Clinical Social Worker

At Duke Health, we're driven by a commitment to compassionate care that changes the lives of patients, their loved ones, and the greater community. No matter where your talents lie, join us and discover how we can advance health together.

Duke Health Lake Norman Hospital

Pursue your passion for caring with Duke Health Lake Norman Hospital in Mooresville, North Carolina. The smallest of the four Duke Health hospitals at 123-beds, it offers a comprehensive range of medical services, including 24-hour emergency care, cardiology, orthopedics, women's services, and surgical specialties.

Clinical Social Worker

Schuedule:

• Monday - Friday
• Day Shift
• No call

Summary & Work Performed

As a Clinical Social Worker at Duke Health Lake Norman, you will provide comprehensive psychosocial assessments, diagnosis, and treatment, along with discharge planning and consultation for patients and families. Your role supports both the care team and those we serve in navigating hospitalization, illness, diagnosis, treatment, and overall life circumstances, including emotional, mental health, and substance use disorders.

This position will be primairly focused within the ED and Psych space.

• Primary responsibility is to complete assessments in ED and discharge planning for patients within the hospitals.
• Secondary responsibility is discharge planning assistance for psychiatric followup for patients being treated for a medical condition.
• Complete crisis assessments to determine level of care required for patient to move to safe community living including but not limited to reason for presentation, current symptoms and level of distress, ability to participate in treatment, safety assessment, past history of treatment, current support systems, strengths, weaknesses and primary psychiatric diagnosis.
• Facilitate discharge planning with psychiatric appointments or referrals to other facilities as determined by level of care needed.
• Facilitate tracking of IVC paperwork for all patients who are awaiting transfer to another facility.
• Interface with team for cases covered by consult service to determine multidisciplinary assessment of discharge planning needs and provide information regarding support system/family function.

• Level I:
  • Provide psychosocial assessments of patients and families to identify emotional, social, and environmental strengths and problems related to their diagnosis, illness, treatment, and/or life situation.
  • Formulate, develop, and implement a comprehensive psychosocial treatment plan utilizing appropriate clinical social work treatments and interventions. Interventions may include crisis intervention, brief and long-term individual, marital, family and/or group therapies as well as grief and bereavement work.
  • Screen, identify, diagnose using DSM nomenclature, treat and manage mental health and/or substance abuse problems in patients and family members.
  • Provide training to other health care professionals in same.
  • May perform these functions independently or as part of a team. 
  • Assist with screening, identification, diagnosis, management and treatment of victims of abuse, neglect, domestic violence, rape, etc.
  • Provide training to other health care professionals in same.
  • May participate in on-call or after hours coverage. 
  • Provide consultative services to health care team members within scope of care definitions as needed. 
  • Maintain a working knowledge of relevant medical/legal issues that impact on patient care, e.g.,advance directives, child and elder abuse.
  • Provide education to patients and families around issues related to adaptation to the patient's diagnosis, illness, treatment and/or life situation.
  • Participate in multi-disciplinary health care teams and provide leadership in representing clinical social work perspective/liaison with patient and family.
  • Provide teaching and training for students, staff, and faculty from social work and other disciplines.
  • Contribute to the academic mission of the medical center and health system by participating in academic activities such as committees, conferences, publications, teaching and research. 
  • Maintain working knowledge of and liaison with community agencies and resources.
  • Arrange, procure, and coordinate patient/family pre and post hospital needs.
  • Knowledge of hospital, medical center and/or health system resources to access and provide for patient care needs.
  • Document assessment, plan, interactions, and interventions according to departmental, hospital and/or health system guidelines and standards.
  • Maintain records and statistics in accordance with department, hospital, medical center and/or health system policies. 
  • Attend and participate in staff, committee, department, and other administrative meetings.
  • Participate in department, hospital, medical center, and/or health system continuous quality improvement efforts.
  • Participate in regular supervisory conferences; keep current with social work and health care developments and seek to increase further enhancement of job related knowledge. 
• Level II:
  • Perform all of the duties and responsibilities of Level I.
  • Function in a supervisory role as a team leader.
  • Provide clinical and administrative supervision for social workers and clinical social workers on the team.
  • Lead team meetings and manage coverage.
  • Participate in hiring and performance management processes.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

Level Characteristics

• Level I: 
  • Adherence to the practice standards and ethical guidelines of NASW and the NC Certification Board for Social Work.
  • Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
  • A solid knowledge of clinical social work practice.
  • Excellent assessment, interviewing, and counseling skills with expertise in mental health and substance abuse areas; familiar with psychopathology and with range of therapeutic interventions including psychopharmocotherapy; and if working independently, must know when to refer for further medical assessment.
  • Ability to work effectively and autonomously in a self directed role.
  • Highly collaborative with strong interpersonal andteam building skills.
  • Ability to prioritize multiple work assignments and manage time efficiently.
  • Flexibility in accepting diverse work assignments and managing stress related to change.
  • Basic computer skills
• Level II:
  • Same as Level I plus strong supervisory and leadership skills.
  • Ability to resolve/manage conflict.
  • Ability to help implement departmental, hospital and/or DUHS initiatives.

Minimum Qualifications & Education

• Level I and Level II:
  •  Master's degree in social work from an accredited school of social work .
  • LCSW required.
  • Experience working within Psych.

Experience

• Level I:
  • Work experience in a health care setting or social service agency.
  • Clinical or work experience in psych. 
  • Two years recent post master's experience in a clinical setting preferred. 
• Level II:
  • Same as Level I plus five years post master's experience in a health care or social service agency.
  • Experience in leadership and supervising.

Degrees, Licensures, Certifications

• Level I and Level II:
  • Current licensure as a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) by the NC Social Work Certification and Licensure Board.