Social Work in Healthcare Professions
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Description
In this episode of the Connecting With Care podcast, Lillie interviews Grace Wittmann, a dedicated social work student, about the crucial role social workers play in healthcare. Grace shares her journey from a small Wisconsin town to pursuing her Master's in Social Work at Baylor University, emphasizing her passion for end-of-life care and the importance of compassionate support for patients. Listeners will learn about the diverse responsibilities of social workers, including patient advocacy and interdisciplinary collaboration, as well as valuable insights for aspiring professionals in the field. Join us to discover how social workers are making a meaningful impact on patient care and well-being.
Transcript
SPEAKERS: Lillie Walker, Grace Wittmann
Lillie Walker
Welcome to the Connecting with Care podcast. I'm Lillie Walker. How do social workers make a difference in fast paced healthcare environments where compassion and clarity matter most? In this episode, we learn what it means to support patients and families through complex moments of care. Join us as we sit down with Grace Wittmann to explore healthcare social work. Hello, listeners, this is Lillie, and I'm here with Ms. Grace Wittmann, my classmate and also really good friend. So happy to have her here with us today. So, Grace, you just want to tell us a little bit about yourself?
Grace Wittmann
So, I'm Grace. I'm originally from a really small town in Wisconsin. Baylor brought me to Texas, so now I call this home. I'm currently in my second year of the in-person MSW program, on the clinical track. Do you kind of want me to go into, like, these fun questions or do you want to ask me them?
Lillie Walker
Yeah, I'll ask you the fun questions. So, if you had to give one word to describe your current living situation, what would you say?
Grace Wittmann
Well, so we just moved again, so my new – I would say calm. I live on 4 acres now with cows behind me, so.
Lillie Walker
So Texas.
Grace Wittmann
Yeah. Yeah. So, it's pretty. It's pretty chill. We're liking it so far.
Lillie Walker
Awesome. So, what would you say your favorite Waco restaurant is for people that need recommendations.
Grace Wittmann
Totally. so, Waco – Waco Waffle. We've been there a few times. That's kind of a staple. But Bubba's, which isn't actually like a Waco staple, but I think it's Texas, maybe Southern. I don't know. But that's like our go to if, like, we need, like an actual meal. But if you're looking for breakfast brunch recommendations, you definitely have to try that. They have everything.
Lillie Walker
Awesome. Love that. Okay. And then, last little fun question is, what is the most recent purchase you've been excited about?
Grace Wittmann
Well, I stated that we just bought a house, so I guess that's pretty exciting. But I was just in Florida last week or two weeks ago, and I bought these new hot pink Jordans. And those are really awesome.
Lillie Walker
Awesome.
Grace Wittmann
Yes.
Lillie Walker
Okay, so thanks for answering those. Love to get to know you. And then I'd love to just dig a little bit deeper into your personal journey. So, I know you said you came from Wisconsin, so kind of what brought you to Baylor? And also, social work.
Grace Wittmann
Okay. So, I pursued my undergrad in public health, got towards the end of my program, realized, hey, a career in this isn't necessarily what I want. I wanted something more. I did some shadowing with hospice social workers because I really have a passion – I really have a passion for end-of-life care. So, I shadowed them, and every single one of them that I shadowed told me that I needed a master's in social work. So that led me to a master's degree. And I ended up with Baylor because we are actually one of the only, like, in person programs that I could find. So, I didn't have, I feel like, a whole lot to choose from. But I toured Baylor with Jordan Goodnature at the school, and she was amazing, and truly was the one that was like, yeah, this is where I want to go. So, props to her for giving a good tour. Yeah, no, she did good. So, what brought me to social work personally, like I said, I have a really big passion for end-of-life-care, and I didn't really know what that looked like. I kind of thought maybe, like, funeral directing. But I didn't really – I was exposed to that industry as well as I was when I moved down here. So, I work at a funeral home now, so I'm getting a little bit of that. But social work was really the outlet which led me to hospice, which led me to, you know, shadowing all of those hospice social workers back in Wisconsin. And, yeah, now I'm here. So, yeah.
Lillie Walker
So really kind of end-of-life care is your focus, but social work gives a pretty broad avenue to get there.
Grace Wittmann
Yeah. Right. In many different situations, truly. Yeah.
Lillie Walker
So, yeah. How would you say you've grown personally and professionally during your time here in Waco at the Garland School?
Grace Wittmann
Well, personally, I met you. I – I truly have met some really great people. All of my close friends that I really think are gonna last beyond my time here at the Garland School because I feel like a lot of times you go to school and you meet people and it's just like, oh, well, their life is taking them down this path. But I've met some people down here that it's – it's gonna last beyond these four walls, and that makes me very happy. And like, I also, I've established roots here, and if I didn't come to Baylor, I might not have been; I might have, I might be moving back home after my master's program back to Wisconsin. But I really have made some connections within the school and within the community. Different internships, different jobs that have really allowed me to stay and plant some roots, which I'm really excited about.
00:05:00
Lillie Walker
Yeah, I definitely think that's, like, been the biggest thing in grad school for me is that you're around people that all want to do the same thing and you're in such similar seasons of life. It's, it really creates a very, like, strong sense of community.
Grace Wittmann
Yeah. Which is essential when you're doing higher education. Like, this is not easy. But the support of having, like you're saying, people that are doing the same things, even if we might not have the same end goals, you know, like, I want to work in hospice, and I know you kind of want to do private practice or who that, you know – but we still are, like, able to walk alongside everyone, depending no matter where they want to be. Yeah, I think social work does a good job of doing that.
Lillie Walker
Totally. So kind of building off of that, how would you say your time here shaped the way you see yourself and your career as a future social worker?
Grace Wittmann
Well, it's kind of funny because I feel like you go, even undergrad, you go in with a mindset of, hey, I want to get a degree in this. Like, I went to undergrad for biology. Yeah. That didn't work out. Human anatomy was not my friend, so I ended up in public health. It's like you go in with, like, your mind set on one thing, and then a lot of times it changes. Whereas I feel like that wasn't the case for me. Like, I came in full force knowing that I wanted to be in end-of-life care. And being here and making those connections within the community has really just made that even more clear. Like, yes, this is what I want to do. And I do think that, given all the opportunities that the school has given me, it has allowed me to really, like, know full force that, like, this is what I want to do.
Lillie Walker
Yeah. Just really reaffirm that passion that you have.
Grace Wittmann
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Lillie Walker
That's awesome. And I think you're going to be a great end-of-life-care social worker. I'm really excited to see where your future goes with that.
Grace Wittmann
Thank you. Yeah, me too.
Lillie Walker
So, let's kind of just get into the nitty gritty of your internship now because kind of our, our main focus of this episode is healthcare and social work.
Grace Wittmann
Yes.
Lillie Walker
And so, Grace and I are both in placement at Baylor, Scott & White, Hillcrest Hospital. So, yeah, just tell us a little bit about what your role is there.
Grace Wittmann
Sure. So, I'm on the med-surge floor at Hillcrest. We started in August. We're about, what, three months in now and it's, it's good. I mean it's not at all truly what I was expecting it to be because, as I said before, like my passion is end-of-life-care. However, the hospital scared me. It really did. I interviewed at another geriatric clinic in town, also Baylor, Scott and White, and to me it, it dealt a lot more with end-of-life-care – looking at advanced directives and, you know, having those conversations with families about dementia and you know, what happens when mom gets too weak. Like that is the nitty gritty of, you know, where I'm really interested in. But when I got offered at the hospital it scared me. And that's when I was like, I need to try that because I know the clinic is a spot where I would be really comfortable and enjoy have those, having those conversations with people about advanced directives. So, I chose to go to the hospital because I truly have never been in that environment. And I was like, hey, like let's give it a shot. So, my day to day looks, looks like we chart review every morning. We have 12 patients on our side of the floor, and we do everything that's non-truly medical. So, we're getting them, you know, hospice, we're getting them home health, we're getting them DME, which is like medical equipment, like a walker, you know, rails in their shower, things like that. We're doing psychosocial assessments, which I've been doing those on my own now, which has been really great – that's a really big learning experience, definitely testing, a test of the confidence, that's for sure. But that's been going good. We do rounds so the doctors come at 10:30am every day and we listen to the rounds on each patient, how they're doing, how long are they going to stay, when can we discharge them and then once we know when we're discharging them, where are they going? Are they going home? Are they going to long term care? Are they going to rehab? and that's kind of where we step in and we kind of coordinate all of those things. Yeah.
Lillie Walker
Well, props for you for stepping into a yearlong internship in something you're a little bit like nervy, nervous about and something that you didn't have a lot of experience with. And I think, yeah, end-of-life-care is kind of a piece of what your internship placement is. But you're getting a lot of different types of experiences even if it's not necessarily what you're 100%.
00:10:00
Grace Wittmann
Yeah. And I think it's something that will give me, you know, just more knowledge on the healthcare system in general. Because hospice is healthcare and knowing like the systems at play, like they could, I could have a hospice patient that is in the hospital or that's in the hospital that's just discharging home and like what was their stay like at the hospital and maybe having to work with the social worker that was with that patient. So, I do think that they all come together. It's just getting more information that's not truly like the thick of what I want to do, but I do think that it's helpful. Yeah.
Lillie Walker
I mean you're going to learn in social work if you end up in this field…
Grace Wittmann
Everything is connected.
Lillie Walker
Everything's connected. And so yeah, the patients that you're serving probably will have had experience in a hospital and will or will be in and out of the hospital. And so, building connections with like, okay, what does an actual social worker in the hospital do? Will just better help you be able to do your job in the future.
Grace Wittmann
Absolutely.
Lillie Walker
That's great experience. What is one thing you wish more people understood about the field of social work as it relates to healthcare?
Grace Wittmann
Kind of like what you said is they all, it's all connected. Like truly social work is a one stop shop. I think, whether you're going to come to me on the fourth floor with trying to get a walker or home health or they're going to you in the ED for assessment, like we truly dabble in every realm. So yeah, I would just say we're kind of the one stop shop that's not like specifically medical.
Lillie Walker
Right.
Grace Wittmann
Especially in our setting at the hospital. Like once, once they're medically approved for everything, like that's when we step in and we really drive all the other factors for them to get out.
Lillie Walker
Yeah. And I'll just add on to that. In the emergency department, I've done everything from finding someone a new pair of pants so that they can be discharged with clean clothes, organized rides for them to be able to get home. we've tried to find people's keys because they got misplaced. Like there's just so many things and anything that's not really in someone's medical scope, it could be in your social worker scope. And it's just how can you provide the best care for people and help their, their stay at a hospital be somewhat pleasant?
Grace Wittmann
Right. As pleasant as it can be.
Lillie Walker
Right, yeah. okay. And then Grace and I are both part of the Integrated Behavioral Health program, which is a program that Baylor offers for internships that are a part of the medical field. And so, it's an additional class course that we take that provides a stipend and also just provides us with more training. Because neither Grace nor I walked into the hospital having really any knowledge of medical stuff. And so, in that course we're able to learn just medical stuff that we need to know as we're being placed in this internship immediately. And also, just gives us a better idea of what other people in the field like, what their jobs are like. We get additional training and motivational interviewing, which, that we can take anywhere.
Grace Wittmann
Yeah, anywhere.
Lillie Walker
Anywhere with anyone. So, yeah, talk about your experience with that.
Grace Wittmann
Yeah, well, it was kind of, you know, funny because we didn't know that that was even going to be offered. We had a friend that was in the program last year and she took a lot out of it. And we were really hopeful that, you know, landing up in the hospital that we would have a same or similar opportunity and we found out mid-summer that it was, and so that kind of looks like an elective. So, in your second year you have to take one choice of one class and one elective. Well, this, this Integrative Behavioral Health class counts as an elective. So, it allows us to not have to take an additional course in addition to this mandatory course for the grant. And I, so far, like, we just finished our first motivational interviewing which was a four-hour session. It was long. But I think, you know, we took away some really key, key skills that we are going to be able to use and build off of in our second session. But I think my biggest takeaway so far in that class is like learning how to work with interdisciplinary teams. Like, how am I going to be able, like, what is my role in communicating with a physician? What is my role in communicating with a physical therapist or an occupational therapist or the nurse? You know, like a lot of times for when we're discharging patients, we have to get specific PT, physical therapy, and OT, occupational therapy, therapy notes in order for them to be able to get placed at certain, you know, levels of care. So, if they haven't seen PT in more than 48 hours, well, they're not going to be accepted into their rehabilitation, program or facility because they don't know what level of status of help that they're going to need.
00:15:00
Lillie Walker
Sure.
Grace Wittmann
So, we need to know how to communicate and be like, hey, like this patient needs to be seen today so that they can be discharged to their rehab facility today. And obviously you're doing that in a very professional manner and you're not telling them, ordering them around. You know, you need to do this, you need to do that. But we learn how to communicate and what role is each person, and then what role is left on us, which a lot of the times is the spider web of connecting literally everybody. And that's, that's something that, you know, we're learning each time that we meet in that class.
Lillie Walker
Sure. And I mean, like, we're walking to the hospital, experiencing it firsthand. Like the first time I'm like, hey, doctor, physician, emergency trauma surgeon, I actually have something to add. That's really scary, especially when you haven't had any training on like, what's actually like the unsaid norms of the medical field.
Grace Wittmann
Yeah.
Lillie Walker
And terminology. Do I really need to know and be able to understand? And so, yeah, I think that course has just given us a lot of really good insight because you are kind of thrown into, like, totally show up on the first day – I'm on the emergency department floor and I need to kind of understand who, what everyone's doing and, and why and. And what my role is in that.
Grace Wittmann
So. Yeah, no, I, I completely agree. And sometimes I'm like, is what I'm saying even, like, do they even care? Whereas, like, it truly, it'll make or break like them. Like, if they're discharging someone before they're able to be discharged and they end up being readmitted, like, it does fall on the physician. So, we need to be able to speak up and be like, hey, this, this, this and this. Like, I don't know if they should go today. I think that this should be reevaluated. And you know, when they think, oh, like, if that happens, that's gonna fall back on me and kind of be a tick on me, then maybe I'm gonna listen to the social worker who knows nothing sometimes is how it feels.
Lillie Walker
And when we're dealing with psychiatric emergencies, the social worker on the emergency department floor is kind of, they're the ones going in and doing psych assessments and so, just considering treatment options. Yes, ultimately the medical professional does make those decisions, but they, they weigh very heavily on what the social worker is saying, like what supports are in place if they were to be discharged. Do they have access to potentially self-harm or other harm, sort of, materials or whatever that may look like? And so, yeah, just kind of knowing your role and that's, that class has given us some really good insight.
Grace Wittmann
Yeah.
Lillie Walker
So just to close it up, I'd love to hear some advice that you would give someone that's considering coming to Baylor University, and the Garland School, and also that's someone who's trying to start a career in social work.
Grace Wittmann
Oh, my goodness. Well, I truly think that if you want to be in healthcare, which is something that I knew from like, high school, - I knew in high school that I wanted to be in healthcare in some form or fashion. Hence why I went for biology and then I went to public health and I'm in social work. Social work – you obviously can anywhere. But I'm down the healthcare path is you can always land on social work. Like, if you don't want to deal with the needles and you don't want to deal with the blood and you don't want to deal with the gory, but you want to be in health care, like, there is a home for you here in social work. As far as Baylor goes, it's an in-person program. I know not everybody is in the in-person program, but that to me has been super helpful because that was one of, like, my deciding factors on a master's degree program was I needed something in-person. The classes are small. You have really great people, hence, you know, my friends have been really great. So, you'll meet some awesome people. And I've also been able to manage my life at the Garland School, AKA like school and internship with a job on top of that. Like, you played a whole sport last year and managed. Not saying that that was easy because I do not think it was. But, like, I'm working part-time. I have since last August. Like, I – the whole time we've been in this program, I've worked, and I've been able to manage. So, if that's something, you know, financial, financially, like, it's not always, you know, it's kind of a question like, am I going to be able to afford life outside of school? And I can say, like, my time here, I have been able to, because that was obviously concern for me. But I'm, I've held a job for over a year now and I've been – they've been able to work with my schedule. You obviously have to find someone that's willing to work your master's, Master's schedule, but I've had success with that. Yeah, I think that that's it.
Lillie Walker
Yeah, no, that's great. I mean, it is a lot. It's A master's program. It's a, it's a professional school. But I think like you're saying is there are days when like usually classes around two days, internships are two days and most like some evenings are pretty open. And so, it is feasible to carry a job as well as be an internship in school.
00:20:00
Grace Wittmann
It's a lot, right? But, well, especially your first, well, our first year being, you know, in the two-year program, I had Fridays off. So, with my job, I worked nights, weekends and every Friday. Whereas now, in the advanced year we have our class that we were talking about earlier, the IBH class, which is on like every other Friday. And we need more internship hours, your advanced year. So, my Fridays are sometimes taken up by class or internship, but I'm still able to work. I get done with class on Wednesday at 12:45pm, so I'm able to work in the afternoon. I can still work nights, and I can still work weekends. And I feel my course load isn't interfering with my ability to work and have a social life and do the things that I want to do. So totally.
Lillie Walker
Well, thank you so much for your time. I can't wait to, to see where end-of-life -care, social work, healthcare, all the things ends up taking you.
Grace Wittmann
And thank you. Thank you for having me. This is awesome. And I hope that you know this was helpful.
Lillie Walker
Yeah, helpful to all the listeners and future Baylor Bears.
Grace Wittmann
Exactly. Yes.
Lillie Walker
Grace's story highlights the essential role social workers play in promoting wellness and dignity in medical settings. Join us again for more stories from the field.
00:21:25