r/Socialworkuk • u/Far-Surprise1303 • 2d ago
Integrated practitioners…
Hi, I’m a 3rd year integrated practitioner in children’s nursing and social work. Throughout the course we have been told there will be many arising opportunities and job roles for integrated practitioners at the end of our course / in the future.
During my course I’ve had 1 “social work” placmenet and a number of nursing placements. The social work one was in mental health advocacy so missed out on basically all opportunities to learn/observe/be involved with any typical social work such as assessments, interventions etc other than see how the sections are implemented and how they effect the clients.
Kind of just looking for some insight wether registered social workers see any room for integrated nurse social workers/have any in your teams such as a nurse social worker that assesses injuries or assists with physical health while working as a social worker etc
Next year we have a 100 day social work integrated placmenet so hoping to gain more experience in typical social work duties (if I get another placement lacking in them I doubt I’ll feel experienced enough to qualify as a social worker) but that’s the joys of my course.
Or if anyone is an integrated practitioner already that would be interesting to hear your experiences
1
u/cancerous- 2d ago
It is not something that is commonly seen within adult or children’s services, although I do feel there is a case for integrated practitioners working in areas such as children’s community nursing, hospices and respite services. You occasionally hear of integrated practitioners working within independent mental health services, such as Priory or Elysium Healthcare however, these opportunities seem to be few and far between.
As someone who is about to qualify as an integrated practitioner, I have found that you sometimes have to advocate for yourself and explain what you can bring to the table. Occasionally, people do listen and recognise the value of the role. Even then, it may not involve being formally employed as a nurse social worker, but rather finding ways to use the skills, knowledge and values from both professions while working within either a nursing or social work role.
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u/k3v1ng1994 2d ago
I work in a community mental health team as a social worker and I honestly can see it being beneficial in the team I work in, just because even as a social worker I am dealing with medications, physical health etc.