Session: Healthcare Social Work Practice in a Post-COVID Era: Perspectives from the Field (Society for Social Work and Research 28th Annual Conference - Recentering & Democratizing Knowledge: The Next 30 Years of Social Work Science)

Healthcare social work is the second largest area of practice, representing 25% of the workforce (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2023). The COVID-19 pandemic created an opportunity to highlight the value of social work in healthcare settings. First, due to shortages created by the pandemic, social work's estimated growth is 9% by 2031, the fastest average of all employment (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2023). Second, the pandemic increased attention to health inequities and social determinants (Turner-Musa, Ajayi, & Kemp, 2020). Social workers have a long tradition of identifying and addressing social determinants of health through assessment and intervention. Third, social workers became intermediaries between patients and families who could not access them, making their contribution to interdisciplinary teams invaluable (Hernández-Fernández & Falcón, 2022). Taken together, these three reasons warranted an investigation of how healthcare social work was impacted by the pandemic. Data for the studies presented in this symposium were taken from the Healthcare Social Workers' Scope of Practice during COVID-19 qualitative dataset. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 54 social workers in various healthcare settings across the United States. Thematic analysis was employed to identify barriers and facilitators to practice. Paper one examined differences and similarities in social workers' roles before and after the pandemic. Paper two examined social worker's communication and interventions on interprofessional care teams. Paper three examined the impact of technology on social work-patient interactions. The discussant will delineate each study's strengths and limitations, describe contributions to social work practice and policy, and recommend future directions for science that drives ethical practices for healthcare professionals.