Determinants of health concentration selection among University of Southern California MSW students.

By 2020, health care social workers are projected to make up 25 percent of the entire number of professional social workers in the United States. At the University of Southern California, the number of graduate students selecting the health social work concentration has increased exponentially over the last five years. Although there are no published findings to indicate that other schools of social work are experiencing a similar trend, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported that, nationally, the number of social workers employed in health care has increased and is projected to continue increasing over the next decade.

Preferences for accepting prescribed community-based, psychosocial, and in-home services by older adults.

The purpose of this study was to describe the preferences of minority and non-Hispanic White home bound older adults aged 60 and over for making decisions to accept and arrange community-based, psychosocial, and in-home services prescribed by Home Health clinical social workers (N=249). Overall, prescribed community-based, psychosocial, and in-home service referrals were accepted by participants. In-home supportive services, Short- and Long-Term Case Management, and Psychiatric Nurse were the most frequently arranged services by clinical social workers.

Areas of discharge agreement and disagreement between older adult patients and nurses.

The objectives of this study were to identify areas of agreement and disagreement between nursing staff and older adult patients about discharge needs, and to explore relationships between hospitalized older adults' perceived postdischarge Activities of Daily Living (ADL) and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL) dependency, social networks, and quality of life. Differences between patients and nurses for the ADL scale showed that patients perceived themselves as being more independent with respect to ADLs upon discharge than did their nurses. Agreement between patients and nurses for the Quality of Life Index indicated high agreement about patients'general well-being upon discharge.