Student placement from September – December 2023:
As a student in the hospital, it was a really big learning curve for me because I had never worked in health care setting before. The first few weeks are about getting your toes wet, getting the lay of the land, understanding more about the unit you are working in and what your role will be within the unit. During the first few weeks, you’ll spend a lot of time shadowing your supervisor and seeing what a day in their life is like and then as you get more comfortable you can start taking on more tasks yourself.
Some of the tasks that I did as a student was paperwork and referrals for patients, first assessments with patients and their families, providing ongoing support to the families and patients, communicating within the team to ensure the patients' needs and requests are being met. There was a lot of advocacy for patients within the teams as the social workers are often the point of contact within the team. I participated in rounds with each of the teams and presented the patients I was following. Participating in the rounds was one of my favourite parts because you can get a better picture of the whole situation with a patient and their family.
A lot of the job requires putting patients and their families into contact with community supports and resources so being comfortable and aware of the community supports that are available is something that will help at your placement. As a social worker within the hospital, I was able to take part in a lot of care conferences so both within the medical team within the hospital and with community partners and agencies that are following the patients or the patient's family as well.
Throughout my placement there, my supervisors were very supportive and available to me and were always able to provide feedback and to help me if I had any questions. They created a positive learning environment and helped me to establish my goals and to fulfill those goals within my placement. Overall, my placement at LHSC was one of the most incredible experiences I have ever had, and I highly recommend a placement here to any MSW students who are looking to get hospital social work experience. It's a little bit of one-on-one work with patients. It is some paperwork, some referrals, some interdisciplinary teamwork. It is also community outreach, and a lot of different things in one placement and it was such a great learning opportunity. I really enjoyed it a lot.
