1Tips for Starting a Field Practicum

Kelly Allison and Antoine Coulombe

Congratulations! You are about to embark on a social work field education experience, deemed our profession’s signature pedagogy (Council on Social Work Education [CSWE], 2008; Shulman, 2005). Field education offers opportunities for real-world experiences where you can begin to enact social work values and ethics and integrate the knowledge and theories you have been learning in the classroom into the complexities of practice. You will have the chance to develop relationships with service users and colleagues, observe ethical decision making, and analyze how social contexts shape individual and collective realities. Practicums are exciting learning opportunities! In order to help prepare you for this experience, in this chapter we offer some suggestions for planning before you begin and helpful tips for getting started in your practicum.

Before You Go

Understand That Nerves Are Normal

Despite field learning being a much-anticipated experience for students, it is normal to feel nervous about starting your practicum. Learning about a new agency or organization, meeting new colleagues and professionals for the first time, and beginning to engage with and provide services to people can sometimes feel overwhelming. There are many uncertainties about what lies ahead, and some students worry whether they can meet the challenges. It is helpful to be patient and kind as you enter this new learning context and allow yourself the time and grace to adjust to this new environment. Accepting the uncertainties that go along with a new experience is essential to your learning. Allowing yourself the vulnerability of being a learner is also a vital part of managing anxious feelings. With time, experience, and support, you will likely become comfortable more quickly than you anticipate.

Do Your Homework

Before your first day of practicum, taking a few steps to ensure a successful start can be helpful. You have likely learned a bit about your practicum site while preparing for your interview or during your matching process. Having a general understanding of your agency’s services and knowing about the client population they serve is a valuable foundation for the start of practicum. This information can be gathered from your agency’s website and research regarding the client population being served (e.g., journal articles from your library). It can also be helpful to review recent news and to become informed of events that may impact this population. Although you will learn a great deal more about your agency and dive deeper into its organizational processes, this general overview can be a helpful starting place.

Consider How You Will Learn in Field

One of the most challenging aspects of beginning practicum as a student is allowing yourself the vulnerability of being a learner. You are not immediately expected to know how to be a social worker. You are a student, and a practicum is meant to be a learning experience. Although you have learned a lot in the classroom, there is still a lot to learn, and that is okay! You will make mistakes, and that is expected. It can be uncomfortable to acknowledge that you don’t know something and that you will need to ask a lot of questions and sometimes need help. This vulnerability is all part of the learning process. Being honest about your limits and approaching your learning with a lot of curiosity and a willingness to risk making mistakes will help you maximize the learning opportunities in your field setting.

Learning is at the heart of field education. To proactively take responsibility for your own learning, it is essential to understand the diverse ways you can learn in a placement. This skill is also vital to being a social worker. As we often face new and complex situations, we must continually learn new things. To ensure that you have the best possible learning experience, it is crucial to consider your approach to learning, your needs as a learner, and how field learning differs from classroom learning.

Determining how you learn best can be important information in a field setting. Does it help you to write down instructions? Do you prefer to observe first before jumping in? It will be helpful to think about how you learn best and discuss this with your field instructor. You may have an issue that may impact your learning in field education. In that case, it is essential to talk with your field team about possible accommodations needed in the environment, the curriculum format, or any specialized equipment you require to ensure your field learning is optimal for your needs.

Experiential learning is a theory that believes we learn best from the interaction of concrete experiences, reflection on those experiences, and then adjusting our understanding and experimenting with new ideas (Kolb, 1984). Although students are often keen to actively “do” social work in a placement (such as conduct an assessment or assist in running a group or program), it is essential to take the time to intentionally reflect on these experiences and connect them to theories and concepts that you have been learning about in the classroom. Experiential learning theory helps us understand the ways we can learn in field settings.

Plan for Day One

Knowing some of the logistics of your first day of the practicum will be helpful to ease nerves. Do you know how to take transit to your site or where to park? Have you and your field instructor agreed on a start time and meeting place within the organization? Will you pack a lunch, or have you inquired about options for purchasing food on-site or near your agency? Having answers to these types of questions will help you feel prepared for your first day of practicum. It may be useful to identify your questions for your first day and reach out to your field instructor by email or phone.

Get Oriented to Your Practicum Context

Your first few weeks at practicum will be focused on getting oriented to your placement site and learning about your placement context: the organization and its structure and function, the people within the organization, and specifics regarding how they work. As all this learning might seem overwhelming initially, it can be helpful to focus on learning about your team or unit first and then expand your learning to the broader organization. As you learn about the organization/agency, you should develop a good understanding of the policies, procedures, and legislation that guide the work of your agency, how various professionals within an organization work together to fulfill their mandate, and how your agency fits with other social services to provide service to clients or the community.

Before you can move into this deeper learning about your organization, you will need to learn some day-to-day routines quickly. Here is a list of key questions for your first day that will help you get comfortable and situated within your agency or organization.

• Where can I leave my belongings to keep them safe while at practicum?
• Is there a check-in procedure, or how and where will I start each day ?
• Do I need identification, keys, passcodes, etc., to move throughout the organization?
• How do I access a computer, telephone, and/or email if that is available?
• How do I access paper, pens, agency forms, etc.?
• Is my schedule set for me, or do I need to let someone know my schedule?
• How do I access client files? What are the policies on accessing client files?
• Do I need to keep statistics on how I use my time?
• Where is the washroom and break room?

Meet the People

The strength of most organizations lies in their people. Getting to know the people in your organization is an important early step in orienting to an agency. As your field instructor is your main point of contact within an organization, developing a strong, working relationship with them is a great place to target your energy. Interest and curiosity are good relationship-building tools. Don’t be afraid to ask your field instructor questions about their role and job. Where appropriate, learning a bit about your field instructor as a human being can also be helpful; however, it is important to consider what kind of questions are appropriate for your context and the initial stages of your relationship.

Ask your field instructor if you can initiate meetings with other members of the team or other professionals in the organization. One-on-one meetings can be an effective way to learn about various roles within the team or organization, and how different professions interact in your organization. These meetings with other staff in the organization can also help you begin to build relationships within the agency.

Lastly, it is important to learn about the people served by your agency. This can be done in different ways and will vary for each placement. Discuss how you could best learn about clients with your field instructor. Here are a few questions you may want to explore:

• What word is used in your agency to describe people who attend services (client, service-user, patient, etc.)?
• How do clients begin to engage or receive services with your agency?
• What is the best way to engage with clients in your organization?

Learn About the Organization Structure, Policies, and Legislation

One aspect of learning about an organization is understanding their structure. Organization charts that outline the different units and the reporting structure within an organization can be helpful to get a bird’s eye view of how various teams fit together. Ask your field instructor if the agency has an organization chart or other tool (such as websites) that will help you get a broader sense of your context.

Policies and procedures are an organization’s guidelines and protocols for carryout out their work. They can cover everything from how professionals work together respectfully (i.e., a code of conduct or discrimination and harassment policies), how information is gathered and safeguarded (confidentiality policies and documentation policies), how decisions are made (referral policies, risk assessment policies), and how to ensure safety for clients and staff (health and safety policies, procedures for handling an emergency or crisis). Although an organization will have many policies and procedures, there will be key ones that you will need to be aware of early in your placement. For example, if your placement is in a women’s shelter, you will need to quickly learn policies regarding confidentiality to ensure you can maintain the safety of the clients being served. You must also learn early on about policies on safety and emergency procedures (e.g., COVID-19 protocols). Be sure to ask your field instructor about essential policies and procedures that you need to know.

Lastly, many social workers are guided by specific legislation in their work. For example, students working with children and families or in a child welfare placement will become familiar with relevant child welfare legislation. Students working with older adults will learn about legislation regarding vulnerable adults, and students in health care placement will learn about health care consent and capacity legislation. Ask your field instructor for specific legislation related to the work in your practicum site.

Set Up Your Learning Contract

Deciding what you should learn in your practicum is a crucial step to completing a successful placement. The learning contract is a negotiated document with your field instructor, and your faculty liaison that sets out the process and content of student learning while on practicum. It can be a working document that is revised throughout the practicum. Some schools have pre-determined learning objectives for students in field, while others require students to create their own learning objectives as part of their learning plan. Although this may feel overwhelming at first, you don’t have to do it alone! The learning contract is usually a balance of three main components.

Your school of social work’s requirements for social work learning (usually based on the Canadian Association for Social Work Education’s [CASWE] Educational Policies and Accreditation Standards which can be found here: https://caswe-acfts.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/EPAS-2021-1.pdf

• Your interests and goals for your learning.
• Your placement’s and field instructor’s priorities for student learning.

You will need to have a dialogue with your field instructor about your interests and goals, their ideas for your learning, and the school’s requirements for your learning. Once you are aware of some of the possible learning opportunities and activities available to you, you can begin developing some learning objectives (see chapter 10 of this handbook to consider how to incorporate research into your learning objectives). Most schools of social work also have faculty liaisons or integrative seminar instructors and/or field personnel who can help students with developing learning goals. Be sure to inquire about your school’s supports for students in creating a learning plan for field work. The following are examples of learning activities that students might be involved in during their practicum.

• Review agency policy manuals.
• Attend training workshops.
• Read articles related to a client population.
• Shadow and observe client meetings, therapy sessions, or home visits.
• Research incidence of social issues (homelessness, incarceration, poverty, etc.) for the community that the agency serves.
• Attend interdisciplinary rounds and staff, board, or community engagement meetings.
• Review documentation and reports.
• Role play client interactions.
• Research community resources for a client.
• Participate in a committee.
• Co-lead an interview with a client.
• See clients/patients on your own.
• Document a session and have your field instructor review it.

Be sure to discuss what ways your field instructor will want you to demonstrate your learning in this placement. Sometimes field instructors evaluate learning through observation, journal entries, discussion, or field assignments.

Plan to Use Supervision Effectively

Supervision with your field instructor and meetings with colleagues in your placement are essential learning opportunities. They provide you with a space where you can ask questions, receive feedback, and engage in learning through dialogue with an experienced professional. The format for supervision can vary, such as short daily meetings or a one- to two-hour weekly meeting. Supervision can be formal meetings with an agenda and minutes or more informal discussions. The frequency and structure of your supervision meetings need to be negotiated with your field instructor. It can be helpful to consider how supervision could be structured to best meet your needs and discuss this with your field instructor. Ideally, supervision will be a time to receive specific, targeted feedback and suggestions for improvement to challenge your learning. At the same time, supervisory meetings should be a place to grow your confidence as you learn about areas of strength in your practice. If you and your field instructor have developed a trusting relationship, supervision is also a useful time to reflect inwardly and discuss your own thoughts, emotions, and reactions as they relate to your practice experiences. In your first meeting with your field instructor, be sure to discuss when to schedule regular supervision sessions, and what structure will work best for the two of you. You can then review the supervision format in a few weeks to consider if it is working or if there needs to be adjustments.

To get the most out of your supervision time, it is useful to be proactive and to plan for each supervision meeting. Here are a few suggestions on how to prepare for meetings.

• Prepare a summary of your learning for the week.
• Identify and prioritize questions and topics you would like to discuss in the meeting.
• Identify areas of your practice that are challenging for you or where you feel “stuck.”
• Plan to discuss how what you see in your placement aligns or doesn’t align with your classroom learning.
• Discuss social work concepts that you have learned about and that you see examples of in real world contexts.
• Explore how social work theories help you to understand a practice situation.
• Before meeting with a client, a group, or a family, consider how a particular theory can inform your practice.
• Include time each week for self-reflection. Consider your social location, thoughts, and emotions that have come up for you in various practice situations and how they may have impacted the practice situation.

Problem-Solve Challenges

“I never lose. I either win or learn.” Nelson Mandela

Students sometimes encounter challenges in their practicum placement for various reasons (e.g., communication breakdown with your field instructor or other team members, difficulty managing home life and practicum placement responsibilities, assignments that feel beyond your capability, feeling triggered by practice situations, etc.). Challenges can be great learning opportunities because lots of our learning as social workers happens as we address problems in day-to-day situations. This process is central to being a social worker. Addressing problems will help you gain knowledge, expertise, and confidence in your work, as well as the ability to manage challenges in your practice and in relationships. Challenges may initially seem overwhelming; however, the sooner you identify and address issues, the more likely it is that the placement will continue successfully. Conversely, if problems or challenges are ignored, they can often be further exacerbated. Your field instructor may be the first to initiate a dialogue about an issue or concern, however if you are aware of a problem, we recommend addressing it as soon as possible.

Direct, respectful communication is usually the most beneficial approach when addressing concerns, however personal and psychological safety does need to be considered. Consult with your faculty liaison or field team if safety issues are present. Here are a few valuable steps to address challenges directly and effectively.

1. Take the time to properly understand the situation, and make sure you have enough information. This often involves initiating conversations with others and then listening to their perspective. This can involve conversations with your field instructor, faculty liaison, team members, or clients. Consultations can be helpful, but discussing the issue directly with those involved in the concern is often a crucial step.
2. Analyze the situation and identify what the main problem is. It is useful to try and develop a shared understanding of the concerns with your field instructor or whoever else is involved.
3. Determine a realistic goal: work with those involved to decide upon a preferred outcome to the problem.
4. Brainstorm possible solutions to resolve the problem and choose the most viable option.
5. Create an action plan to address the issue and implement the steps.
6. Evaluate, with the others involved, whether or not the issue has been addressed.

Staying Strong and Practicing Self-Care in Field

In your social work practice, your primary tool is yourself. It is, therefore, essential to practice good self-care. This will help you gain a deeper understanding of yourself, stay healthy in your work, and help you deal with difficult situations. Your field placement is an excellent opportunity to begin to explore and implement self-care strategies and practices. As you begin your placement, think of how you could set the right conditions for maintaining reasonable physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing. In your first weeks, observe how your field instructor and colleagues practice self-care within your placement. Ask questions about what self-care options are available to you and how to access them.

Having lived experience can be a significant strength as a social worker. However, it can also sometimes be a challenge to our wellbeing. Our diverse backgrounds and experiences of adversity make us who we are and give us a deeper understanding of the human experience. This can help us understand what others are experiencing when faced with difficulties and feel authentic empathy. On the other hand, when meeting with people who face similar challenges or experiences to our own, we may feel overwhelmed or triggered or become convinced what worked for us should also work for our clients. This may cause us to transfer our feelings to clients (countertransference) and affect our ability to practice ethically. As you begin your field experience, you may want to reflect on your own life experience, identify potential triggers and begin to prepare coping strategies that will help when you meet others with similar experiences. You may also want to find professional resources to help you reflect on your lived experience and support your journey.

Individual self-care involves enacting strategies and practices that help to reduce stress and support our wellbeing physically, emotionally, cognitively, and spiritually. Each of us is unique and we may have a different approach to individual self-care.

However, caring for our wellbeing in practice is not only an individual endeavor. Collective care refers to the strategies and practices that organizations and groups of people in a work environment enact to take actions to promote the collective wellbeing of all (Chamberlain, 2020; Pofitt, 2008). Collective care can be intentional ways that teams or organizations build a supportive community amongst staff, or the way organizations provide formal or informal supports such as strong leadership, supervision, and peer support. It can also involve organizational policies and practices aimed to prevent stress (e.g., overtime restrictions), the provision of psychosocial support (e.g., access to mental health professionals), and staff or opportunities for collective debriefing and reflection of particularly stressful or traumatic practice experiences (e.g., critical incident stress debriefing) (Chamberlain, 2020). In your placement, observe how collective care is practiced by your team, and where appropriate take part in fostering collective care.

Here are a few ways you can promote both self-care and collective care in your placement setting.

• During placement hours:
  • plan time in your day to take breaks and to have lunch;
  • carve out time to reflect on your practice experiences and your own thoughts and emotions related to them;
  • take a few minutes alone or with a colleague when feeling overwhelmed. If helpful, you could practice “in the moment” grounding and calming strategies such as short mindfulness meditation (e.g., a body scan meditation, Anxiety Canada, (n.d.). Mindfulness – body scan. https://www.anxietycanada.com/articles/mindful-body-scan/);
  • ask about ways your team or unit engages in community building and participate if possible;
  • consider personal limits or boundaries you may need in your setting and initiate a discussion with your field instructor about them; and
  • use both your formal and informal supports to debrief stressful, emotional, or traumatic practice situations. This may be debriefing with your field instructor, other members of the team or classmates and/or your faculty liaison or integrative seminar instructor.
• Between placement days:
  • get adequate sleep and proper nutrition. These basic self-care strategies are often the first to go astray when we are overwhelmed. Go back to basic self-care first.
  • use some of your previously identified self-care strategies to de-stress, recharge, or support your wellbeing.

Collective and self-care are ongoing parts of a social worker’s journey. Practicums can be great opportunities to begin to explore collective and self-care strategies to determine what works best for us and what will be useful to cultivate in our future work environments. Chapters 2 and 3 in this handbook have more information about wellness and self-care in practice.

Conclusion

Field education is often one of the most memorable and influential experiences in your social work education. However, starting a practicum can be both exciting and nerve-wracking. This chapter has offered tips and suggestions for how to best prepare for your placement experience to begin in a good way. Learning a bit about your placement organization and planning and preparing for your first day will help you to ease any anxious feelings. Thinking about how you learn best and considering your own and your school’s goals for your learning ahead of time allows you to co-create a meaningful learning contract that will guide your practicum experience. Finally, by contemplating how to get the most out of supervision and how to take care of your well-being during your practicum experience, you will be taking steps to maximize your practicum experience and get the most out of your social work field education.

References

Canadian Association for Social Work Education. (2021). Educational policies and accreditation standards for Canadian social work education. https://caswe-acfts.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/EPAS-2021-1.pdf

Chamberlain, L. (2020). From self-care to collective care. Sur International Journal on Human Rights, 30, 1–6. https://sur.conectas.org/en/from-self-care-to-collective-care.

Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. Prentice-Hall.

Profitt, N. J. (2008). Who cares for us? Opening paths to a critical, collective notion of self-are. Canadian Social Work Review/Revue canadienne de service social, 25(2), 147–168. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41669891.

Shulman, L. S. (2005). Signature pedagogies in the professions. Daedalus, 134(3), 52–59. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20027998.