Exploring the role of social work in U.S. burn centers

Because burn injuries most often occur within marginalized populations, there is a greater risk for poor psychosocial outcomes and social workers are trained to identify those psychosocial risk and resilience factors. Very little has been written about the role of social workers working in burn critical care teams, therefore leaving a gap in knowledge regarding this specialized area of social work practice. Social workers participating in multidisciplinary burn care teams were invited to participate in this preliminary descriptive study (n = 29). Frequency statistics were calculated for the brief online survey to learn more about professional preparation and continuing education, job responsibilities, and perspectives on job skills. Respondents were primarily white and female, with a mean age of 43.74 years. Most respondents reported holding an MSSW and a state-issued professional license. Responsibilities were described as discharge planning, case management, patient counseling, family counseling, support group facilitation, community education, school reentry/back to work programs, burn prevention, and "other duties", respectively. More than half of the respondents reported responsibilities in other units. With increased understanding of interventions used by social workers inpatient, there can be a greater understanding of patients' continuing needs once discharged.