Healthcare Social Workers: Salary, Job Description, How To Become One, and Quiz

Stan T.Career, Overview

Healthcare Social Workers

Healthcare Social Workers provide individuals, families, and groups with the psychosocial support needed to cope with chronic, acute, or terminal illnesses. Services include advising family caregivers. Provide patients with information and counseling, and make referrals for other services. May also provide case and care management or interventions designed to promote health, prevent disease, and address barriers to access to healthcare.

Salary
$60470
Becoming One
Very Hard
Education
Master's degree
Job Satisfaction
Job Growth

Personality



Job description

Healthcare Social Workers provide individuals, families, and groups with the psychosocial support needed to cope with chronic, acute, or terminal illnesses. Services include advising family care givers, providing patient education and counseling, and making referrals for other services. May also provide care and case management or interventions designed to promote health, prevent disease, and address barriers to access to healthcare.

  • Collaborate with other professionals to evaluate patients’ medical or physical condition and to assess client needs.
  • Advocate for clients or patients to resolve crises.
  • Refer patient, client, or family to community resources to assist in recovery from mental or physical illness and to provide access to services such as financial assistance, legal aid, housing, job placement or education.
  • Investigate child abuse or neglect cases and take authorized protective action when necessary.
Read more about what does a Healthcare Social Worker really do at work and what is it like being and working as one.



Salary

Average salary
$58470 per year

Average hourly wage
$28 per hour


Healthcare Social Workers with little to no experience tend to make between $34210 and $43530 while the more experienced ones can earn over $70280 per year.

Top 5 paying states Hourly Annual
NV $40 $82,820
CA $37 $76,450
CT $35 $72,640
DC $35 $72,090
OR $34 $70,830

One of the easiest ways to increase your salary as a Healthcare Social Worker is to move to a higher paying state like NV. Right now, the highest paying states for Healthcare Social Workers are NV, CA, CT, DC and OR.

However, a higher pay at NV doesn’t guarantee that you will make more because the living expenses at NV might be twice as high than where you are currently at now.

Three other factors that can increase your salary as a Healthcare Social Worker is the degree you hold, the industry you work in, and lastly the company you work for.


Requirements

Recommended degree level
Master’s degree

We asked other Healthcare Social Workers what degree they had when they got the job and most of them said they had a Master’s Degree followed by a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate.

Other than that, we also asked them what did they major in and here are the most popular majors that came up.

Social Work
Social Work, Other
Clinical/Medical Social Work
Read more about how to become a Healthcare Social Worker and the degree, training and education you need.

Pros and Cons

Here are some of the pros and cons of being a Healthcare Social Worker.

PROS
Suitable for people who likes to help and teach others
Suitable for people who values relationships between co-workers and customers and wants to work in a friendly non-competitive environment
This career is perfect for people who love to work indoors.
Good salary (earns more than 50% of the careers out there)
Normal working hours (40 hours per week)
CONS
Not suitable for people who likes practical and hands-on work
It is very hard to get into this career. Extensive skill, knowledge, and experience is required for this career.

What is the job like

Job satisfaction
70%

Is this job meaningful
80%


70% of Healthcare Social Workers said they were satisfied with their job and 80% said they feel like their job is making other people’s lives better.


Is this right for me

Best personality for this career
The Helpers and The Thinkers

You can read more about these career personality types here.

People who are suitable for this job tends to like working with, communicating with, and teaching people. They like helping or providing service to others..

They also like working with ideas, and require an extensive amount of thinking. They like searching for facts and figuring out problems mentally.



Learn more about Healthcare Social Workers

Summary (You are here)
Job Description
Salary
Requirements
Quiz

Related career information

Healthcare Social Workers job description, Healthcare Social Workers salary, Healthcare Social Workers information, what is the job of a Healthcare Social Worker like, pros and cons about Healthcare Social Workers, colleges and universities for Healthcare Social Workers, is Healthcare Social Workers the right career for me, careers in Human and Social Service

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