Undergraduate Generalist Social Work Practice
Field Goals and Objectives
The student will be expected to:
GOAL 1: Pursue professional self-development with a commitment to social justice and professional values and ethics.
Outcome Objectives
Fall Quarter:
- Use the field experience to integrate the major concepts of social work practice with knowledge gained in social work courses and in other academic areas to enhance understanding of people in the context of their environment.
- Develop work habits that reflect appropriate and responsible professional behavior.
- Understand and use professional guidelines on confidentiality.
- Demonstrate an ability to communicate clearly and effectively.
- Articulate a personal value system in the context of one's history and background.
- Communicate and practice in accordance with social work values, including respect for the client's dignity, individuality, and right to self-determination.
- Develop clear and concise writing skills for professional practice.
- Become familiar with the role of the social worker as distinguished from other agency personnel.
- Explore self-interest, motivation, value orientation, and individual strengths and limitations regarding social work career plans.
- Function as a generalist social worker in the agency setting.
- Represent the agency and the profession responsibly in public and professional contacts.
GOAL 2: Illustrate "use of self" in relationship to client systems, the field instructor, and agency personnel with particular appreciation for cultural and social diversity in rural environments.
Outcome Objectives
Fall Quarter:
- Gain an awareness of self in relationship to others as a professional helping person in a rural environment.
- Develop an understanding of and sensitivity to vulnerable and/or oppressed groups.
- Actively engage in the learning process by helping to identify learning goals and needs.
- Practice the interaction skills required for effective social work practice.
- Be aware of personal feelings in professional relationships with instructors, colleagues, and clients.
- Begin functioning as a team-member with specific duties and responsibilities.
- Develop and use assertiveness, collaboration, and conflict resolution skills, when appropriate, with clients and colleagues.
- Be viewed as a cooperative team member.
GOAL 3: Promote integration of the agency and the community human service delivery system as resources in performing social work roles.
Outcome Objectives
Fall Quarter:
- Complete an organizational analysis assignment by learning about the agency's mission, structure, personnel, community relationships, and the role of social workers there.
- Observe how the agency fits into the broader social service environment and function as a service broker.
- Apply social welfare policies and programs to the particular community and field practice setting.
- Integrate the knowledge of a specific human service organization into the community network for an understanding of resource needs and availability.
- Identify needs and deficits in policies as they apply to the community and practice setting.
GOAL 4: Formulate and utilize the professional helping relationship in engaging and working with the client system to identify strengths and goals.
Outcome Objectives
Fall Quarter:
- Listen sensitively to clients and to staff/client interactions.
- Develop an awareness of human needs and concerns by conducting a social history.
- Utilize interviewing and other data collection skills in working with clients to identify strengths and goals.
- Develop a sensitivity to special needs and circumstances in planning.
- Consistently involve the client in the setting of realistic and appropriate goals.
GOAL 5: Develop interventions which are culturally and age appropriate and which are sensitive to potentially vulnerable and/or oppressed groups, while working with individuals, families, small groups, organizations, and communities in rural environments.
Outcome Objectives
Fall Quarter:
- Begin to understand the major social work intervention theories and methods as they relate to the practice setting.
- Identify developmental stages across the life span.
- Demonstrate the ability to describe the strength's perspective process with a variety of client systems.
- Engage in basic social work practice with particular attention to developing a program plan based upon assessment and theoretical rationale.
- Demonstrate skill and flexibility in implementing intervention plans.
- Utilize appropriate internal and external agency resources in working with assigned client systems.
GOAL 6: Demonstrate the importance of and the implications of transitions as they relate to diverse populations in multiple practice settings, particularly those in rural environments.
Outcome Objectives
Fall Quarter:
- Gain awareness of the ever-present influence of changes, endings, and loss in life.
- Examine community referral resources.
- Attend to the meaning of endings and loss for self, the client, and agency systems.
- Assess the need for and make appropriate referrals.
- Develop sensitivity to client needs and issues at termination.
- Identify how one's own way of dealing with change and loss impact on relationships with others.
GOAL 7: Support evaluation and develop research skills and methods as necessary components of social work practice.
Outcome Objectives
Fall Quarter:
- Describe the need for knowledge building.
- Learn and apply the strengths' model to his or her own personal and professional development.
- Request feedback on and utilize self-reflection regarding professional performance.
- Evaluate client progress using the single-case design research model.
- Articulate how research guides and modifies practice.
- Utilize agency accountability procedures.
- Assess own strengths and need for improvement, particularly as they apply to decisions regarding career plans.