Hospital Social Work by Steve Natran Registered Social Worker at the Misericordia Hospital, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

I created this web page so I could tell people about what it is like to be a social worker in a city hospital. I have been at the Misericordia Hospital, Caritas Health Group since August of 1990. Even though I had little experience with hospitals, I always had a sense that I might some day work at one. Fate seems to have led me here and I would now like to share with you some of my insights.

I would like to describe/share with you my thoughts on the various areas of the hospital that I have worked in. This should give me enough leeway to cover most of the topics I would like to cover. If you have any topics that you would like me to comment on, please drop me a line and I will be happy to see what I can do. So, here we go...

On July 3rd, 2009 I finished my last day working as a Social Worker at the Misericordia Hospital. A year before this date I had started thinking about what it would be like to retire from this rewarding career. Over the course of this year it became evident that the health care industry as a whole was going to suffer another downturn and it made the decision to retire so much easier.

Since my retirement I have devoted myself to helping others through another discipline. I teach folks how to ballroom dance. Some are getting married and want to make that first dance a more memorable one while others just see the merits of ballroom dancing.

The merits include exercise, a form of stress management, a way of bonding with their loved one and even as an art form.

I have been taking ballroom dance lessons since 1990 and my first lessons were for the staff of the Misericordia as a form of stress management in 1998.

Most years years I teach 25 to 30 couples for weddings plus group lessons in various towns and cities around Edmonton. The list of venues have included Slave Lake, Whitecourt, Mayerthorpe, Devon, Leduc, Spruce Grove, Stony Plain, Wabamun, Inuvik, NWT. and Barrhead.

I guess I just can't gt away from doing something that helps people. It is no longer Social Work but it does seem to be helping people.

September 28, 2009

Edmonton Links

emergency dept

hospital social work

ethics article

medicine

Resources

Words of Wisdom

Links page

Caritas...

"When a Hospital is so much more. . ."

Most people dread coming in to a hospital. They are there because they are ill. It is an alien environment and induces a great deal of stress. I try, in my small way, to minimize the stress and create an atmosphere that is conducive to solving whatever problems their illness creates for them.

Illness can create many problems for an individual. Some are easy to address like needing crutches while a broken limb heals others are life changing events like being unable to weight bear because they are old, frail, and weak.

Resources are becoming quite finite these days. The grey wave is upon us and both society and the health care system has not responded well (especially in Alberta over the past 5 years - more on this another time).

We see that people are living longer and the TV ads focus on those elderly that are healthy, and there are many of them. But there are many who do not fare as well. You don't see many TV ads devoted to this group. As a Social Worker I struggle to meet the needs of this group.

A Canadian Social Worker