying opportunities for change and formulating recommendations to better social work services, as directed relevant to the specific care area.

11. Maintains foundational knowledge of developments in the Social Work profession and sets measurable goals and objectives within a team or individual environment, by methods such as reviewing literature in specialty areas, consulting with clinical and community experts within the field, evaluating clinical practice, participating in professional development activities to improve care through new practices, and developing a plan in collaboration with the Professional Practice Coordinator, Professional Practice Leader, and Program Manager for professional development; reviews progress to ensure that goals are achieved within established time frames relevant to the specific care area.

12. Provides leadership to social work students as assigned, by providing guidance and the opportunity to observe and take an active role in the support of patients relevant to the specific care area.

13. Performs other related duties as assigned relevant to the specific care area.

Qualifications:

Education, Training and Experience

• Bachelor of Social Work from an accredited School of Social Work and one (1) year post Bachelor of Social Work experience or successful completion of a practicum in a health care setting.
• Current full registration with the British Columbia College of Social Workers.

Skills and Abilities

• Foundational knowledge and understanding relevant to the specific care area.
• Demonstrated ability to apply systems theory to practice in Social Work assessment and intervention relevant to the specific care area.
• Demonstrated ability to apply foundational counselling skills relevant to the specific care area.
• Ability to provide consultation to patients, families and other healthcare professionals relevant to the specific care area.
• Ability to develop, coordinate and deliver in-services, presentations and support groups relevant to the specific care area.
• Ability to make effective referrals, reflecting knowledge of community resources and strong collaborative skills relevant to the specific care area.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate effectively both verbally and in writing with patients, families, team members and community agency personnel.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate both verbally and in writing, and to deal effectively with co-workers, physicians, other health care professionals, clients and their families, and external agencies.
• Basic knowledge of legislation and government policies and procedures that relate to the patient relevant to the specific area of care.
• Demonstrated ability to conduct and document a psychosocial assessment relevant to the specific area of care.
• Demonstrated ability to draw out and honour information that will contribute to understanding the patient’s circumstance relevant to the specific area of care.
• Demonstrated ability to adjust to new or unexpected events relevant to the specific area of care.
• Demonstrated ability to deal effectively with conflict situations relevant to the specific area of care.
• Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively as a member of an interdisciplinary team relevant to the specific area of care.
• Physical ability to perform the duties of the position relevant to the specific area of care..
• Computer literacy.