Luke Michael J, Muleta Hemen, Kim Vivian, Beatty Benicio, Brittan Mark, Bowers Megan, Kenyon Chén C, Scribano Philip V, Fiori Kevin, Vasan Aditi
PolicyLab, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Pediatrics. 2025 Sep 1;156(3). doi: 10.1542/peds.2025-071164.
Recent regulations require that hospitals screen families for health-related social needs (HRSNs), but many hospitals lack the resources and infrastructure to address these needs. Social workers (SWs) and community health workers (CHWs) play a critical role in filling this gap. We aimed to understand SW and CHW perspectives regarding effective strategies for addressing HRSNs during and after inpatient pediatric hospitalizations.
We conducted semi-structured interviews with inpatient SWs and CHWs at 3 academic children's hospitals exploring participants' experiences connecting families with resources, communicating with medical teams, and facilitating continued support for families after hospital discharge. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and coded; themes were derived using thematic analysis.
We interviewed 28 participants (19 SWs, 9 CHWs). We then identified 4 themes (and 5 subthemes): (1) engagement with caregivers (SWs and CHWs aim to balance providing resources and promoting families' self-sufficiency), (2) approach to addressing needs (SWs and CHWs have complementary skillsets, and they find maintaining updated resource repositories a significant challenge), (3) engagement with medical teams (communication with providers focuses on needs impacting medical care or discharge planning), and (4) approach to follow-up (ensuring families have continued support following hospital discharge is a challenge, particularly for select populations).
SWs and CHWs offer synergistic and complementary expertise to support families experiencing HRSNs. Participants highlighted opportunities to optimize processes for updating resource repositories and improve longitudinal support for families following hospital discharge.
近期法规要求医院对家庭进行与健康相关的社会需求（HRSNs）筛查，但许多医院缺乏应对这些需求的资源和基础设施。社会工作者（SWs）和社区卫生工作者（CHWs）在填补这一差距方面发挥着关键作用。我们旨在了解社会工作者和社区卫生工作者对于在儿科住院期间及出院后应对健康相关社会需求的有效策略的看法。
我们对3家学术性儿童医院的住院部社会工作者和社区卫生工作者进行了半结构化访谈，探讨参与者在为家庭联系资源、与医疗团队沟通以及促进出院后对家庭的持续支持方面的经验。访谈进行了录音、转录和编码；通过主题分析得出主题。
我们采访了28名参与者（19名社会工作者，9名社区卫生工作者）。然后我们确定了4个主题（以及5个子主题）：（1）与照顾者的互动（社会工作者和社区卫生工作者旨在平衡提供资源和促进家庭自给自足），（2）满足需求的方法（社会工作者和社区卫生工作者具备互补的技能组合，且他们发现维护最新的资源库是一项重大挑战），（3）与医疗团队的互动（与提供者沟通侧重于影响医疗护理或出院计划的需求），以及（4）后续跟进方法（确保家庭在出院后得到持续支持是一项挑战，特别是对于特定人群）。
社会工作者和社区卫生工作者提供协同且互补的专业知识，以支持有健康相关社会需求的家庭。参与者强调了优化资源库更新流程以及改善出院后对家庭的长期支持的机会。
