Thinking Complexity in Hospital Social Work Practice

The role of social work in hospitals is challenging to succinctly define, given that the scope for social work practice is dependent on clinical context and driven by the needs of different populations. From a societal perspective, hospitals are powerful institutions, closely associated with medicine and advances in healthcare. Yet, perhaps, the most defining characteristic of hospital social work is its mandate to work with patients and families experiencing biopsychosocial vulnerability (Sims-Gould et al., Health Social Work 40(4):257–265. https://doi.org/10.1093/hsw/hlv069 , 2015). In this chapter, the role and experience of a social worker in an emergency department provides an example of how thinking complexity and acting pragmatically can strengthen the social work contribution to patients and the interdisciplinary team