Need and importance of
fieldwork training of students:
Indeed most of the students are unaware of the
Importance of fieldwork training of students. The main reasons behind why do
universities train their students and send them to do field work in different
fields settings are as follows:
1.
That's how students are
able to learn practically in the field area and that's how they able to get out
of class based education and get ready for the professional and upcoming life
as a social worker.
2.
Field work allows the
students to interact with the people who are professional social workers and to
learn from them how to do work lonely and how to do work in a team form.
3.
Fieldwork also provides a
professional environment to students that's how they are able to interact with
the real clients and that's how they are able to learn what is a casework and
how to do community work by being in a community .
4.
The rich experience of fieldwork allows the
students to feel free of hesitation and they can grow their interpersonal
skills.
5.
Fieldwork helps them to
learn how to make a decision and work on it and make them dynamic in every sort
of Social Work. The decision making process is the toughest step in a
professional social worker life because theory and practical are very different
things.
6.
Fieldwork provide them
the platform to connect with the professionals and also help them to make the
PR and connections among communities, organizations and other professional
social workers so that they can feel connected when they get into professional
lives.
There are several other
important factors and needs behind training social work students in a Social
Work field placement which can be felt and understood while one is studying and
working among professional social workers in organizations.
Objectives of Fieldwork
training:
a.
To understand the basic
social work application in a specific social work agency.
b.
To know how can one apply
the theories and class-based education to clients and caseworks in an agency.
c.
To know the ways of
indulging in a cultural society, or to interact within a full of diversity
population.
d.
Awareness of the
hindrances while practicing social work in an agency and also being aware of
the policy issues related to the students field work in a placement.
e.
To know the appropriate
methods of social work in an organization and to know how to and when to apply
them when needed.
f.
To have the information
of resources of that agency so that one can use them to enhance the life of
clients and their well-being.
g.
To know the ways how to
interact and talk with families and clients in an organization by observing the
professional social worker.
h.
To have the knowledge of
documentation and procedures of documentation and data recording of casework and clients.
i.
Determine and learn the
process of referring clients to a professional therapist or psychiatrist.
j.
Review and evaluate the
environmental and social issues told by the clients.
k.
Learn how to use proper
grammar in documenting and data recording in a clear way.
l.
Try to be the advocate
and representative of the Affected client by being neutral in any case.
Methods of field Work:
1. History:
The first method of fieldwork is to know why social workers do fieldwork. The social workers should know the purpose and history of fieldwork in Social Worker's
professional life. The fieldwork placement could be of any kind such
as a student can be placed at a hospital, social welfare complex or any welfare
organization. The actual work of fieldwork is to apply and use all the
resources given by the fieldwork setting in order to learn practically within
the given opportunities. The social field work is done by social workers by
being associated with the communities. The knowledge of what should a social
worker do in what sort of conditions is the real study which should be done
before starting the field work of any kind or nature. The person who is
responsible for this sort of teaching is the fieldwork advisor (who is present
at the university) or the field work in charge (who supervise the students at
field setting). The most responsible person is the student himself that he
should make himself well acknowledged about the field work study by studying
via books or any type of available resources.
2. Carrying out Field Research:
The second method of social work fieldwork is to carry out the research
of that setting or agency and the environment which has been given to the
learner to learn and study from. The Fieldwork research will be more clear if
the student is involved and has the ability of excellent observation. The
social field workers should be open about new cultures and diversities that's
how they will be able to notice the things which other visitors may fail to
notice in that area or community. For example, we were placed at a Psychiatric
Community Center where we were classified as a group of the student work from
the University that's why we were allowed to interact with the patients and the
staff as well. This privilege gave us the opportunity to do fieldwork research
and that's how we learned the different sort of problems related to mental
health and also we learned how to work as a social worker in this order of
placement. The research of fieldwork setting real closely not only break any
sort of stigmas related to any concept but also make the learner learn more
sufficiently about the place, about the field placement, surroundings, the
environment, and the population.
When a social worker is working in a
field he or she also notices that the work is too different from the
theories and ideas are given in a class-based education. Field research is done by
observation of the participants, data collection, and survey researches.
3.
Field Record:
When social workers are working in a field an
important work and duty for social workers to do is to keep the field record
which is essential for the process report later. Field record is simply the
record of procedures, experiences and observations which were done by the
social worker in a local area or community. Social worker firstly take the
mental notes and later write it down in different forms.
Kinds of field Record:
Usually there could be many types of field
recording but as students we were asked to keep the following forms of field
records:
·
Minute Book
·
Daily Diary
·
Process Record
4.
Interviewing the Affected People:
The social worker is always working with the
group of people which are affected by a problem. The fourth method of a social
fieldwork is to interact and interview the affected persons individually or in
group. The interaction and interviewing of those affected persons make the data
collection and research of any sort easier. As we were working in a Psychiatric
Community Center we were asked to fill out the patient satisfaction forms. The
purpose of patient satisfaction form is to know if there is some sort of
problem with staff. The social worker and evaluation officer is responsible to
take action against any kind of misshape happening at the agency. By
interviewing the affected people social worker can learn how to interact with
affected people and also how to take responsible decisions related to the
problem.
The social workers could be asked to complete any
sort of research work via agency as we were asked to perform the Interviews of
the Attendees of the Psychological Patients. The topic of research was
"the attitude scale of mental illness". The group of students
performed interviews of the attendees of the Psychological patients and helped
the agency to complete research.
5.
Examining Data:
The Last and the 5th method of Social Fieldwork
is examining the data which was collected by the students or social worker in a
fieldwork setting. The social workers are responsible to gather the data in
different forms and copies then the field in-charge or field advisor is
responsible to examine the data, if the data is genuine or not? The field advisor or in charge than also
notices that if a social work student has learned enough from those hours spent
at a setting. They are responsible to mention the mistakes done Social Work
students in the fieldwork data collection so that they could get ready for the
professional life.
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