Published October 2012
by Lisa Richardson, MSS
St. Catherine University and the University of St. Thomas
George Baboila is the recipient of the 2011 “Heart of Social Work Award” from the North American Network of Field Educators and Directors (NANFED) for excellence in field instruction. Mr. Baboila is one of three co-directors at the Interprofessional Center for Counseling and Legal Services (IPC). He received the award due to his contribution to inter-professional supervision, his teaching at St. Catherine University and the University of St. Thomas School of Social Work, his leadership in the social work community and, above all, his ability to supervise students with complex needs.
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Published October 2012
by Suzanne Sankar, MSW
Editor
Moderator:
JoAnn McFall, MSW
Associate Director of Field Education, Michigan State University
Chair, CSWE Council on Field Education
Field placements in a student’s place of employment can provide a viable alternative to traditional agency-based placements for students who cannot disrupt salaried employment. For many students, the option of doing an employment-based placement is a key factor in being able to pursue graduate education. Nonetheless, several drawbacks have been associated with these placements including student role confusion, difficulty creating comparable learning experiences, inability of the agency to fully support student-learning experiences, and the additional time required by the field department to arrange and monitor such placements.
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Published October 2012
by Emeline Homonoff, PhD
Editor
Staying current with scholarship enriches the work of field educators: it teaches us innovative ways to solve perennial field problems, suggests new readings for field seminars, keeps us abreast of current debates in social work education, and even inspires us in our own writing on theory and research. “What We’re Reading” presents our brief summaries of the findings of recent publications in field education. Our emphasis is on implications for practice. Readers are encouraged to suggest articles or books for future review. Whenever possible, we have provided links to freely available fulltext articles.
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Published October 2012
by Rachel Bedick, MSW Candidate
Simmons School of Social Work
In August 2012, I participated in a two-week medical brigade to El Salvador, organized by the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES). Before I began working towards my MSW, I worked as a community organizer with public housing tenants in Somerville, a low-income community outside Boston; this work shaped the way I think critically about institutions, inequality, and social change. My desire to combine individual clinical work and community organizing work with Spanish-speaking immigrants led me to social work school. I was curious to see how El Salvador, one of the poorest countries in the world, uses its limited resources to simultaneously attend to individuals’ needs and make structural changes.
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Published October 2012
by Emeline Homonoff, PhD
Editor
We are celebrating the first anniversary of the Field Educator, the online journal to promote knowledge exchange within the social work field education community. In this new issue, “Field Scholar” includes peer-reviewed articles on ethics in field instruction, bridging theory and practice in a domestic violence internship, field directors’ experiences with complex and competing demands in field education, and assessing student performance in field.
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Published October 2012
by
The Ninth International Interdisciplinary Conference on Clinical Supervision is devoted to clinical supervision theory, practice, and research. The conference provides an opportunity for social workers, psychologists (school, counseling, clinical), nurses, marriage and family therapists, substance abuse counselors, counselor educators, speech therapists, occupational therapists, rehabilitation counselors, and other mental health professionals and educators to examine current issues in clinical supervision research and practice within and across professional discipline.
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Published October 2012
by Frederic G. Reamer, PhD
Professor, School of Social Work
Rhode Island College
Abstract: Ethics content in field instruction is a vital component of social work education. Ethical standards and knowledge have expanded significantly in recent years. The author provides a comprehensive overview of core ethics content that should be incorporated into students’ internships, and also highlights key themes that should be addressed. Essential ethics content addresses core social work values, students’ personal and professional values, ethical dilemmas in field placements and social work practice, ethical decision-making frameworks and strategies to manage ethics risks.
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Published October 2012
by Melanie LeGeros, MSW
Passageway, Center for Community Health and Health Equity
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Jackie Savage Borne, MSW
Passageway, Center for Community Health and Health Equity
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
The pervasive nature of domestic violence in American society is clear. One in four women in the U.S. reports experiencing violence by a current or former partner at some point in her life (Center for Disease Control, 2008). Domestic violence is a chronically underreported crime (U.S. DOJ, 2003); many acts of coercive control within relationships may fall outside traditional legal definitions of abuse. Yet this crime has serious and lasting physical and mental health effects on women, men and children across the lifespan (Tjaden & Thoennes, 2000). All social workers will work with survivors regardless of their setting or treatment modality (see Danis, “Domestic Violence: A Cross-Cutting Issue for Social Workers”).
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Published October 2012
by Page Walker Buck, MSS, PhD
Assistant Professor & Chair of Field Education Curriculum, Graduate Social Work Department, West Chester University
Janet Bradley, MSS, MLSP
Director of Field Education, Undergraduate Social Work Program, West Chester University
Lydia Robb
Director of Field Practicum, Graduate Social Work Program, West Chester University
Rachel Shapiro Kirzner
Director of Social Services, Specialized Health Services, Public Health Management Corporation
The changing demographic, economic, academic, societal, and political contexts of field education in social work have been topics of much discussion and scholarship since the mid-1990s. Recent additions to this changing context include the elevation of field education to the “signature pedagogy” of social work education and the pervasiveness of commercialization within higher education. This study explores the realities of these contexts through the lens of the Field Director. Findings from fifteen in-depth, qualitative interviews suggest that Field Directors experience a complex set of competing demands at a time when needs, requests, and requirements from students, university administrators, and accreditors are on the rise, while resources in the field are diminishing.
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Published October 2012
by Karen Tapp, JD, MSW
Assistant Professor, Northern Kentucky University
Caroline Macke, Ph.D, MSW
Assistant Professor, Northern Kentucky University
Tara McLendon, Ph.D.
Northern Kentucky University
As the signature pedagogy of social work education, assessing student performance is a critical component of individual field student and program assessment. A central question is how to measure students’ practice competence. Student performance in field education has been evaluated by measuring students’ interpersonal skills and practice skills. In addition, the effectiveness of field has been measured through self-efficacy scales, student satisfaction scores, client satisfaction scores, and competency-based evaluation tools. Each of these different methods of evaluation will be discussed. The CSWE 2008 competencies integrated into student learning contracts and field assessments, surveys, quantitative research, and qualitative research are offered for social work programs’ consideration.
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Published October 2012
by
The Simmons School of Social Work and the Field Educator sponsor an annual award to promote excellence in field education scholarship. A $1,000 prize will be awarded for an outstanding paper on social work field education. The winning paper will be announced at the 2013 Annual Program Meeting (APM) of the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) and will be published in the Fall issue of the Field Educator. All entries must meet the submission guidelines for the Field Scholar section of the Field Educator.
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Published October 2012
by Gianna Gifford, MA, MSLIS
Managing Editor
The “Field Scholar” is the section of the Field Educator devoted to the publication of formal, scholarly articles on theory and research in field education. “Field Scholar” is issuing a call for theory and research papers on a variety of subjects. These subjects include best practices in field instruction, measures of competencies in field, school-agency collaborations and innovative approaches to challenges in field education. These articles will be reviewed for rigor and relevance by members of a panel of noted field educators from the US and abroad; the list of consulting editors can be found in About Us.
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Published April 2012
by Suzanne Sankar, MSW
Editor
Interviewer
Lisa M. Richardson, MSS, LICSW
Director of MSW Field Education
Assistant Professor
School of Social Work
St. Catherine University and the University of St. Thomas
Are you a skeptic about online social work degrees that offer solely web-based course work? Skeptic or convert, a growing number of social work schools are embracing the online education trend by offering web-based MSW and BSW degrees. The Council on Social Work Education’s (CSWE) website lists several accredited online BSW and MSW programs. Differing from programs which require residency and some face-to-face class time, these programs are fully online and have no residency requirement.
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Published April 2012
by Sandra G. Posada, Chair
Jo Ann McFall, Chair-Elect
We are delighted to contribute to the Field Educator! The Council on Field Education (COFE) is a council of the Council on Social Work Education’s (CSWE) Commission on Educational Policy; membership and leadership appointments are made by the President of CSWE for three year terms beginning in July of each year.
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Published April 2012
by Emeline Homonoff, PhD
Editor
Staying current with scholarship enriches the work of field educators: it teaches us innovative ways to solve perennial field problems, suggests new readings for field seminars, keeps us abreast of current debates in social work education, and even inspires us in our own writing on theory and research. What We’re Reading presents our brief summaries of the findings of recent publications in field education. Our emphasis is on implications for practice. Readers are encouraged to suggest articles or books for future review. Whenever possible, we have provided links to freely available fulltext articles.
Read more »
Published April 2012
by Pamela J. Huggins
Associate Clinical Professor
Saint Louis University
With the introduction of CSWE’s 2008 Education and Policy Standards, field education’s role in social work education gains new vitality as we integrate competencies throughout the curriculum and field education. Now we are able to determine the practice behaviors that, when measured, will reflect achievement of the specific competency for our on-going program and quality assessment. Measuring students’ professional practice abilities in the field has long been challenging; social work schools have designed a variety of evaluative tools that may or may not have provided an accurate performance review. In addition, with the promotion to competency-based education, the 2008 CSWE educational standards made a clear statement that “in social work, field education is the signature pedagogy…, the central form of instruction and learning in which a profession socializes its students”(CSWE EPAS, 2008). This statement promotes classroom and field learning as equally important for student learning and integration of theory and practice in social work.
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Published April 2012
by Emeline Homonoff, PhD
Editor
Welcome to the second issue of the Field Educator! In our first six months, we are pleased to have begun to fulfill our mission to promote knowledge exchange within the social work field education community. Many people have read not only the first issue of the journal, but also the regularly updated blog and news reports and we have had many enthusiastic responses. We have made outreach to field educators in other countries and to other professionals whose training involves internships. In this issue, we have representation in the “Practice Digest” section from field educators from social work schools and from their affiliated agencies. There are articles about special populations in field placements: veterans, bilingual students and students with mental health disabilities. Different forms of supervision will be described, including online field instruction and motivational interviewing in supervision. There are also descriptions of competencies in a macro setting for the LGBT community and a field placement in a large hospital. The “Students Speak” section includes an article about the intern’s “first impression” in an agency, and one about a “perfect placement” in a dialysis unit.
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Published April 2012
by
The Simmons School of Social Work and the Field Educator announce an annual award to promote excellence in field education research. A $1,000 prize will be granted for an outstanding research paper on social work field education. The first winning paper will be announced at the 2012 Annual Program Meeting (APM) of the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) and published in the fall 2012 issue of the Field Educator.
Read more »
Published April 2012
by Gianna Gifford, MA, MSLIS
Managing Editor
The “Field Scholar” is the section of the Field Educator devoted to the publication of formal, scholarly articles on theory and research in field education. “Field Scholar” is issuing a call for theory and research papers on a variety of subjects. These subjects include best practices in field instruction, measures of competencies in field, school-agency collaborations and innovative approaches to challenges in field education. These articles will be reviewed for rigor and relevance by members of a panel of noted field educators from the US and abroad; the list of consulting editors can be found in About Us.
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Published April 2012
by Karen Gall, LMSW
Victoria Meyring, LMSW
Division of Primary Care
Children's Hospital of Michigan
At the heart of every MSW internship is a sincere desire to contribute to the future excellence of our profession. An internship that provides a rich and supportive learning environment is most beneficial. At the Children’s Hospital of Michigan, we have aspired to create a well-considered placement process and a multi-layered internship experience. Our design gives interns the benefit of a primary assignment, allowing for mastery; a secondary experience set, allowing for exposure to multiple practice environments; and a series of monthly intern meetings, offering education and support. The experience culminates with practice interviews and program evaluation.
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Published April 2012
by Kathleen LaTosch, MSW
Special Projects Consultant
Affirmations
Ferndale, MI
Kara Jones, BSW
Marygrove College
Social work students who are interested in macro-level work face unique challenges in applying social work’s educational objectives to their field placement. Macro-level social work addresses systems that govern, impact and sometimes control our lives; it looks at an entire community as the client, identifies key areas for change, and works with community members towards solving those problems. We are concerned that few social workers are formally trained in macro-level work; this includes the vast majority of existing practitioners – both social work faculty and the social workers supervising students at field placements. The language of the core competencies specified by the Council on Social Work Education’s Educational Policy (EPAS) tends to concentrate on the micro-level social worker: “evidence-based interventions designed to achieve client goals”; “collect, organize and interpret client data”; “assess client strengths and limitations”; “develop mutually agreed-on interventions”; “help clients resolve problems,” etc. This language suggests that practice with individuals or family-client-systems is given higher priority than macro practice. Translating core competencies into macro-level practice objectives that can be measured and evaluated is not always easy, and takes considerable discussion on the part of the field supervisor, the student and the field instructor. How would this be applied, for example, to a student who wanted to learn how to change organizational culture to better serve constituents?
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Published April 2012
by Valerie L. Leyva, PhD
Assistant Professor and Field Education Coordinator
California State University, Stanislaus
Social work degree programs have many reasons for adopting internet technology to support classroom and field education. Many social work programs draw students from large geographical areas. Traveling to campus from remote locations places significant economic burden on many students, especially in an era of shrinking incomes and increased transportation costs. Offering online degree programs enables these geographically isolated students to remain in home communities for their social work education, and often results in a more comprehensive regional distribution of social work professionals (Ives & Aitken, 2008). Other programs have developed online MSW and BSW degrees as an alternative to the traditional academic schedule, particularly for students already working in the profession. In some communities, proprietary universities reach out to these students, offering online degree programs that compete with those located in state-supported universities. In many of these markets, state-supported and private university-based MSW and BSW programs are pressured to develop online degree programs in order to remain competitive, relevant, or simply to keep their doors open.
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Published April 2012
by Hugo Kamya, PhD
Professor
Simmons School of Social Work
Motivational interviewing is defined as a “client-centered, directive method for enhancing intrinsic motivation to change by exploring and resolving ambivalence” (Miller & Rollnick, 2002). In supervision of staff, the ultimate goal is to improve an organization’s efficiency by increasing productivity, decreasing employee stress, vicarious trauma and burnout, and reducing clinical negligence and malpractice. In supervision of interns, the major focus is on meeting the intern’s learning needs and on developing competent practitioners. Motivational interviewing in supervision maximizes focus and positive change by developing action plans and addressing ambivalence toward change. Motivational interviewing uses a guide toward change called FRAMES; the acronym stands for Feedback, Responsibility, Advice, Menu Options, Empathy and Self-Efficacy.
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Published April 2012
by Cynthia Hunter, MSW
Director of Field Placement
James Madison University
Department of Social Work
Alicia Horst, Mdiv.
Executive Director
New Bridges Immigrant Resource Center
and Field Instructor
Students with second-language skills are sought after in a variety of field education settings, from agencies whose clients have limited English proficiency (LEP) to agencies which serve LEP clients only occasionally. Potential contributions of bilingual students are recognized on multiple levels. As a profession, social work promotes cultural competency and supports second-language proficiency as one way of increasing access to services for clients. On a community level, these students will soon become social workers with the ability to reach out to underserved populations. For agencies, the contributions of social work students with foreign language skills can facilitate work with a wider variety of LEP clients. For social work programs, students working with LEP populations bring firsthand knowledge of non-English-speakers’ experiences, especially regarding the issue of immigration, into field seminars and practice classes.
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Published April 2012
by Katherine Selber
Nancy Feyl Chavkin
School of Social Work
Texas State Univeristy - San Marcos
With the passage of the Post- 9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008, commonly known as the Post-9/11 GI Bill, military personnel and veterans are enrolling at an unprecedented rate in institutions of higher education. This influx is creating a new generation of veterans who are transitioning from combat to classroom (Selber, 2012). Just as the wave of veterans who took advantage of the first GI Bill after World War II changed the face of higher education, universities today are beginning to understand the need to address the impact of the growing number of veterans who are accessing their educational benefits (Herrmann, Hopkins, Wilson, & Allen, 2009). Universities across the nation are reporting increases in enrollment of veterans by as much as 200% annually (Herrmann, et al., 2009). Over 2.2 million veterans have served in the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and have now returned home, which has contributed to this increased enrollment (Veterans for Common Sense, 2011). With projected troop draw-downs in theatre, and reductions in forces across services due to budget limitations, universities should expect the influx of veterans to continue. Because this population of new students is supported by financial aid, universities may be welcoming these new students and engaging in active recruitment.
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Published April 2012
by Mary Dallas Allen
Kathi Trawver
University of Alaska Anchorage
Over the years, our School of Social Work has had a number of students who unexpectedly shared serious mental health challenges that included suicidal ideation, depression, anxiety, substance use, and trauma histories. As social work educators, we were concerned with how these experiences were contributing to students’ challenges with attending class and practicum, completing course work and succeeding in practicum settings. We struggled with how to balance our professional roles and boundaries, our concerns for the students’ privacy and safety, and our responsibilities to other students, field agencies, and current and future social work clients. Here, we review articles about the prevalence of students with mental health challenges in higher education, explore the challenges that both students and field educators experience when addressing mental health issues in the practicum setting, and discuss implications for social work education. This article represents one school’s response; it is only a brief introduction into this very complex issue, but we hope that it will serve as a springboard for further discussions and empirical assessment.
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Published April 2012
by Joshua Barnes, MSW student
Simmons School of Social Work
I was eager to make a good first impression at my first-year internship at Year Up in Boston. Year Up is a national program designed to close the “opportunity divide” between available corporate jobs and the five million young adults with only a high school diploma. 18-to-24-year-olds join a one-year training program that offers “hands-on skill development, college credit and corporate internships” (www.yearup.org). Students attend classes and workshops on professional behavior; social workers are available to consult with students during lunch and classroom breaks. Each social work intern is assigned to one floor of the program and works closely with the teacher on that floor.
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Published April 2012
by Jana Wardian
Southwest Interdisciplinary Research Center (SIRC)
Arizona State University
When I was working on my MSW, I read a statistic that would not let go of me, “Nearly 40% of patients on dialysis had diabetes.” I began to wonder what dialysis was like and how a person who struggled to manage one chronic illness would now cope with a second chronic condition. I sought an experience that would complement my interest in helping people with chronic illness to manage their disease and engage in their care. My prior experience had been with diabetes education and support. Now it was time to go to the next step. I asked our field coordinator if she had any contacts with dialysis clinics and whether I could do my second year MSW field placement there. She had never had a student do an internship at a dialysis clinic, but was open to the idea.
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Published December 2011
by Jonathan Barracato
Production Editor
The Simmons School of Social Work and the Field Educator announce an annual award to promote excellence in field education research. A $1,000 prize will be granted for an outstanding research paper on social work field education. The first winning paper will be announced at the 2012 Annual Program Meeting (APM) of the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) and published in the fall 2012 issue of the Field Educator.
Read more »
Published October 2011
by Emeline Homonoff, PhD
Joseph Scalise and Tammy Muskat are the 2010 winners of the North American Network of Field Educators and Directors (NANFED) Heart of Social Work Award. This annual award recognizes excellence in field instruction.
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Published October 2011
by Suzanne Sankar, MSW
Executive Editor
- Maria Paradiso, MSW, is the new director of field education at Bryn Mawr College Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research.
- Boston College Graduate School of Social Work’s new field director is Sue Coleman, MSW.
- Lisa A. Zimmer, MSW, is the new director of field education at the University of Cincinnati School of Social Work.
- New members of the Council on Social Work Education Field Council are: Rebecca Brigham, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Lisa Durham, Ohio State University, Saundra Ealy, Arizona State University, Heather Gillis, Tulane University, Freda Herrington , University of Kansas, Raesa Kaiteris, Yeshiva University and Rita Zeff, Seattle University.
Published October 2011
by Jessica Eslinger, MSW
Doctoral Student
University of Kentucky
Reflection is a process of people “exploring their understanding of what they are doing, why they are doing it, and the impact it has on themselves and others” (Boud, 1999, p. 123). Reflection can help increase students’ awareness of their own thoughts, feelings, and experiences and therefore build a greater capacity for empathy with clients. Reflection leads students to be curious about the human condition, and to challenge their existing assumptions. It can help students to analyze and integrate past and current knowledge into their practice. Finally, as reflective practice encourages students to stay in touch with their own responses and personal needs, it is a vital component of self-care and professional development.
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Published October 2011
by Emeline Homonoff, PhD
Editor
Staying current with scholarship enriches the work of field educators: it teaches us innovative ways to solve perennial field problems, suggests new readings for field seminars, keeps us abreast of current debates in social work education, and even inspires us in our own writing on theory and research. What We’re Reading presents our brief summaries of the findings of recent publications in field education. Our emphasis is on implications for practice. Readers are encouraged to suggest articles or books for future review. Whenever possible, we have provided links to freely available fulltext articles.
Read more »
Published October 2011
by Emeline Homonoff, PhD
Editor
Welcome to the Field Educator! The Field Educator is an open access journal dedicated to the exchange of knowledge between field educators in academia and in the practice community. Field is the heart of social work education, and has been designated its “signature pedagogy.” There is a wealth of tacit knowledge held by field educators: field instructors/practice educators, training coordinators, liaisons and field directors. The aim of the Field Educator is to make this knowledge explicit and to share it within the community involved in training social workers.
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Published October 2011
by Gianna Gifford, MA, MSLIS, Managing Editor
The Field Scholar is the section of the Field Educator devoted to the publication of formal, scholarly articles on theory and research in field education. Field Scholar is issuing a call for theory and research papers on a variety of subjects. These subjects include best practices in field instruction, measures of competencies in field, school-agency collaborations and innovative approaches to challenges in field education. These articles will be reviewed for rigor and relevance by members of a panel of noted field educators from the US and abroad; the list of consulting editors can be found in About Us.
Read more »
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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