Social Work Students’ Reflections on Self-care While Completing Field Education During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

ABSTRACTSelf-care is a beneficial practice for social workers to both maintain their general wellbeing and to perform their professional role efficaciously. For students, field education is a prime opportunity to put their newly acquired skills and knowledge of social worker self-care into practice. This article reports from a broader study on the ways social work students construct and practice self-care, with the focus of this article on a student cohort who completed placement during Covid-19 restrictions. To explore how Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) students at an Australian university situated their understanding and practice of self-care within their final year placement, a textual analysis of 26 BSW student assessments, a 600-word critical reflection, was conducted. Two themes emerged from the student reflections. First, while engagement with Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) proved crucial for students to participate in student placement, it also created fresh challenges for their self-care practice. Second, students’ understanding and practice of self-care were critically shaped by their professional and academic peer environments. Knowledge of how social work students understand, and practice self-care is vital for social work educators to critically support student development during field education.IMPLICATIONSSocial work students’ self-care requires further nuanced conceptualisations, including addressing the role of ICTs in contemporary student field education placements.The use of peer groups supports student understanding of self-care during field education.Higher education providers can create further opportunities for formal peer connection during placements to embed self and collective care into students’ emerging practice.