Create a Great Social Work Field Education Experience
by Cassie E. Brown, LCSW
Have you ever asked yourself, “Am I ready to take on a student?” Or maybe your supervisor asked you this question. If your answer is “yes,” ask yourself another rather serious question: “Am I prepared to help the next generation of social workers become flexible and adaptable learners throughout their careers?” After all, a social worker can work with children, substance misuse, adults with serious mental illness, trauma, research, or professional education, all of which I have done. Or we can move into the military, nonprofit leadership, advocacy, or politics, none of which I have tried.
I chose social work over other helping professions partially because I desired the ability to change careers flexibly. Of course, the reality is that no one program can prepare us for all of these careers. This flexibility demands lifelong learning. When we change practice settings, we discover areas of growth and new bodies of knowledge we never knew we needed. Through field education, we develop our capacity to build on what we know by identifying what we need to learn. We learn to adapt. We grow.
I took over facilitating the field education program at my hospital two years ago. We had gone without students for several years, so we examined what we could do better. I kept in mind the challenges of field education and the memories of the demanding and the tedious parts I had experienced myself. I looked to different sources to create a beneficial experience for students. We created experiences to give a deep understanding of our institution while preparing students to be adaptable, lifelong learning social workers.
We have had two small cohorts of students in the past two years (four and five students). We have gotten some feedback from the college, our field supervisors, and our students. I would like to share some of our most successful strategies.
Plan your practicum.
Think about what students can do at your agency. What do you have to offer a future professional? If you cannot give a 30-second “elevator pitch” about the learning experience, you need to think more deeply. Then talk to your department to determine who has the talent and energy for a student. Your best social worker may be stretched far too thin to provide a good experience. The newest social worker in your department may be a natural teacher. Consider personalities, case loads, areas of interest, and specialties. Assigning a student to an already burning out social worker is not a solution for saving an employee; it’s a recipe for resentment and resignation.
Connect with local colleges of social work.
When I began organizing our new vision for students, I asked to meet with the director of field education for our nearest university. When we met, I was able to ask her pertinent questions to better understand what students needed and wanted. I also articulated what our agency could offer. Her suggestion to accept students in their first year of their MSW program surprised me. I asked her questions about what students at that level may be able to do for our agency, and we opened up to those students. It benefited both of us, and I have been pleased with the students we have had since that conversation.
Create a flyer on what your practicum site offers and requires.
This is your chance to pull your planning together and make certain your vision is a cohesive one. Once you have this flyer, share it with the field education office of the schools of social work in your area. They may have a specific way to distribute it to their students. If you have already connected directly with their field education office, this step will be easy!
Get real in your interviews.
Whenever I have talked to other social workers about my job, no matter my setting at the time, someone inevitably says, “I could never work there!” Prepare your students in the interview for what your agency has to offer them, as well as potential triggers, challenges, or obstacles. We all have unique strengths. I plan 20-30 minutes of the interview to be nothing but an introduction to the hospital. I give hospital history, introduce our population, talk about our services and service delivery model, and explain the structure and roles of our social work department. I also include information about our background check and drug testing policies. I want to give enough information to allow them to make a very informed decision. We have had students decline after the interview. That’s great! The students we have gotten have fit wonderfully, and several specifically thanked me for the in-depth interview!
Plan didactics.
This is the centerpiece of our practicum program. We offer weekly hour-long educational presentations for the students throughout the semester. I collaborated with our hospital’s American Psychological Association-accredited placement program to create this piece of our practicum. The director of our psychology department offered insights and ideas that enriched the learning experience and made us a more desirable placement. Didactics pay off by creating an ordered way to impart information about the agency, our mission, and our client population. These take some planning up front, but every agency has experts. One didactic we led was specific to the signs and symptoms of serious mental illness—important information to have at a psychiatric hospital! Didactics even became opportunities for new social workers at our agency to learn these topics more formally. If your agency has the means, offer these as continuing education for your social work staff or even other professionals in your agency.
Integrate the field competencies.
We aligned the topics of our didactics with the nine competency areas for field education established by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE). CSWE requires that students have opportunities to grow in specific areas, such as ethics, research, and interventions (CSWE, 2020). Aligning our didactics with those topics made student evaluations much easier. We added didactics about policy and advocacy that affect our clients, how to apply research, and social work ethics to help round out the experience.
Involve other professionals.
We planned didactics led by nursing, psychology, and even our chaplain. If your agency has a multidisciplinary team, take advantage of that. If you are primarily staffed by social workers, bring in community partners to enrich the students’ experiences. Have a community partner or another professional lead a didactic relevant to your client population. Do you work regularly with psychiatrists? Occupational therapists? Special education teachers? Behavior analysts? Invite them to give an hour-long presentation for your students and staff on their area of practice. Bring your lunch and join your students. Chances are, you will learn something, too.
Give assignments.
Okay, so students reading this article may get upset at this one, but hear me out. These became crucial during the unexpected coronavirus pandemic, but I had already been working on assignments for each cohort. Don’t give busy work when you have that rare and precious “slow day.” Have a running list of enriching assignments for your students to complete and share with you. Make a list of those articles you would like to read if you had the time and that group whose curriculum that—let’s face it—really needs some new class outlines and modules. Students are at your agency to learn what it means to be a social worker, These are real tasks. Students can provide summaries of research articles, create lesson plans, update you on trainings or classes they attend, and highlight books they are reading for class. But they likely will not initiate any of that. So open that door!
Finally, if you have students who work exceptionally well in your agency, invite them to provide their personal contact information to your director to keep on file for future job openings. Do not pressure them, and inform them they may opt to decline. Students may lose their college email addresses upon graduation, so get their permanent contact information. After the additional thought and work you have put into the practicum, you have developed a pool of future graduates who love your agency and understand your work and culture. They are a valuable resource!
Working with students can be challenging. With a little additional planning, you can create a smoother process for your agency and a better experience for your students. If you take the time to plan the practicum experience, and you integrate some or all of these suggestions, you will know you are doing your part to prepare lifelong learners in our profession.
References
Council on Social Work Education. (2020). 2015 Educational policy and accreditation standards. https://www.cswe.org/Accreditation/Standards-and-Policies/2015-EPAS
Cassie E. Brown, LCSW, has worked with adults with severe mental illness and substance use disorders and has presented continuing education courses on gender diversity, motivational interviewing, substance abuse, treatment resistance, stigma of mental illness, and preventing burnout.