Hospice Social Worker Resume Example & Writing Guide
Use this Hospice Social Worker resume example and guide to improve your career and write a powerful resume that will separate you from the competition.
Hospice social workers are part counselor, part advocate, and part friend. They work one-on-one with patients and families to address their physical, emotional, and spiritual needs. And they provide support to the rest of their team as they help patients live out their final days with dignity and grace.
If you’re looking for a job that will allow you to make a meaningful difference in people’s lives while also helping you grow as a professional, then you should consider becoming a hospice social worker. Here are some tips and an example resume to help you write yours.
How to Write a Hospice Social Worker Resume
Here’s how to write a hospice social worker resume of your own.
Write Compelling Bullet Points
When you’re writing bullet points, it can be tempting to focus on the tasks you performed. But that’s not always the most effective approach.
Instead, you can use your bullet points to showcase your key responsibilities and the results of your work. So rather than saying you “provided emotional support to patients and families,” you could say you “provided emotional support to patients and families experiencing grief, helping them to cope with loss and adjust to life without a loved one.”
The second bullet point paints a much clearer picture of what you did and the impact of your work. And it also provides some context about the emotional and challenging nature of the work.
Identify and Include Relevant Keywords
When you apply for a hospice social worker role, your resume is likely to be scanned by an applicant tracking system (ATS) for certain keywords. These programs look for specific terms related to hospice work, like “end-of-life care” or “palliative care” in order to determine whether your skills and experience match the job description. If you want your resume to make it past the ATS, be sure to include some of these commonly used hospice social worker keywords:
- Hospice Care
- Social Work
- Case Management
- Psychosocial
- Mental Health
- Social Services
- Oncology
- Family Therapy
- Crisis Intervention
- Child and Family Services
- Community Outreach
- Psychology
- Working with Adolescents
- Mental Health Counseling
- Program Development
- Psychotherapy
- Working with Elderly
- Clinical Social Work
- Grief Counseling
- Nursing
- Residential Care
- Teamwork
- Social Media
- Communication
- Teaching
- Data Entry
- Research
- Public Speaking
- Customer Service
- Cooperation
Showcase Your Technical Skills
In their work with hospice patients and their families, social workers often use technology to communicate with other members of the care team. They may also use technology to track the patient’s symptoms or to provide support to the family.
Some of the programs and systems that social workers are typically expected to be proficient in include: electronic health records (EHR) software, patient tracking software, and communication software, like Skype or Zoom.