Returning to work after heart transplantation—A replication

Employment is an important component in the reestablishment ofa heart transplant recipient's identity; self-esteem, and quality oflife. An attempt was made to replicate the results ofan earlier six-factor discriminant analysis that profiled posttransplant employment options for patients exposed to a center policy specific in the expectation of employment. Results indicate that the modelaccuratelypredicted95'70 ofthose employed, conjinning the model's validity.Implications for social work assessment and clinical practice are explored. One of the more perplexing problems in social work is the prediction of clinical success. Typically, when confronted with a patient concretely seeking help, the clinical social worker has little research data to assist in determining the client's chances of success and the specific barriers to achieving it. This is particularly true with regard to employment after heart transplantation