Glossary
Healthcare Social Worker Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential healthcare social worker terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key healthcare social worker vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in healthcare social worker training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- Advance directive
- Legal document stating care wishes.
- Capacity
- A patient’s ability to make decisions.
- Caregiver burden
- Strain on family caregivers.
- Discharge planning
- Arranging care after the hospital.
- Health care proxy
- Person who makes decisions for a patient.
- Home health
- Medical care at home.
- Hospice
- End-of-life care.
- Interdisciplinary team
- Doctors, nurses, therapists and others.
- Length of stay
- Time a patient spends in the hospital.
- Medicaid
- Public health insurance for low-income people.
- Medicare
- Federal insurance for older adults.
- Palliative care
- Comfort-focused care.
- Review of emotional and social needs.
- Readmission
- Returning to the hospital soon after discharge.
- Skilled nursing facility
- A facility providing rehab and nursing.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Healthcare Social Worker practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Healthcare Social Worker training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.