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Compassionate advocate for patients, families

By Angie Hutschreider angieh@newstribune.com

Published: Tuesday, October 6, 2009 5:46 AM CDT

“I truly feel like social work is a calling,” said Jacqueline Baldwin, a social worker at St. Mary's Health Center.

Baldwin's family is large; she has at least 80 cousins on both sides of her family.

“My mom was the youngest of 10 and my dad was the youngest of 10,” she said. “And they were married 16 years before they had my sister, so all of my family is older.

“Everybody I knew was older.”

Before entering Missouri State University, Baldwin had planned to study gerontology. After speaking with a guidance counselor, she found social work and headed down that path.

She earned her bachelor's degree in social work from what is now Missouri State University and earned a master's in social work from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

During a residency at the Boys and Girls Town in St. James, Baldwin met her husband, Kevin, who is also a social worker.

“He was actually in a class with me at school in Springfield, but we did not know each other then,” she said.

Her days are busy - she's only in the office to grab paperwork, eat lunch and grab her purse to leave for the day.

She assists with patient needs in the intensive care, orthopedic, surgical and cardiac step-down units.

“This job varies so much,” she said. “You may be assisting families preparing for a longterm stay in ICU, and you may be helping arrange a follow-up home health visit,” she said.

Baldwin cannot imagine what she would be doing if she were not a social worker.

“We are advocates for the patient; we help them in anyway we can,” she said. “I may just be a caring ear to listen or the one who is helping coordinate care when the family did not know where to start.”

Baldwin said a good social worker is a good listener and compassionate - both attributes that people use to describe her.


Patients can take heart - their doctors, nurses and therapists never quit studying

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