Are medical social worker job opportunities growing or declining?

Are jobs in this industry on the rise? Are there any sub-sectors that are growing?

Where are the jobs? Which places have the most medical social worker opportunities?

Host said: Are jobs in this industry on the rise? Are there any sub-sectors that are growing?

Where are the jobs? Which places have the most medical social worker opportunities?

It seems that here in Oklahoma home health is using a social worker less and less. However the new hospice guidelines will require an MSW instead of a BSW. I would guess that outside of hospitals, hospices probably hire the most medical social workers.

I've done medical social work for about 20 years in Ohio. The presence of licensed BSW/MSW professionals seems to be declining from what I observe. Home health/hospice agencies and dialysis centers will use part-time or prn social workers to save money. Only because Medicare mandates the availability of an MSW to patients do we still even have a presence in those settings.

Nurses have taken over most of the roles in hospitals and now even in mental health treatment programs. They are doing discharge planning, case management, community outreach, and even psychotherapy.

I feel that the profession is in jeopardy overall. I am in my 3rd lay-off in 2 years and finding very few truly "medical social work" positions advertised.

i need to do medical social work as a registered private social

i want a job as a medical social work as a registered private social worker in joburg

Host said: Are jobs in this industry on the rise? Are there any sub-sectors that are growing?

Where are the jobs? Which places have the most medical social worker opportunities?

declining. rapidly, years ago......

I plan to attend school in the fall for a medical social worker. From what I've heard its going to be in demand in the years to come. I sure hope so!!!

Brittany in Tallahassee, Florida said: I plan to attend school in the fall for a medical social worker. From what I've heard its going to be in demand in the years to come. I sure hope so!!!

I hope this response does not seem to negative, but it is the reality. Medical social workers in hospitals are few and far between. Many hospitals use RN's to do discharge planning and casemanagement, counseling,etc. And they get paid A LOT more than the social workers who were doing the same job. Home health agencies tend to use Prn (as needed) social workers. I know a lady who graduated with me who got her MSW/LCSW, and due to the low demand for medical social workers she got into an accelerated BSN program and had no problem getting a job after that. Sad to say, medical social work is not in high demand any more. NASW needs to do a lot more with advocating for social work positions. If you want to work in a medical setting, you will probably have a hard time finding a job as a social worker. The social workers who have those positions are not leaving.......there is no high rate of people leaving those jobs, because there are no jobs to go to.

I forgot to add that VA Hospitals do hire a lot of social workers and the pay with VA is very good compared to other medical settings. It is hard to get a position with VA due to the competition, however, now with the soldiers returning you are seeing more open positions. Also, some military bases hire civilian social workers as well.