I am a student at the University of Georgia and am about to graduate with a BA in sociology. I am interested in getting my masters in social work and practicing social work in a renal transplant clinic. I am also a surviver of a kidney transplant (4+ years). I was wondering if anyone had any advice on schooling and getting into the field of hospital social work. Any info would help.
Thanks

My name is Lara Tushla and I have been a kidney transplant social worker for 5 years, worked in dialysis for 6, and did my internship in renal. I am thrilled you are interested in becoming a social worker in health care. (Beth Witten posted on a list serve I participate in). I would be happy to talk with you about this further, offline. In general, I agree that you will need to get an MSW to work as a health care social worker. Depending on how internships work in the program you attend, I would recommend doing an internship either with a transplant or dialysis social worker. I know that several of the trasnplant social workers I work with in Chicago have had students, myself included. One of my former interns is now a transplant social worker. If the MSW program does not have a relationship already with a transplant program, you can contact the social workers directly to see if they would do it. It is usually fairly easy to enroll as an internship supervisor. If you would like to talk about this further, offline, please feel free to e-mail me at ltushla@rush.edu and we could figure out a time to talk. Good luck, Lara

I work in a dialysis clinic. I have known social workers that worked in dialysis clinics who then found jobs in the renal departments of hospitals. When I was in graduate school, I could have majored in Health Care; perhaps that would be the best area for you to focus your MSW.

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Originally posted by sukeymae:
I am a student at the University of Georgia and am about to graduate with a BA in sociology. I am interested in getting my masters in social work and practicing social work in a renal transplant clinic. I am also a surviver of a kidney transplant (4+ years). I was wondering if anyone had any advice on schooling and getting into the field of hospital social work. Any info would help.
Thanks