Stand Up! For Each Other as the Year Marches on

By Vickie LeffStand Up! was 2017 ’s theme for Social Work Month. As many of us know, social workers are excellent advocates; advocacy it is a core skill that is integral to our teaching, profession, and interventions. In celebration of that theme, as March concludes, I want to challenge you to spread that enthusiasm and charter a cross the palliative care universe this year. After all, palliative care is a team sport, defining itself not whole until a physician, nurse and social worker (at a minimum, with ideally many more disciplines involved) are members. This is not a random collection of professionals, but a calculated n ecessity based on evidence of how the best care can be provided.But the world of medicine, where most of our patients live, has many silos and doesn ’t often work as an interprofessional team. The administrators we work with, who are responsible for the growth of our programs, may not be accustomed to such an interprofessional collaboration and often have to account for more factors than just best evidence based care. All the more reason for a ll members of the team to Stand Up! for each other. It is not enough for the physician to lobby for more physician positions without the unwavering support of their nurse and social work colleagues; or a nurse practitioner without the other professionals bringing their voice to the discussion.I worry that the long history of hierarchy in medicine may lull us into forgetting we must stand and fall as a team. I ha...
Source: Pallimed: A Hospice and Palliative Medicine Blog - Category: Palliative Care Tags: advocacy interprofessional self-care social work social worker teamwork Vickie Leff Source Type: blogs