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Overview
Hospital social workers counsel patients and families as they cope with illness, diagnosis-related emotions and social or financial problems. They cooperate with doctors, nurses and other health professionals.
In job descriptions, look for clinical social work, crisis intervention, health care system knowledge, counselling, patient advocacy and cooperation with healthcare teams.
Explore this occupation
Open in Job ExplorerWhat the work can involve
A hospital social worker supports people at the point where illness affects family life, practical decisions and emotional strain. The role uses clinical social work, crisis intervention and knowledge of the health care system to connect patients, relatives and healthcare staff around the next step.
Skills and specializations
Useful strengths include clinical social work, crisis intervention, understanding of the health care system and careful communication with patients and families. A strong advert shows whether the work focuses on counselling, discharge planning, patient advocacy, team cooperation or support around diagnosis and treatment.
Salary context
Salary expectations should be compared through case complexity, independence, team responsibility and the intensity of patient or family support. A hospital social worker handling crisis intervention and coordination across several care teams has a different scope from a role with narrower counselling duties.
Career paths
Career development can move toward senior hospital social work, specialist patient groups, coordination of psychosocial support or leadership in care-related social services. Progress usually depends on calm judgement, clear documentation, trust with healthcare teams and careful handling of sensitive conversations.
Good to know
A useful advert should make the healthcare setting clear and explain who receives support. Check for clinical social work, crisis intervention, health care system cooperation, counselling duties and links between patients, families and medical staff.
Editorial note
This guide is editorial career context. It is not official labour-market statistics or role-specific salary data.
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O*NET relationships
See occupations connected to this ESCO occupation in the official O*NET–ESCO mapping. The relationship type comes from the source and is not a ranking or recommendation.
O*NET relationships: 1
Healthcare Social Workers
21-1022.00
O*NET occupation is broader
The O*NET occupation covers a broader field of work than this ESCO occupation.
Open in O*NETSource and method
These relationships come from the official European Commission O*NET–ESCO crosswalk.
Relationship direction: O*NET occupation to ESCO occupation.
Several O*NET occupations can point to the same ESCO occupation, and one O*NET occupation can point to several ESCO occupations.
AltoTrail preserves the source relationship type. The order is technical and does not show which occupation is best, most relevant or recommended.
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Alternative labels
Occupation group
social worker (2635.3)
Source facts
| ESCO URI | http://data.europa.eu/esco/occupation/738257d3-7e56-4745-9b2e-014e60d41d48 |
|---|---|
| ESCO code | 2635.3.16 |
| ISCO group | 2635 |
| Concept type | Occupation |