SOUTHEAST MISSOURI HOSPITAL is a 269 bed regional medical complex serving over 573,000 people in 21 counties of southeast Missouri and southern Illinois.  In addition to providing  comprehensive medical care services Southeast’s specialized centers of care include: The Regional Heart Center, Regional Cancer Center, Regional Brain and Spine Center, Women’s and Children’s Center and Emergency Services.  Southeast Missouri Hospital’s mission is ”Together we make a difference through our commitment to excellence in health care.”

Social Workers at Southeast Missouri Hospital provide a many services designed to meet the patients’ medically related psychosocial and discharge planning needs. Services include:

•  Discharge Planning
•  Assistance with resources and referral
•  Education (patient, staff and community)
•  Crisis intervention
•  Brief counseling to maximize patient’s coping
•  Assistance with advance directives
•  Alternative methods to pain management
•  Interdisciplinary team collaboration
•  Assistance with financial crisis
•  Assistance with situations involving abuse and neglect, domestic violence and sexual assault
•  Psych assessments/commitments
•  Assist with MTS transplant/tissue donation requests
•  Adoptions
•  Patient Assessments

OPPORTUNITIES FOR  THE BSW STUDENT: Learning opportunities for the BSW student making a one semester    commitment are:

• Hospital policies and procedures
• Medicare/Medicaid/private insurance guidelines
• Guidelines/qualification for post hospital services
• Collaboration with Interdisciplinary Team
• Use of community resources
• Patient and family assessments and interviewing skills
• Health Care Directives and advance care planning
• Support Group interaction (i.e., cognitive therapy, cancer, grief and loss)
• Brief intervention
• Pain Management alternatives
• Discharge Planning
• Abuse, neglect and domestic violence
• Psych assessments and commitments
• Team work
• Patient advocacy
• Observation of social workers in Home Health, Hospice, IRF, Psych and Case Management
• Services for outpatients
• Values and ethics
• Community involvement and/or policy development
• Documentation skills
• Medical terminology

Supervisors are MSW’s with extensive experience in medical social work.  Micro, mezzo and macro level practice experiences are available with emphasis on micro and mezzo, i.e., work with individuals and families.

WHAT STUDENTS SAY: “For me, this was a wonderful experience and I learned a lot. The field instructor and staff were always available whenever I had a question or concern about something.  They also called me and paged me whenever I was on the [medical] floor by myself to see how I was doing or [to see] if I needed any help. My instructor was wonderful about meeting with me and giving me feedback.  Also the staff was great about giving me feedback.  I attended all the monthly staff meetings and any discussions that I wanted to sit in on. I was welcomed there.”

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“Southeast Missouri Hospital was a great experience that allowed me to see many diverse populations and situations.  This agency allows you to open up your eyes to many new experiences and opportunities and prepares you for the outside world.  This experience is a great place to begin your social work career and allows you to determine what population and field you are interested in.”

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