Complexities in Student Placements Under COVID-19 Moral and Practical Considerations

Abstract

The work placement experiences of MA and BA social work students at an English university during a pandemic were explored by way of an online survey. Thirteen students responded and reported that the moral and practical consequences of a sudden forced move to the “new normal” of online working and assessment raised serious issues about the boundary between home and work life, and about the relationship-based nature of the career they thought they were entering. Experiences of moral and practical support from agencies were mixed, and a lack of consistency across different placement agencies led to feelings of unfairness in the students’ experience. Opportunities for incidental and tacit forms of learning were lacking in online working environments and students were strong of the belief that the future of social work would entail a permanent locus shift from community work to online interaction regarding the people (service users and carers) with whom they worked. This shift was largely perceived in terms of loss and a further diminution in relationship-based practice in English social work services, which have increasingly been dominated by a task and performance management culture before the onset of COVID-19.

“Neither it had social work components nor experiential”: Students' perspectives of online fieldwork practice during COVID‐19 in India

“…The study also highlighted that online supervision lacks qualitative and objective assessment and evaluation. Such findings can also be located within available literature (Davis & Mirick, 2021 ; Marsick & Watkins, 2001 ; Sarbu & Unwin, 2021 ).…”

University student experiences of work-based placements during COVID-19 pandemic: an inter-disciplinary survey of allied health and social work students

“…COVID-19 placed unprecedented demands on health and social care systems and as a result, student placements in numerous medical and AHSW professions were dramatically delayed, postponed or cancelled indefinitely (Sarbu and Unwin, 2021;Tay et al, 2020). In the Republic of Ireland (ROI), placements for most AHSW students in the national health and social services were suspended from March to July 2020.…”

“…Likewise, studies have explored the perspectives of AHSW students re-commencing WBPs during COVID-19. Concerns reported centred on fears of contracting the virus in the WBP or on public transport getting to the site, and subsequently infecting family members when they returned home (Tay et al, 2020;Sarbu and Unwin, 2021). Additional challenges identified by AHSW students related to worries about assessments, isolation from friends and family, poor communication about placement schedules and loss of income from parttime jobs (Kuliukas et al, 2021;Rainford et al, 2021).…”

“…COVID-19 placed unprecedented demands on health and social care systems and as a result, student placements in numerous medical and AHSW professions were dramatically delayed, postponed or cancelled indefinitely (Sarbu and Unwin, 2021;Tay et al, 2020). In the…”

Self-Compassion in Irish Social Work Students: Relationships between Resilience, Engagement and Motivation

“…Upon entering the profession, social workers are likely to experience work-based emotional distress [33], vicarious trauma [34] and burnout [35]. Lastly, the COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts on learning and social work may have further strained the mental health of social work students [36].…”