Field Placement Research Articles

The Experiential Social Work Educator: Integrating Sociometry into the Classroom Environment

ABSTRACT Social work education fully endorses experiential learning through its field placement component, while experiential teaching methods are only somewhat used in the classroom. This article outlines the utility of action-based mutual aid processes in teaching social work. Three experiential sociometric group tools are presented with their application in various social work education settings and at the beginning, middle, and ending stages of a course. Each of these sociometry processes – spectrograms, floor checks, and step-in sociometry, are depicted with their inherent capacity to cultivate mutual aid, bring the course content to life, and be adapted for any topic or classroom.

Addressing Teacher Shortages in the COVID-19 Landscape: Viewing Teacher Candidates as Assets

COVID-19 continues to impose dire consequences on all sectors of our public education system. Many students, particularly those from vulnerable populations, are receiving reduced amounts of direct instruction and are experiencing significant losses in learning. At the same time, educator preparation programs (EPPs) are struggling to ensure that teacher candidates have ample opportunities to apply their newly acquired pedagogical skills in high quality clinical placements. In this article we describe and provide exemplars as to how teacher candidates can serve as assets to school districts as they complete their field placements. We also offer specific strategies and practices for EPPs and school districts to maximize the productive and efficient integration of teacher candidates in both virtual and in-person environments.

Obstetrics and birth: effects of experiences and gender bias on student test scores

Objectives: Paramedic education requires all students have the experience of attending childbirth. Obstetric (OB) experiences are limited for students in hospitals and even more so in the field. Gender bias may exist in hospital OB rotations for paramedic students but research on this is limited. This study is intended to examine whether a sex bias exists in field or hospital placements and if that bias correlates to OB test scores. Methods: Using data from Fisdap, numbers of OB experiences were analysed and compared to individual student sex and experience type (hospital clinical, field or skills laboratory). The number of experiences were compared to that student's score on the OB section of the Fisdap paramedic readiness examinations version 3 (PRE3) or version 4 (PRE4). Results: Of 12 090 paramedic students, male (n=5625) and female (n=2682) students who took the PRE3 had equal average scores of 0.76 and male (n=2498) and female (n=1285) students who took the PRE4 had average scores of 0.77 and 0.79 respectively. Students who took the PRE3 saw a mean of 4.32 births, a majority of which were in hospital (3.68); there was minimal difference in experiences between male and female students in field or skills laboratory settings, but women saw more births in hospital settings (3.92) than men (3.43). Students who took the PRE4 saw a mean of 4.54 births, a majority of which were in hospital (3.8) and there was minimal difference in experiences between male and female students in field or laboratory settings but women students saw more births in hospital (4.06) than men (3.54). Conclusions There is no correlation between the number of OB emergency encounters by paramedic students and their OB test scores. However, a potential gender bias exists as female students tend to have more labour and birth experiences in hospital settings than their male counterparts, while number of experiences in lab and field settings were similar.

Planning for Middle Level Clinical Experiences During a Crisis

This article describes the trials and tribulations that a middle level education program faced during the global pandemic and recommendations that others can take away from these experiences. The provided suggestions for middle level teacher education programs are specifically for the current pandemic, but can be used for other disasters as well. We advocate that educator preparation programs develop a plan to deal with possible school closers or other disruptions to their field placements to prepare for the next disaster. Some of the recommendations include: (a) create an emergency plan, (b) cultivate relationships, (c) prepare your candidates in the best practices of online teaching and educate them about online teaching platforms, (d) focus on the well-being of the candidates and not just ensuring that they complete the requirements, (e) consider relationship building skills when hiring field supervisors, (f) include strategies that help candidates understand how to deal with stress into your curriculum, and (g) adjust to situations on a case-to-case basis.

Health and medical care for refugees: design and evaluation of a multidisciplinary clinical elective for medical students.

Objective: Caring for refugee patients places special demands on health professionals. To date, medical students in Germany have rarely been systematically prepared for these challenges. This article reports on the development, conceptualisation, implementation, evaluation, and relevance of a multidisciplinary elective for medical students in the clinical study phase.Methodology: The course content was developed based on a needs-assessment among medical students and in cooperation with medical colleagues working in the field of refugee care. The course consisted of a seminar with medical, legal, administrative and socio-cultural learning content as well as a field placement in the medical outpatient clinic of the local reception centre for asylum seekers, which was accompanied by a systematic reflection process. The evaluation concept contained qualitative and quantitative elements. Results: 123 students completed the elective over six semesters (summer 2016 through to winter 2018). It was continuously evaluated and further developed. The students reported learning progress mainly in the following areas: Legal foundations of the asylum procedure and health care entitlements for asylum seekers; multi-perspectivity through multidisciplinarity as well as professional, ethical, interpersonal, and political insights gained through the practical experience.Summary: To prepare students for the complex challenges to be faced in medical care for refugees, a structured, multidisciplinary teaching programme, which combines theory, practice and reflection helps to foster insights into the many facets of this field of activity. The questions students brought to the seminar, the course contents and evaluation results are intended to inspire the design and implementation of similar courses at other universities.

Challenges in adapting field placement during a pandemic: A Jamaican perspective

The field experience component of social work training had to be quickly adjusted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and various factors guided this process. This short essay briefly explores how information and technology, home visits, insurance and liability, and licensing and regulation have impacted the adjustment of social work field placements in Jamaica during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also highlights the different methods of field placements that have been used in light of the challenges.

Automatic treatment planning for VMAT-based total body irradiation using Eclipse scripting.

The purpose of this work is to establish an automated approach for a multiple isocenter volumetric arc therapy (VMAT)‐based TBI treatment planning approach. Five anonymized full‐body CT imaging sets were used. A script was developed to automate and standardize the treatment planning process using the Varian Eclipse v15.6 Scripting API. The script generates two treatment plans: a head‐first VMAT‐based plan for upper body coverage using four isocenters and a total of eight full arcs; and a feet‐first AP/PA plan with three isocenters that covers the lower extremities of the patient. PTV was the entire body cropped 5 mm from the patient surface and extended 3 mm into the lungs and kidneys. Two plans were generated for each case: one to a total dose of 1200 cGy in 8 fractions and a second one to a total dose of 1320 cGy in 8 fractions. Plans were calculated using the AAA algorithm and 6 MV photon energy. One plan was created and delivered to an anthropomorphic phantom containing 12 OSLDs for in‐vivo dose verification. For the plans prescribed to 1200 cGy total dose the following dosimetric results were achieved: median PTV V100% = 94.5%; median PTV D98% = 89.9%; median lungs Dmean = 763 cGy; median left kidney Dmean = 1058 cGy; and median right kidney Dmean = 1051 cGy. For the plans prescribed to 1320 cGy total dose the following dosimetric results were achieved: median PTV V100% = 95.0%; median PTV D98% = 88.7%; median lungs Dmean = 798 cGy; median left kidney Dmean = 1059 cGy; and median right kidney Dmean = 1064 cGy. Maximum dose objective was met for all cases. The dose deviation between the treatment planning dose and the dose measured by the OSLDs was within ±4%. In summary, we have demonstrated that scripting can produce high‐quality plans based on predefined dose objectives and can decrease planning time by automatic target and optimization contours generation, plan creation, field and isocenter placement, and optimization objectives setup.

COVID-19 and Beyond: A Prototype for Remote/Virtual Social Work Field Placement.

The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated an abrupt conclusion of field placement for social work interns at a comprehensive cancer center. In response to social distancing requirements, social workers, but not interns, were granted access to work remotely. Virtual programming became necessary to meet the interns’ remaining educational requirements and provided an opportunity for proper termination from the program. This article will delineate the program redesign for oncology social work interns using remote/virtual modalities. This melded approach involved creating simulated clinical interactions, based on selected points along the illness trajectory targeting specific clinical competencies, which were presented to interns by phone and/or videoconference. Examples will be provided related to developing clinical skills and critical thinking and preparing for professional responsibilities within a broad range of healthcare settings. Guidelines for working with individuals, couples/families, and groups will be included. Issues of individual and group supervision will be explored, with sensitivity to the parallel experience of existential uncertainty and mortality awareness among the interns in the context of the pandemic. Although in-person training is preferable, there are advantages to virtual learning for both supervisors and interns. This creative adaptation of field education provides an innovative programming model that can be used to enhance the experience for social work interns moving forward in various healthcare settings during ordinary or extraordinary circumstances.

Human Rights, Collaborative Advocacy, and a Global Approach to Practice: Lessons from a Field Experience in Indonesia

The concept of human rights is often referenced within social justice initiatives, social work practice, and advocacy campaigns. However, human rights as a foundational concept can have differing meanings, understandings, and vary in how it might be applied across social movements, organizations, nations, and cultures. In social work, there is more work to do in adopting a nuanced and critical approach to human rights that can hold these tensions between universalism and relativism. Using the first author’s international social work field placement experience, this article addresses these complexities that surround understanding human rights in context and how a perspective that embraces this nuanced approach can facilitate and inform a social work approach to collaborative advocacy and practice. We also discuss the importance of cultivating a more open and decolonized understanding of social work practice during the learning process in order to prepare students to practice internationally. Fundamental to this approach of collaborative advocacy and practice is a mutual exchange of knowledge, resources, and experience. The preparation process for international internships must create space for not only incorporating a human rights framework but also for discussions of nuanced ways in which the universality of human rights is carried out within the peculiarity of local contexts.

Faculty Respond to COVID-19: Reflections-on-Action in Field Education.

The field placement process has become increasingly challenging for schools of social work, particularly for large graduate programs situated in urban centers with competing schools. The unprecedented circumstances created by the COVID-19 public health crisis further strained the placement process, revealing a delicate balance of interdependent systems that schools must address when confronted with an unforeseen disruption of field education. This paper reflectively examines the steps taken by the field faculty and department of one large school of social work to address the impact of the pandemic on field education and its placement process. Utilizing crisis and shared trauma perspectives, the field disruptions, continuity of learning, contingency plans, and the attendant anxiety caused by COVID-19 are discussed, as are the lessons learned. Though COVID-19 has significantly altered the placement process, this reflective frame allows faculty to take the lessons emerging from the crisis and use them to improve services and learning opportunities for students in the future.

E-Peer Coaching: A Model to Support Rural Special Education Field Placements

Providing adequate supervision for pre-service teachers enrolled in special education field placements is a challenge. Rural placements often exacerbate this challenge due to the large geographical areas in which these placements are located. The purpose of this article is to describe one approach to early field supervision in rural settings that may provide solutions to this dilemma. E-peer coaching utilizes video-facilitated peer coaching to provide novice pre-service teachers (NPTs) with accurate feedback that is both frequent and timely. This study investigated the use of a Google App that allowed NPTs to record instructional sessions and provide feedback to one another under the supervision of a course instructor. Recommendations for implementation are discussed.

Lessons from a community based interdisciplinary learning exposure: benefits for both students and communities in Uganda

BackgroundMakerere University implemented a One Health Institute (OHI) in 2016 involving undergraduate students selected from different disciplines. The students were first taken through theoretical principles of One Health followed by a field attachment in communities. The field attachment aimed to expose students to experiential educational opportunities in the communities in a One Health approach. In this paper, we present students’ experiences and their contributions to the communities of attachment.MethodsThis was a cross-sectional study, utilizing qualitative data collection methods. The study involved students who participated in the OHI field attachment and community members in a One Health demonstration site-Western Uganda. Four focus group discussions (FGDs) and four in-depths interviews (IDIs) were conducted among the students, while four FGDs and twelve IDIs were conducted among community members. All interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed and analysed manually.ResultsThe four themes that emerged are: students’ understanding and appreciation of One Health concept, their experiences and gains from the multi-disciplinary field attachment, students’ contributions to the community, and challenges faced by the students. Students had good knowledge of One Health. They appreciated that health cannot be achieved by one discipline or sector and thus the need to collaborate across sectors. Regarding experiences and gains during the multi-disciplinary field attachment, the students appreciated that each discipline had a role to play in achieving health in the community. They appreciated the training citing skills gained in communication, team work and collaboration. They also reported a feeling of gratitude and accomplishment because they felt they made a positive change to the community by putting in place interventions to address some of the community challenges. Similarly, the communities appreciated the students’ contribution in solving their health challenges, ranging from conducting health education to improving sanitation and hygiene.ConclusionsThrough the OHI, students gained One Health competencies including communication, teamwork, and collaboration. Adopting an interdisciplinary model in university teaching system especially during field placement would strengthen skills of collaboration, team work and communication which are critical for a multi-disciplinary approach which is needed among the future workforce in order to solve the current health challenges.

Identifying Surrogates for Heart and Ipsilateral Lung Dose to Guide Field Placement and Treatment Modality Selection during Virtual Simulation of Breast Radiotherapy

AimsVirtual simulation (VSim) of tangential photon fields is a common method of field localisation for breast radiotherapy. Heart and ipsilateral lung dose is unknown until the dosimetric plan is produced. If heart and ipsilateral lung tolerance doses are exceeded, this can prolong the pre-treatment pathway, particularly if a change of technique is required. The aim of this study was to identify predictive surrogates for heart and ipsilateral lung dose during VSim to aid optimum field placement and treatment modality selection. Materials and methodsComputed tomography data from 50 patients referred for left breast/chest wall radiotherapy were retrospectively analysed (model-building cohort). The prescribed dose was 40.05 Gy in 15 fractions using a tangential photon technique. The heart and ipsilateral lung contours were duplicated, cropped to within the field borders and labelled heart-in-field (HIF) and ipsilateral lung-in-field (ILF). The percentage of HIF (%HIF) and ILF (%ILF) was calculated and correlated with mean heart dose (MHD) and volume of the ipsilateral lung receiving 18 Gy (V18Gy). Linear regression models were calculated. A validation cohort of 10 left- and 10 right-sided cases with an anterior supraclavicular fossa (SCF) field, and 10 left- and 10 right-sided cases including the internal mammary nodes using a wide tangential technique and anterior SCF field, tested the predictive model. Threshold values for %HIF and %ILF were calculated for clinically relevant MHD and ipsilateral lung V18Gy tolerance doses. ResultsFor the model-building cohort, the median %HIF and MHD were 2.6 (0.4–16.7) and 2.3 (1.2–8) Gy. The median %ILF and ipsilateral lung V18Gy were 12.1 (2.8–33.6) and 12.6 (3.3–35) %. There was a statistically significant strong positive correlation of %HIF with MHD (r2 = 0.97, P < 0.0001) and of %ILF with ipsilateral lung V18Gy (r2 = 0.99, P < 0.0001). For the validation cohort, the median %HIF and MHD were 3.9 (0.6–8) and 2.5 (1.4–4.7) Gy. The median %ILF and ipsilateral lung V18Gy were 20.1 (12.4–32.0) and 20.9 (12.4–34.4) %. The validation cohort confirmed that %HIF and %ILF continue to be predictive surrogates for heart and ipsilateral lung dose during VSim of left- and right-sided cases when including the SCF ± internal mammary nodes with a three-field photon technique. DiscussionThe ability to VSim breast radiotherapy (±nodal targets) and accurately predict the heart and ipsilateral lung doses on the dosimetric plan will ensure that tolerance doses are not exceeded, and identify early in the pre-treatment pathway those cases where alternative techniques or modalities should be considered.

Social Work Students’ Experiences of Ethical Difficulties in Field Placements: A Qualitative Study in China

Abstract Field placements provide social work students with opportunities to learn to handle ethical difficulties in a professional manner. In many developed countries, field staff are generally employed to supervise social work students’ field placements. ‘Code of Ethics’ and other ethics documents have also been developed to guide students’ professional activities. However, there is a lack of field staff, ‘Code of Ethics’ and other ethics documents in China, which may lead to ethical difficulties amongst students during their field placements. Based on the interviews of twenty-four social work students who completed field placements in 2016 at a university in China, this research revealed that students encountered many ethical difficulties in field placements. They tried to handle the difficulties in the beginning, but gradually adapted to the difficulties passively due to the lack of support. Most students also reported that they adhered to social work values and ethics in field placements and learned from field placements. The findings suggested that social work profession associations, Departments or Schools of Social Work, social work agencies and social work academia in China need to collaborate to create a more professional and supportive environment for students’ field placements.

Application of one health approach in training at Makerere University: experiences from the one health workforce project in Uganda

The interconnections of humans, domestic animals, wildlife and the environment have increasingly become complex, requiring innovative and collaborative approaches (One Health approach) for addressing global health challenges. One Health is a multidisciplinary and multi-sectoral collaborative approach to human, animal, plant and environmental health. The role of academia in training professionals oriented in One Health is critical in building a global workforce capable of enhancing synergies of various sectors in improving health.Makerere University, Uganda has implemented pre-service capacity building initiatives aimed to foster One Health competencies among students who are future practitioners. In addition to incorporating the One Health concept in didactic curricula, Student One Health Innovation Clubs, undergraduate field placements in 11 demonstration sites, graduate fellowships, small grants to support research and innovations, and cross-college collaborative training approaches have greatly aided the assimilation of One Health into the fabric of university offerings. Partnerships with government ministries, private sector and international agencies were initiated to benefit the students, as well as chart a path for experiential learning and in-service offerings in the future.One major challenge, however, has been the tendency to focus on infectious diseases, especially zoonoses, with less consideration of other health issues. The opportunity for improvement, nonetheless, lies in the increasing emerging and re-emerging health concerns including epidemics, environmental pollution and related challenges which justify the need for countries and institutions to focus on building and strengthening multidisciplinary health systems.

A Human Rights Approach to Macro Social Work Field Education with Unaccompanied Immigrant Children

In recent years, record numbers of unaccompanied immigrant children have migrated to the USA, with 2019 being the highest year yet. The majority of unaccompanied children have overcome traumatic experiences and violations of their human rights in their home countries or on their journey to the USA, and/or in US detention centers. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights outlines guaranteed basic rights for every person everywhere, and the National Association of Social Workers code of ethics outlines social workers’ responsibility to challenge social injustices. Social workers have a role in advocating for the human rights of all people, including unaccompanied children. Macro social work roles—including roles such as advocacy and policy work, research, capacity building, community education, and management—are critical to addressing and ameliorating the human rights violations faced by unaccompanied immigrant children (UC). In this article, we introduce unaccompanied children as a vulnerable population, outline the human rights violations they commonly face in the USA, and offer implications and suggestions for schools of social work, social work curricula, and social work field education. We believe that effective training and field placements will better prepare the next generation of social workers and create a pipeline of knowledgeable professionals to help unaccompanied children and their families. Therefore, we highlight ways in which schools of social work, field placement agencies, field supervisors, and students can work to advance the lives of UC by offering specific examples of macro roles for interns.

Ethical Dilemmas in Human Rights Field Education: A Case Study on Macro Practice in a Reproductive-Rights Policy Setting

In the article that follows, the two authors, a professor/field supervisor and a social work student intern in a conservative western state in the USA, discuss a values-based ethical dilemma in field-based social work education. While having to choose between particular values or perspectives in social work practice is relatively common—perhaps even part of the unique expertise we bring as social workers—the dilemmas faced by social work students in their field placements present particular challenges for the students, their field supervisors, and their instructors. The authors present a case study regarding birth control legislation that highlights those challenges—where an ideal solution for helping a particular population must be weighed with a marginally better but incomplete solution. Ultimately, this case and the authors’ reflection on it suggest the need for ethical training articulated by Gray and Gibbons (2007) that recognizes the limitations of ethical frameworks and the “Kantian and utilitarian ethics that [have] been taken to extremes” and dogmatized in some corners of the social work field (p. 234). Instead, the authors argue in favor of a broader, more flexible ethical training that includes virtue ethics and a focus on human rights. Further, case studies in courses need to include policy practice dilemmas, as these often challenge the dogmatic ethical frameworks that are often ill equipped to inform effective decision making under stressful circumstances.

Standardization of Human Rights–Based Workforce Induction Curriculum for Social Work Field Supervisors

Field practicum is the signature pedagogy of the social work profession Ketner et al. (2017); CSWE (2015); Boitel and Fromme (2014), yet field programs struggle to find adequate field placements, in quantity and quality Maynard et al. (2015), especially those that highlight human rights and social justice advocacy as core programming. The authors propose a standardized 1-day eight-segment orientation and training, informed by Frimpong, Banks, and Brodie’s (2019) onboarding model, designed to cover 6 hours of in-person class time, operationalizing human rights and social justice practice into social work students’ field practicum experience. Social work competencies and standards from the International Association of Schools of Social Work, International Federation of Social Workers, and the Council of Social Work Education are embedded in the Standardized Field Supervisor Orientation and Training to help social work field students and agency staff employ human rights informed engagement, assessment, intervention, and evaluation with clients, constituents, and communities. By focusing on the important role of the Field Supervisor in emphasizing human rights and social justice, this paper fills a gap in the literature by offering an exemplar to cultivate a human rights and social justice practice paradigm in field education settings. The standardized training advances social work’s core mission and values of upholding and defending human rights.

Computerized Clinical Training Simulations with Virtual Clients Abusing Alcohol: Initial Feasibility, Acceptability, and Effectiveness.

Although masters-level social work students typically build clinical skills via role-playing with their peers or instructors, several innovative training simulations are emerging in the literature that may enhance existing skill-building methodologies. We evaluated the initial feasibility, acceptability, usability, and effectiveness of three computerized simulations (two cognitive behavioral therapy, one motivational interviewing) during an interpersonal practice course among 22 students in a Master of Social Work program accredited by the Council on Social Work Education. Trainees repetitively practiced their clinical skills with virtual clients while receiving feedback via real-time nonverbal cues, transcript review, and performance assessment across pre-specified theoretical learning objectives. Across the three simulations, at least 86.4% of students completed the required protocol and completed M = 468.95 (SD = 178.27) minutes of simulated sessions. Students improved their scores (range 0 to 100) across all the simulations from M = 63.41 (SD = 11.13) to M = 93.64 (SD = 3.24). Students found the simulations to be acceptable with strong usability. Paired sample t-tests revealed students reported greater self-efficacy in general clinical skills, exploration skills, insight skills, and action skills between pre-test and post-test after completing the simulations (all p < 0.001). Students reported that the clinical skills learned from the simulations translated into successful interactions with real-world clients during their field placements. We discuss the results of this initial feasibility study within the context of simulation-based learning and the potential for broader implementation within MSW programs.

Violations of Health as a Human Right and Moral Distress: Considerations for Social Work Practice and Education.

Healthcare professionals may experience moral distress when navigating difficult positions in which acting or providing for their patient’s best interest may not be possible due to barriers outside of their control. This phenomenon has primarily been investigated within nursing and other clinical disciplines; however, experiences of moral distress have also been noted in the social work profession. Healthcare professionals, including social workers, may experience moral distress when witnessing violations of their patients’ human rights. This article discusses research reporting on experiences of moral distress within the social work profession, a reality social work students may also face during their field placements. Understanding the causes and effects of moral distress within the social work profession is important when preparing social work students as they transition into the workforce. Future research investigating moral distress should include the perspectives of social work field students, as their experiences are understudied. This phenomenon is especially important to investigate, as the current COVID-19 pandemic is expected to exacerbate health challenges.