Social Work in Health Care Certificate

Course Outline

Course 1. Introduction to Healthcare & Health Equity
• Discuss health, healthcare, health literacy and health equity in the United States.
• Increase knowledge of the roles and responsibilities of social workers in healthcare
• Increase awareness of social determinants of health and how they impact the health of individuals, families and communities.
• Describe the six major government healthcare programs, Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income
• Describe the history of telehealth and outline relevant considerations for current social work practice in healthcare
• Identify policy barriers that affect access to healthcare.
• Review multiple types of advance directives.

Course 2. Patient Populations & Healthcare Settings
• Discuss the common roles of social work in a variety of healthcare settings
• Examine the impact of social work and care coordination with multiple patient populations and healthcare settings.
• Identify common challenges faced by individuals within different patient populations.
• Recommend best practices that social workers can employ with a variety of patient populations across healthcare settings.
• Illustrate ways to implement person-centered and trauma-informed care with a variety of patient populations and settings.

Course 3. Frameworks, Treatment Modalities, and Social Work Skills
• Describe the foundational components of engagement and their application to building rapport with patients across healthcare settings.
• Outline considerations for comprehensive social work assessment of psychosocial needs across healthcare settings.
• Apply the key components of social work frameworks and treatment modalities to healthcare social work.
• Discuss the impact of patient values, beliefs, culture, and experiences on the therapeutic relationship in healthcare.
• Review the concepts of cultural humility, intersectionality, oppression, and trauma as they relate to working with patients in healthcare settings.

Course 4. Social Work and Complex Care
• Identify how integrating social work into healthcare increases positive outcomes for individuals, families and communities.
• Recognize the need for comprehensive healthcare to include assessment and interventions that address an individual’s social context.
• Increase awareness of the potential impact chronic illness has on individuals, families, and communities.
• Discuss the roles and responsibilities of social workers on integrated behavioral health teams.
• Examine social work roles and responsibilities in hospice and palliative care.

Course 5. Patient, Caregiver, and Clinician Resilience
• Increase awareness of how social determinants of health, including racism and discrimination, impact resilience in healthcare
• Describe compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma, secondary trauma, burnout, trauma mastery and trauma stewardship
• Identify personal and systemic stressors for people living with an acute, chronic or terminal illness.
• Increase knowledge of assessment and intervention tools focused on building sustainable resilience.
• Identify challenges faced by diverse caregivers and give examples of caregiver resilience.
• Explore how creating an interprofessional collaborative culture impacts provider resilience.
• Identify the principal foundations of supervision, including clinical supervision, as it is used in the field of social work.
• Identify at least three evidence- based, non-pharmaceutical interventions that can support whole-person health and reduce distress.

Course 6. Ethical Considerations in Health Social Work
• Differentiate core bioethical principles (autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, justice) and connect them to foundational social work values.
• Apply the NASW Code of Ethics to common healthcare dilemmas, including informed consent, confidentiality, and justice-related concerns.
• Identify ethical documentation practices in medical records, including the use of minimum necessary disclosure and protection of client privacy.
• Examine ethical frameworks for resource allocation during public health crises (e.g., ventilator scarcity) and the social work role in promoting fairness and equity.
• Identify strategies for balancing cultural values with patient autonomy to support person-centered care.

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