Clinical Social Worker - Medical Oncology

Company: South Shore Health
Location: Weymouth
Posted on: November 17, 2023

Job Description:

Job Description SummaryExciting and challenging opportunity as a dedicated ambulatory social worker providing clinical social work services to patients and their families at the Dana-Farber Brigham Cancer Center in clinical affiliation with South Shore Hospital, in South Weymouth, MA.

Position calls for psychosocial assessment and intervention to address needs and concerns, crisis intervention, consultation, and ability to work collaboratively with a multi-disciplinary team to reduce cancer-related distress and improve quality of life.

This ambulatory social work role provides in-person and telehealth services to patients and families (i.e., phone/Zoom video); modalities include individual, family, and group work. Candidate must be able to thrive in a fast paced, complex, academic medical environment where the social worker is a key, valued member of the multidisciplinary medical team.

This is an opportunity to contribute to social work practice and psychosocial care in a renowned cancer center that combines compassionate care with a commitment to be on the forefront of developing new and more effective cancer treatments.

LCSW or LICSW RequiredJob DescriptionMinimum Education - PreferredMasters Degree in Social Work from accredited program.Current Massachusetts license required.Minimum Work ExperiencePrevious experience in hospital or healthcare setting.LCSW or LICSW - Licensed Clinical Social Worker OR Licensed Independent Clinical Social WorkerRequired additional Knowledge, and AbilitiesBilingual English / Spanish preferred.Cultural sensitivity and age specific competency required.Crisis intervention, treatment skills.Strong clinical assessment/judgment, including interdisciplinary teaming skills.Excellent communication oral and written.Strong organizational skills and ability to set priorities; tolerance for ambiguity.Analytical skills, computer literacy and keyboarding.1.Performs psychosocial assessment. Demonstrates ability to determine and analyze multiple issues impacting patient's/family's adjustment and formulate appropriate plan for addressing problems and concerns.2.Provides social work intervention to assist patients/families: Demonstrates ability to form empathic relationships with patients/families who have significant emotional adjustment issues. - Demonstrates ability to use self in differential, therapeutic ways to address patient/family concerns, problems, issues to achieve optimal functioning. - Maintains working knowledge base of techniques for individual, couples, family and group counseling. - Demonstrates ability to address quality of life and end of life issues.3.Assumes responsibility/leadership as needed: Ability to cover for supervisory personnel as needed. - Ability to make reasoned decisions and provide organization and leadership as needed.4.Assists health care team to integrate psychosocial factors: Ability to analyze significant psychological, physical, emotional, social, economic issues of patients/families and to effectively communicate the relevance of such to other health care providers. - Ability to identify, analyze and suggest intervention for difficult patient/family management situations.5.Helps patients/families understand psychosocial factors/resources: Ability to assess patient/family level of understanding, barriers to learning, and to provide age-specific education as needed.a.Ensures that patient/family are involved in all phases of the patient care process.6.Serves as liaison and collaborates with range of community and governmental agencies and resources: Maintains current knowledge of community and governmental resources. - Ability to advocate for and obtain access to resources for patients/families. - Ability to identify deficits in resources and to advocate for new resources.7.Demonstrates commitment to continuous improvement by seeking ways of improving care, effectiveness and efficiency within the department and within the organization.8.Demonstrates flexibility, willingness to innovate, seek new models of care and collaboration.9.Demonstrates commitment to cultural sensitivity and cultural competence with diverse populations.10.Documents clinical work. - Maintains ability to clearly articulate in writing psychosocial assessments and social work plans of action. - Ability to adhere to department standards for timely documentation.a.Maintains administrative record-keeping, statistical reports: Ability to adhere to department standards for timely reporting of statistics11.Participates in department meetings and institutional committees: Attends department meetings consistently and promptly. - Provides leadership in committee work and meetings [e.g. QI, staff development].12.Formulates, coordinates, implements psychosocial component of patient/family care: Demonstrates ability to clarify and reach agreement on short and long-term goals with patients/families around psychological, emotional, physical, social, environmental, and economic/financial issues impacting patients' adjustments and recoveries.13.Initiates and/or participates in interdisciplinary collaboration to implement psychosocial treatment: Ability to initiate and facilitate interdisciplinary meetings to discuss and/or implement psychosocial treatment plan. - Skilled in ability to communicate effectively with multidisciplinary team within and outside DF/BWH Cancer Center at South Shore Hospital. - Demonstrates understanding of the principles of multi-disciplinary team collaboration and maintains effective working relationships.14.Maintains responsibility for on-call outside working hours as needed.15.Participates in interdepartmental / Institute planning regarding program, policy, procedures: Awareness of adherence to DFCI and department policies and procedures. - Ability to work effectively to contribute to development and review of department and interdepartmental policies and procedures and regulatory requirements [e.g. mandated reporting, QI program].16.Teaches and supervises social work staff graduate trainees, volunteers: Ability to transmit knowledge of social work principles in an oncology setting [e.g. transference, countertransference boundaries] and psychosocial issues for patients/families [e.g. anticipatory mourning, adaptive coping skills, life review] to others for the purpose of teaching and supervision.17.Delivers presentations and seminars to community at large: Organizes and effectively presents [orally or via written materials] psychosocial issues for cancer patients/families. - Maintains current knowledge base on social work principles and interventions in an oncology setting.18.Participates in psychosocial research: - Identifies important areas for psychosocial research. - Maintains working knowledge of principles of research. - Ability to initiate, develop and participate in psychosocial research projects. - Ability to prioritize time to ensure participation in research projects.19.Participates in discharge planning: -a.Provides psychosocial support and psychosocial intervention in ways that contribute to the forward momentum of the discharge plan. Lends expertise in analyzing, assessing and intervening around psychosocial and environmental barriers that interfere with the discharge plan.b.Demonstrates effective communication with team members responsible for the development and implementation of the discharge plan.Maintains confidentiality and complies with professional ethics according to professional, department and organizational standards.20.Seeks consultation as needed.ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS (Cont.)Technology and Learninga.Participates in continued learning and possess a willingness and ability to learn and utilize new technology and procedures that continue to develop in their role and throughout the organization.b.Embraces technological advances that allow us to communicate information effectively and efficiently based on role.

Keywords: South Shore Health, Weymouth , Clinical Social Worker - Medical Oncology, Healthcare , Weymouth, Massachusetts