Reference no: EM134023324

Question

You recently joined a local hospital as a medical social worker. You are joining a small team of social workers, you and two other social workers, and are working on an inpatient rehabilitation unit. You and your social worker colleagues have a positive relationship, are open to discussing needs, and provide support as needed. You begin to feel as if additional work is being added to your to-do list that nursing staff should handle, such as setting up home health care services for patients. You and your colleagues discuss a plan to advocate for nursing staff to manage setting up home health care since nursing is heavily involved with this process and their expertise is needed for home health care services. You and your colleagues vocalize this need to your supervisor, who then meets with the nursing manager. The nursing manager is resistant to the idea and states, "social workers can handle setting up home health care because they have the time." Discuss how you could utilize negotiating, bargaining, and mediation to resolve this conflict when advocating for yourself, your social work team, and your patients.