Monday, January 12, 2009

Nursing Home Social Workers

Inconsistent state laws and low federal standards have resulted in varying qualification and certification standards for nursing home social workers, according to a recently released report.

Approximately 50% of nursing home social workers do not have any degree in social work, and a mere 20% carry a four-year diploma, according to the University of Iowa study. Only 38% of nursing home social workers are actually licensed in social work.

While federal law requires that any nursing home with more than 120 beds employ a full time social worker, current standards make anyone with a bachelor's degree in any human services field and one year's supervision qualified for the post, the report finds. Many of those interviewed for the survey said they could realistically attend to less than 60 residents, even though they regularly have to work with 120.

More information:
Nursing Home Resource

Full Article and Source:
Report: Uniform standards lacking for nursing home social workers

2 comments:

  1. I do not trust social workers anyway and do my very best to stay away from them.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is not encouraging news, this sounds like a free for all.

    Anonymous #1 Good plan to stay away from people who are not qualified, who are overworked and burned out.

    ReplyDelete