[bsw] FW: [BPD] Wall Street Journal - Social work is one of best career s

Wed Jul 12 14:17:58 CDT 2006

Stay encouraged - it's all worth it!!

Brenda

  _____  

From: Baccalaureate Program Directors [mailto:BPD-L at LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU] On
Behalf Of Kristine Moreno
Sent: Wednesday, July 12, 2006 7:43 AM
To: BPD-L at LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU
Subject: [BPD] Wall Street Journal - Social work is one of best careers

The Career Journal section of the Wall Street Journal named social work as
one of the best careers.  As a result, they interviewed Marilyn Reinish, a
hospital social worker in Chicago, referred to them by NASW.  Marilyn gives
a terrific interview and snapshot of hospital social work administration.

Additionally, here is the link to the article about social work as one of
the best careers:

http://www.careerjournal.com/reports/bestcareers/20060711-intro.html
<http://www.careerjournal.com/reports/bestcareers/20060711-intro.html> 

CareerJournal <http://www.careerjournal.com> 

http://www.careerjournal.com/reports/bestcareers/20060711-keogh.html
<http://www.careerjournal.com/reports/bestcareers/20060711-keogh.html> 

This Social-Work Manager
Feels She Makes a Difference 

By Bryan Keogh

Social worker, counselor and related manager careers are among those that
made CareerJournal.com's "best careers" list. For a look at what it's like
to work in the field, we recently spoke with Marilyn Reinish. Ms. Reinish is
manager of social work at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Ill.,
a Chicago suburb. She had taught elementary school for 17 years, and changed
careers to help children cope with illness as a pediatric oncology social
worker at Loyola. She spent 17 years as a clinical social worker and has
been in her current role for three years. She oversees a staff of 43,
advising and supporting counselors in their work with hospital patients, in
addition to her administrative duties. Social-work managers in Chicago earn
between $64,626 and $81,606, according to Salary.com.

CareerJournal: What's a typical day like?

[best careers]CareerJournal's 
Best Careers

Our <http://www.careerjournal.com/reports/bestcareers/intro.html>  List of
the Best Careers
for 2006

What's
<http://www.careerjournal.com/reports/bestcareers/20060711-lorber.html>
Important to You? 
Career Snapshots

Best Careers Profiles
* Health-Clinic
<http://www.careerjournal.com/reports/bestcareers/20060711-vora.html>
Executive
* Management
<http://www.careerjournal.com/reports/bestcareers/20060711-mattioli2.html>
Consultant
* Special-Ed
<http://www.careerjournal.com/reports/bestcareers/20060711-mattioli.html>
Teacher

Ms. Reinish: The day sometimes begins with the evening news the night
before. When you work in a large medical center, you often get an early
report from the news broadcast when you hear about a trauma, or a burn, or a
high-profile patient who has been taken to the facility where you are.
...From the moment your feet hit the floor, you're off and running. 

I'm on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, as an administrator. My calls
during the nighttime and evening hours have to do with case consultation for
patients in the ER, child advocacy, [Illinois Department of Children and
Family Services] reports for abuse and neglect, domestic violence, and
psych. All of those types of cases are where questions arise.

CJ: Describe an encounter with patients that's typical. 

Ms. Reinish: It usually involves a warm hug, a hello. People cry with us,
because we're a safe place to talk... Sometimes with a long-term patient,
and even with a new patient, if you say, 'tell me how you're feeling,'
you've opened a door to enable them to talk about something that doesn't
have to do with how much medicine they're taking and if their leg hurts or
not. 

CJ: How many hours a week do you work on average?

Ms. Reinish: I think 55. I like to leave here and leave it behind me. So I
will stay rather than bring work home. If there is something going on here,
and I know I'm going to have to be involved, I won't leave until I'm more
comfortable that I won't be called 19 times. 

CJ: How do you balance your work and your home life?  

Ms. Reinish: In many ways, what I do is isolating from friends, because they
don't want to hear it. So when we go out, I try to leave my work behind --
and am fairly successful. And I can do that because of the tremendous
support I have with my colleagues...  When you go out, you don't have to
recount every gory detail, because you've already done that with your
colleagues. 

CJ: How much autonomy do you typically have?

Ms. Reinish: We say on a daily basis, 'You cannot send this patient home.'
Whether it refers to abuse and neglect, whether it refers to the fact that
mentally they cannot cope, whether we think they should be hospitalized in
another facility, especially with a senior, we have to stand our ground. 

I'll give you a very good example. A graduate student was interviewing and
working with a mother, who had just delivered her fourth child, I believe.
She was suicidal and shared that with the social-work student. We had a
psychiatric evaluation, which would be standard procedure. Psych did not
feel that she needed to be hospitalized, that she could be discharged. The
student felt that, absolutely, that couldn't occur. She went to her field
instructor, who listened, who thought: 'This student knows exactly what
she's saying.' And they dug their heels in and went to the obstetrical
attending. 

Bottom line, after much intervention, the mother was sent to a hospital, a
psychiatric hospital. About three months later, she returned to the hospital
for another procedure, and when the field instructor of this student went to
see her, the woman said to her, if it hadn't been for so and so, the
student, I would not be alive today. I was going to kill myself. 

CJ: How stressful is the social work field?

Ms. Reinish: My stress now is administrative. The stress that a social
worker feels is way too many people and too much to do and not enough hours
in the day. If they have to make discharge arrangements for 18 patients, the
multitasking part of their job is stretched to the max. They have to call
this facility, call that wife, arrange transportation -- that gets crazy. 

My stress is with reports that are due, documents that have to be prepared.
I have to meet with staff, provide consultation. It's never-ending. And
that's why I'm here so late at night. And that is why I eat candy. If I am
stressed, you can be assured there are probably M&M's not too far away. 

CJ: How satisfied are you in this career? 

Ms. Reinish: Being able to put pieces together to solve a problem is
tremendously gratifying. Whether it's marital counseling, fertility,
whatever the issue is. 

In terms of a career choice, I know I've made a difference, and that is the
most gratifying feeling to me that I could have... There's nothing else that
I could think of that I'd rather done. 

CJ: What's the pay like in this field? 

Ms. Reinish: It's not fabulous; our salaries are not the highest around. But
there is a payoff for those of us who do this. And that is just our
personality makeup. Three members of my family are social workers. So in
spite of not being the wealthiest people on the block, the gains that we
personally receive are obviously greater. And that's probably why people
like me remain with the work. We almost receive more than it feels that
we're giving. But on a long day, my husband might say otherwise.

I feel that anyone employed in social work in a hospital has a very secure
job because the psycho-social needs of the population are getting worse. And
even in facilities where social workers were cut, they all are hired back. 

CJ: Why did you decide to switch from teaching to social work? 

Ms. Reinish: As I was teaching, I became much more concerned as to the
emotional reasons clouding the ability of children to learn. If I could help
them with their emotional issues, then they could learn better. As a social
worker I help make coping and adapting possible. And, to me, that was a much
greater personal satisfaction than [seeing a child earn] a 100 on a test.

-- Mr. Keogh is an intern at The Wall Street Journal Online.

Email your comments to cjeditor at dowjones.com <mailto:cjeditor at dowjones.com>
.

-- July 11, 2006

Allison Nadelhaft, MA

Sr. Communications Associate

National Association of Social Workers

750 First Street, NE Suite 700

Washington, DC 20002

Phone: 202.336.8228

Fax: 202.336.8307

Email: anadelhaft at naswdc.org <mailto:anadelhaft at naswdc.org> 

Web: www.socialworkers.org <http://www.socialworkers.org> 

Social Workers.  Help starts here.

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