Blurring Private–Professional Boundaries: Does it Matter? Issues in Researching Social Work Students' Perceptions about Professional Regulation

Wiles, Fran

doi:10.1080/17496535.2010.516114

Cited by 11 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Seven people volunteered: one second year and six final year students. This was a disappointingly low response for the size of the programme, and may have been due to the sensitivity of the topic (Wiles, 2010b) and/ or the considerable workload demands for students on a professional course.…”

Section: Obtaining the Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Not Easily Put Into a Box’: Constructing Professional Identity

Wiles¹

2013

Social Work Education

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'Not easily put into a box': constructing professional identityResearching the interplay between social work students' personal and professional identities, I found that, in talking about becoming professionals, students drew on a wide range of discourses. Three common usages of the term 'professional identity' are explored: it can be thought of in relation to desired traits; it can also be used in a collective sense to convey the 'identity of the profession'. Taking a more subjective approach, professional identity can be regarded as a process in which each individual comes to have a sense of themselves as a social worker. I argue that the variations in students' talk reflect a wide range of cultural understandings that are prevalent within the social work community and society in general, and conclude that professional identity is more complicated than adopting certain traits or values, or even demonstrating competence. The different meanings of professional identity all have something to offer, providing resources for students as they construct themselves as social workers. This is important for social work education because it acknowledges the dynamic nature of professional identity, highlights the difficult identity work which each student must undertake, and prompts us to consider how this process might best be supported.

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Section: Obtaining the Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Not Easily Put Into a Box’: Constructing Professional Identity

Wiles¹

2013

Social Work Education

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“…Student fitness to practice is the combination of academics, moral character, and field practice, all of which should be successfully demonstrated by the emergent professional. Wiles (2011) notes that ethics violation departures from acting professionally being regularly reported to governing boards make it difficult to argue against regulation. Again, while this might be the case, who, how, and what that regulation should be about is an essential professional conversation that needs to continue.…”

Section: Regulation Of Social Workersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Again, while this might be the case, who, how, and what that regulation should be about is an essential professional conversation that needs to continue. If, as Wiles (2011) argues, regulation is the means through which the professional will maintain the public's trust in the profession, then the question of who, how, and what that regulation should look like emerges as a primary one. Burford and Adams (2004) posit the use of restorative justice approaches, which have been shown to have a variety of applications, for the disciplining of social workers who have violated their ethical standards (Burford & Adams, 2004).…”

Section: Regulation Of Social Workersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prevalence rates of substantiated and adjudicated ethics violations

Magiste

2019

Journal of Social Work

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Summary This exploratory study examined the ethics violation data from one state’s licensing agency over a 28-year period, from 1985 through 2013. This study used descriptive statistics and chi-square analysis of the data to determine occurrence and prevalence rates in 592 cases. Violations were grouped into seven categories, and days before a license complaint was filed were also examined: dates ranged from 8 years before a license was issued (fraud on license application) to 28 years after being licensed. There were 389 females and 203 males in the sample, with 430 holding a social work license, 160 professional counselors, and 2 marriage and family therapists. Findings Of the 592 substantiated and adjudicated cases, 221 related to violations involving licensure, with 169 of those failure to comply with continuing education requirements, and most of those by professionals who have been licensed 10 or more years. Additionally, 156 violations involved boundary crossings, only of which 36 involved sexual boundary violations. Of those involving sexual contact, 22 were by female professionals and 14 by males. An additional 12 cases involved inappropriate sexual relations, but these were unrelated to professional practice. Overall, sexually involved cases represented a little over 8% of the cases, while licensure issues represented 38% of the cases. Applications Understanding which violations occur with more frequency enables social work educators to incorporate understanding the ethics of the social work into academic curriculum. Further study enables the profession to look at both what occurs and how that impacts clients, workers, and the public trust.

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“…Eventually seven people volunteered: one second year and six final year students. This disappointingly low response may have been partly due to the sensitivity of the topic (Wiles, 2010b) or the considerable workload demands for the students.…”

Section: Research Process: Obtaining the Datamentioning

confidence: 99%