week 6 discussion: interview with a social worker | SOCW 6002 – Changing Lives, Changing Society: Introduction to Social Work | Walden University

INTRODUCTION

Your journey from social work inspiration has brought you to a new milestone. You are nearly through your first course; but really, your journey has just begun. The same is true for social work practitioners—the journey is ever evolving, with constant learning applied to improve practice.

In the field, you will hear this concept referred to as evidence-based practice, or EBP, which is a process used by social workers to guide their practice according to the best available evidence. Social workers use evidence, in conjunction with clinical expertise and the client’s values, to determine which interventions to employ. The EBP process then asks practitioners to measure client outcomes to determine if intervention was effective with this specific client.

This week, you explore ways to improve practice with evidence and its relationship to social work. In addition, you submit your presentation on your interview with a social worker.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Students will:

Analyze an interview with a social worker

Analyze evidence-based practice in social work practice

Analyze evaluation of outcomes in social work

INTERVIEW WITH A SOCIAL WORKER

WEEK 6 DISCUSSION QUESTION

Thinking back to your social work inspiration in Week 1, consider whether your perspective has changed, your goals have expanded, or you have affirmed your reason for beginning this journey. Now, reflect on what you learned as you interviewed a social worker in the field for this Assignment. How could you apply what you learned in your coursework to the field of practice you learned more about in person through the interview?

Does the combination of your inspiration, you’re learning, and your experience with a social worker in practice help you visualize your future as a social worker?

For this Discussion, you interview a social worker and learn about their role in their current organization, as well as their social work career path. You create a professional PowerPoint presentation to share the information you learned from the interview and in reflecting on this experience.

TO PREPARE

Read the requirements of the presentation listed below, and with those in mind, review your notes from your interview and any other information you gathered. Organize the learning from your notes based on the requirements below.

Tip: Don’t just paste an essay into your slides. Follow the best practices for creating a PowerPoint presentation. Use the Notes section in PowerPoint to represent what you would say to add context to the slides.

Post your Agency Presentation to the Discussion thread following the guidelines below.

In a 6- to 8-slide PowerPoint presentation, address each of the following areas:

Describe the agency you visited. Include:

Services offered.

Mission of the agency

Clientele or population served.

Describe the social worker’s job activities and professional roles.

Explain what brought the social worker to the field and their work history.

Explain opportunities for advancement and what the social worker does for professional development.

Describe the social worker’s overall job satisfaction.

Identify the strategies the social worker uses for self-care.

Analyze your experience. Specifically:

Discuss your thoughts and feelings related to the agency, clientele, and type of work.

Reflect on why you may have experienced these reactions to the agency, clientele, and type of work.

Explain which social work values and ethics were evident (or not evident) during the interview.

Explain how cultural awareness was demonstrated (or not demonstrated) within the agency or by the social worker.

Explain how social justice relates to the services provided or the population served by this agency.