Published October 2011
by Yolanda Meade Byrd, MSW, LCSW
Assistant Professor of Social Work
Director of Field Placement
Winston Salem State University
Nicola Davis Bivens, Ed.D.
Assistant Professor of Criminology
Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences
Johnson C. Smith University
As Aristotle said, “The things we have to learn before we do them, we learn by doing them.” Prior to entering placement, social work students often experience anxiety about effectively dealing with problems and challenges in field (Warren, 2005). Further, students may not have the knowledge, skills, and abilities expected and needed in field, if these skills are not developed through other courses within the curriculum (Alex-Assensoh & Ryan, 2008). Engagement exercises are effective strategies to create experiential opportunities for students to learn necessary skills prior to the field experience.
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Published October 2011
by Adrienne Dessel, PhD
Associate Co-Director
University of Michigan
Susan Wiant Crabb, MS, MSW
Field Educator/Lecturer
University of Michigan
As the retrenchment of resources for social services undermines the ability of agencies to offer placement to social work interns, the development of new placements is a major concern of field educators. Field sites integrating micro and macro social work practice are sorely lacking (Carey & McArdle, 2011). The University of Michigan School of Social Work has spearheaded a number of innovative approaches to field placement. The School’s Office of Field Instruction places over 300 students each year. Students are placed according to their practice method (Interpersonal Practice, Community Organization, Management of Human Services, and Social Policy and Evaluation) and practice area (Health, Mental Health, Communities and Social Systems, Children, Youth in Families and Society, and Aging in Families and Society). The Program on Intergroup Relations (IGR) at the University of Michigan has served as an effective placement for social work interns from a variety of practice methods and practice areas.
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Published October 2011
by Wendy Emory, MSW
Assistant Professor
Simmons School of Social Work
Research findings suggest that one in four children in the United States are exposed to at least one potentially traumatic event by age sixteen; and, many experience multiple or repeated traumas (Costello, Erkanli, Frank & Angold, 2002). Given the prevalence of childhood trauma, social work students need to learn effective treatment interventions for working with children and families impacted by trauma. In 2010, Simmons School of Social Work joined a collaborative effort between Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service and Hunter College School of Social Work to “build workforce capacity by increasing the ability of schools of social work to provide trauma-informed education and training” (Katz, 2010).
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Published October 2011
by Christine A. Ford, MSW
Director of Field Education
California State University, Fullerton
The California State University, Fullerton (CSUF) MSW Program, one of seven MSW programs in the greater Los Angeles area, began in the fall of 2007. One of the new Field Director’s first goals was to invite seasoned field instructors to form a Field Advisory Committee (FAC). The FAC began to meet monthly, to elect officers, draft bylaws, and discuss what their role would be within the CSUF MSW program. These discussions revealed the feeling on the part of field instructors that the new generation of MSW students was younger than in the past, had less “life experience,” and thus required more training time on the part of agencies to prepare them to deliver services. Agencies expected students to be more knowledgeable about mandated reporting laws, social work ethics, and confidentiality. They also thought that students lacked understanding of how to use supervision and adopt a professional attitude.
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Published October 2011
by Laura Gerson, MSW
Jennifer Meyerhardt, MSW
Marion Ross, MSW
Amy Sommer, MSW
Center for Early Relationship Support
Jewish Family & Children’s Service of Greater Boston
Students’ participation in ongoing supervision groups made up of agency staff and/or volunteers is likely to be an increasing phenomenon as stretched resources make group supervision more common. Including students in ongoing groups presents benefits and risks to field instructors and students, beyond those that are associated with the provision of individual student supervision or supervision of students in student-focused groups.
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Published October 2011
by Ethan G. Harris, LICSW
Director of Family Therapy
Programs for People
Framingham, Massachusetts
The Reflecting Team is a process by which a team of family therapists can share their reflections with a family being interviewed by other therapists. The comments build on the reflections of other team members. The reflections are not meant to be pronouncements; they are neither decisive nor instructive. They assume a tentative tone of wondering–of possibilities rather than prescriptions. Since all ideas are valued, what the family hears are multiple perspectives rather than a search for the right solution. At the conclusion of the reflections, family members are invited to comment on what they have heard, and the session is ended. At Programs for People, a day program in Framingham, Massachusetts, the “reflecting team” is an integral part not only of therapy but also of social work interns’ education at the program.
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Published October 2011
by Dezette Johnson, PhD
Assistant Professor
Johnson C. Smith University
Faculty members at the undergraduate social work department at Johnson C. Smith University were concerned about the readiness of their students for field placements. Students are assigned to a block placement in the spring semester of their senior year. Internships are in a variety of agencies such as schools, child welfare services, mental health and substance abuse programs, and health clinics. Field instructors from these internships were surveyed using the Readiness Skill Survey, adapted for social work from a study of law students’ readiness for externship and clinical experience (Young & Blanco, 2007).
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Published October 2011
by Esther Urdang, PhD
Adjunct Associate Professor
Smith College School of Social Work
The social work field is currently focused on goal achievement, competence and evidence-based practice. We must not underestimate the importance of process. Becoming a social worker, being a field instructor and developing a collaborative relationship in supervision, even evaluation and gate-keeping—all of these are a process.
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Published October 2011
by Naomi Lynch White, MSW
Field Coordinator, Assistant Professor
The University of Akron
Maria Spence, PhD
Assistant Professor
The University of Akron
Timothy McCarragher, PhD
Director, Associate Professor
The University of Akron
The placement process involves thoughtful collaboration between field departments and affiliated agencies; students are offered thorough orientation and a careful matching process including interviews with field faculty, as needed, and with the selected agency. Nevertheless, field placement disruptions–when a student’s placement ends for an unexpected or unplanned reason–are inevitable in field education. Disruptions in field placements should be based on objective criteria: the field department’s learning plan and evaluation forms reflect the required competencies, and the agency’s Human Resources offices specify criteria for skills and behaviors in professional practice. Disruptions are also a process requiring careful reflection. At the University of Akron, we developed the CIA process to help address field placement disruptions: Clarifying the various aspects of the problem, assessing the Impact on student, field instructor and agency, and attending to the Affective aspects of the process.
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