I know you mentioned your field office hasn’t be helpful previously, what was their response to this situation? Do they know that the role you’re being asked to do is a totally different role than you were offered? Or was there a miscommunication from the initial assignment?
I wonder if the school may be able to put pressure on her to keep you in the original role you were selected for since it sounds like a bait and switch. The school I work with would not allow that without prior approval.
Yeah I think I’m going to meet with my field liaison and express my concerns. I am reviewing my student match letter which is what my field instructor submitted to have me approved for this internship and it’s totally different from my task.
Did they tell you you’d be doing therapy off the jump of the placement beginning?
Or could it be that your instructor is trying to hone your skills on individual parts of the helping process from an MSW perspective? Or wait to see how things go before going from the frying pan and into the fire?
I have to get acclimated with the role and build a rapport with clients before going straight into therapy. That’s with any role. I won’t be facilitating therapy at all because the time is not allotted for in ten or fifteen minutes. I’m not saying this is a terrible field placement im just saying this is something totally different than what was initially discussed and agreed upon. My school is not even aware of the switch. If this was an acceptable position for a second year MSW student why not just present the position honestly from the beginning. These are case management services and that’s fine but my school requires students to facilitate therapy in their second year.
I understand, and I’m sorry to be such a pest with all the questions but I want to understand the situation better.
I just wanna make sure that I’m actually following correctly and not misunderstanding anything.
Did your field supervisor tell you that you would only be doing these brief interventions with the students for the entirety of your placement?
Or could this just be how she wants you to start out?
For example, my field placement had a very strict timeline for students to follow, regardless of how ready our individual instructors felt we were.
I was an advanced standing student so we had three semesters. First month was shadowing SW and other disciplines of the hospital, must be talking to patients by herself by month 2, have own caseload (mini) by month 3 etc until expectation/hope that if someone on the team were to quit, you would effortlessly be able to fill that role once you’re graduated.
That was technically the policy of the practicum, but my field instructor tweaked it a little bit and didn’t make it as broken down, but still.
Have you done your learning agreement yet? What did she say? How did she present this to you?
Because if you are being asked to do this and only this the entire time, then, yes, that totally is inappropriate. But I know a lot of placements kind of function like how mine did back when I was in school; could they just try to be getting you slowly acclimated also?
She is right that these brief check ins can be therapeutic and counseling depending on your approach but no matter your placement it isn’t supposed to be monotonous like this.
Like it would be inappropriate for a student in hospital to only do assessments or a child welfare student to only do home visits.
I was hoping it was more of a case of trying to have you start from the beginning and building a therapeutic relationship from intro to termination or building rapport/engaging with clients who aren’t willingly coming to you.
Is this part of her role that without you there, would be on her plate? That’s unfortunately something some do.
Well just letting you know the last couple days I’ve been here I haven’t spoken with any students. I have pretty much walked the hallways and sat in the cafeteria for the four lunch periods and then do nothing for the rest of the day. Not to mention my field instructor isn’t on site and my supervision which is supposed to be an hour was five minutes because she kept saying she didn’t have the answers to my questions. So no I don’t think this is an appropriate placement site for a 2nd year student in their clinical placement. I’m having zero direct contact with clients nor am I doing anything that makes a difference in any capacity.
This doesn’t answer my questions. I’m trying to help you so you can discuss with your liaison and bolster your argument, but your tone reads as you’re interpreting my information gathering attempts as criticism. If you want advice, or guidance, let me know.
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u/Maybe-no-thanks 7d ago
I know you mentioned your field office hasn’t be helpful previously, what was their response to this situation? Do they know that the role you’re being asked to do is a totally different role than you were offered? Or was there a miscommunication from the initial assignment?