The teaching social worker in family medicine: a prototype for the hospital social worker?

The need for physicians to receive training in interpersonal skills as well as in preventive medicine to aid them in recognizing and addressing the psychosocial aspects of illness and to facilitate the delivery of more comprehensive care to patients, has been addressed in the Department of Family Medicine and several other specialties. In January, 1978 the author surveyed social work members of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine to determine their activities and responsibilities and to identify the experiences which have proven most helpful as a preparation for their positions on medical school faculties. Results of the survey are reviewed in light of possible implications for the future hospital social worker as a medical educator.