Nursing Home Social Work During COVID-19

Abstract

As the impacts of COVID-19 on nursing facilities became apparent, the members of the U.S. based National Nursing Home Social Work Network (NNHSWN) immediately considered what it could offer as a useful response to assist nursing home social workers working in facilities. The NNHSWN was brought together nearly a decade ago by Dr. Mercedes Bern-Klug at the University of Iowa School of Social Work and Bob Connolly, a social worker and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) retiree who had worked on developing the Minimum Data Set or MDS. Membership consists primarily of social work researchers interested in nursing homes, most of whom have work experience in that setting. Readers of this journal may be familiar with Dr. Bern-Klug’s and Mr. Connolly’s publication and work on obtaining comments and policy suggestions on the proposed nursing home regulations in 2016 (Bern-Klug et al, 2016).