The Social Worker in Interdisciplinary Care Planning

Abstract

Abstract Nursing home social work services are integral to resident interdisciplinary care planning and treatments to meet residents' psychosocial needs. Data from the Online Survey Certification and Reporting database examine the relationship among numbers of qualified social workers, social service staff, and deficiency citation scores for resident assessment violations in 16,511 United States nursing homes in 2007. Using a generalized estimating equation, we show a relationship between numbers of qualified social workers, social service staff, and facilities' resident assessment-related deficiency scores. Having more qualified social workers and more social service staff is related to lower assessment deficiency scores supporting the important role of social workers and social services in nursing homes. Implications for evidence-based practice and policy are discussed. Keywords: deficiency citation scorenursing homequality of careresident assessmentsocial work staff