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

Abstract

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.

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

“…They felt disconnected from the field and their peers, which influenced their learning process, which is inconsistent with the study (deJonge et al, 2020;Mitchell et al, 2021). Conversely, few studies have shown positive aspects in students' engagement with service users, mutual aid, and fostering a sense of connection among participants (Azeez, 2015;De Fries et al, 2021;Morley & Clarke, 2020;Papouli et al, 2020;Pink et al, 2021;Wilke et al, 2009).…”

Canadian Social Work Field Education During a Global Pandemic

“…A recommendation to value the concerns of both the opposing views of hour reduction would be to keep the reduction, yet changing the tasks to ensure that the time the students have is used for high-quality tasks and functions, as meaningful learning is the priority. With the very real possibilities of future disasters, training for virtual platforms will be an ongoing need (Mitchell et al, 2021). Online training opportunities, for both field instructors (Ayala et al, 2014) and students (Kourgiantakis & Lee, 2020), have demonstrable benefits to field education.…”

MSW Curriculum Analysis

“…In an article written by Mitchell et al (2021), the necessity and experience of training MSW students on RSWP was presented. The authors describe the effects of COVID-19 on the social work internship experience of social work oncology interns (e.g., practicum students) and the program redesign that occurred as a result of the pandemic in an attempt to transition to RSWP.…”